Το παράδειγμα του Βρεφονηπιακού σταθμού του Δήμου Μαρκόπουλου: Το κτίριο ως καθημερινή διδακτική εμπειρία αρχιτεκτονικής για τους μικρούς χρήστες του

Abstract

We did not try to design a building which –in a way– would reproduce a child’s phantasy, just by exploiting the ingenuity of architectural form and its esthetic appeal. (In other words we did not design a small «Disney Land»).

On the contrary, this functional daycare unit is also an introductory lesson about space syntax. And at the same time it is a friendly spatial game for its young inhabitants. It is the game of playing with architecture while living in it, in a special way that children know (and can) when architecture gives them the chance to do so.

It is the building itself that makes the game possible. In essence, its design constitutes a series of basic architectural archetypes which join together as a functional and aesthetic «whole».

As all archetypes, they are strongly embedded in the depth of human nature and thus strongly connected even to a child’s subconscious knowledge and imagination:

The arched corridor, the atrium, the tower, natural unpaved earth and a small hill (as basic components of a small garden), walls built by cement blocks (in the same way that children build castles and houses while playing with their wooden cubes).

The primeval instinct of inhabiting space leads the young players to produce new and unexpected ideas about using it in their own way.

Thus, modern architecture lays a simple orthogonal grid (as a guide that “shows the way” beneath the surface of logic), on which imagination and natural improvising skill can weave each child’s extraordinary fairytale.