Kindergarten St. Gebhard Bregenz, A CHILD-FRIENDLY SPACE COMPOSED OF TRANSPARENCIES AND WOOD

Kindergarten St. Gebhard Bregenz, Text architect Christian Matt Supplement, build on, think further, think to the "end" or counteract it - seduce the viewer and user with an antagonist? With the knowledge of the burgeoning Vorarlberg building culture at the beginning of the 1960s and its idiosyncratic interpretation of post-war modernism, our respect for the existing took root. The entire municipal and spiritual center of this district of Bregenz with the church, parish halls, the demolished and rebuilt elementary school and finally the kindergarten had its origins in the prosperity of that time. And so it was again the credo of the innovative tradition to which we feel committed that led us to this task. Essentially, the "infantilization", the "childization" of this type of building should be contrasted with another didactic intervention, in accordance with the pedagogical concept of inclusion and diversity. A collection of "shelters" around a center should not be created, but the house itself forms a shelter that - albeit with a child's perception - enables a graded public. The experience of closeness and distance, height and depth, porosity and cross-connection - ultimately of space is the mediating agent here. In terms of urban planning, the clever linearity of the design from the 1960s was preconceived and only had to be brought into a new spatial harmony with the educational, ecological and contemporary requirements. This conceptual clarity encloses and localizes high-quality outdoor spaces for a wide variety of uses and generations. An inner thoroughfare, a three-dimensional network with bridges and permeable small forecourts running in opposite directions form an internal network of paths through which that intimate privacy of the group rooms is achieved, which gives the children orientation in the form of a natural overview. The atmospheric charge also creates an emotional and cognitive bond. Ultimately, this decision for cluster-like permeability fell on fertile ground for the client and users that we had intended. In long discussions with the users, the group rooms with their adjoining rooms became themed rooms that can be changed according to the year, socialization and interests, thus confirming our structural approach. The consequent reduction to two materials - fair-faced concrete and oak - resulted in great agreement with the client of the state capital of Bregenz and creates that contextuality that enables the users to develop themselves without completely ignoring the given spatial sequences. Kindergarten St. Gebhard Bregenz, Text Builder It is in the good tradition of the state capital of Bregenz to carry out the preparation of its own, especially new, construction projects in cooperation with the Chamber of Architects and Engineering Consultants. In the district of Vorkloster - Schendlingen, due to the settlement pressure, the municipal authorities finally decided to demolish the existing kindergarten with three groups, to renovate it and to add another three groups as part of an architectural competition. The building site is located within a municipal center with the church of St. Gebhard, the existing parish hall as a valuable communicative meeting point of this quarter and the directly adjacent, newly built elementary school. The special challenge in this competition was dealing with the existing buildings of the parish hall, which had to be preserved and to which transitions had to be created, as well as the associated public rooms and the open spaces for the kindergarten. In addition to the expansion, the infrastructure for modern pedagogy had to be created with different focal points in the individual groups. The project by Dorner\Matt\Architekten responds very respectfully and sensitively to the conditions of the location mentioned above: the protected garden courtyard is retained, the single-storey rectory building receives an appropriate extension. The new kindergarten presents itself to Holzackergasse as a floating, striking attachment that creates identification. A canopy that protrudes beyond the square forms the clearly defined new entrance to the kindergarten. The ancillary rooms are functionally flawless, the proportions of the rooms well chosen. The air spaces as light sources for the internal paths create additional vertical connections between the Storeys and, above all, spatial experiences with surprising dimensions. Because of the outstanding qualities, the project was unanimously awarded first place by the jury and recommended for execution. From a pedagogical point of view, the project was particularly highlighted due to its structural clarity. The consistent materialization and the integrative approach in dealing with the existing building and the open spaces could be implemented with the architects Dorner\Matt in a short time and with great precision and professionalism.