Architect: Foteini Kallikouni
Consultant Architect: Andreas Nikolovgenis
Project Year: 2023
Location: Athens, Greece
Area: 60 sq. m.
Type: Architectural competition
The main design goal for the district's daycare center and kindergarten, is to introduce a different typology that will serve the needs of a public educational space with programmatic flexibility, structural simplicity, and qualities of extroversion. The "Greek bungalow type", as described above, proposes a series of transitional spaces from enclosed to open. This condition in the new nursery building is explored in a cross-section where a series of spaces appear, from the more enclosed, to semi-outdoors, to open covered and finally to exteriors. These spaces, with their different heights and strategically placed openings, 'blur' the indoor-outdoor boundaries and propose a complex relationship that also dissolves the boundaries of distinct floors. That is, despite the clear division into two levels, the building appears as a single, multi-level interior activated by both movements and views.
The inversion of the "Greek bungalow typology", is implemented through the placement of "hard" boundaries on the unfavorable sides of the plot while "opening up" to the other public spaces of the neighborhood, such as the grove, the park with Bakoyannis Square, the cultural centre and the municipal playground. This design decision not only provides "soft" boundaries to the interior but creates opportunities for extroversion to points of interest.
Design proposal
Two simple gestures constitute the design proposal. Firstly, the placement of two volumes on the west and north sides of the site in order to free up the south orientation where the courtyard is placed. Secondly, the division of each volume into the zone of flexible spaces and the zone of supporting spaces. The supporting space zone, which is located at the boundaries of the unfavourable facades (north-west), takes on the role of a buffer zone, i.e. the 'hard' boundaries that protect the function of the flexible spaces, which open up to the south.
The first building volume carries the public and public program of the station and the administration areas. The main intention of the design is to create a public condenser that extends the building's operation into the evening hours by offering activities for the kids of the area.
The second part of the building brings together the activity rooms for infants and toddlers on the ground floor and the first floor respectively. The support zone includes the sleeping, W/C and bathing, milk preparation and infant changing rooms, while the flexible zone is essentially a single room that can be partitioned with moving walls, depending on the number of children and the activities it accommodates.