design: BIRO
project team: saša košuta, mario kralj, dora lončarić, hrvoje arbanas, anita elez
client: City of Zagreb
location: Podbrežje, Zagreb
status: architectural competition
project year: 2017
The closer context of the location of the daycare center, located in a newly planned neighborhood in the district of New Zagreb, is sandwiched in a shaded field between two wings of an eight-storey building, positioned North-South. In relation to the vertical orthogonal grids of the wider neighborhood context, a horizontal matrix is structured, which organizes the fields. In contrast to the wider alienated vast context, in the center the users find themselves in a safe surrounding and the familiar scale of a parental home unit.
The newly formed ground-plan micro-scale is raised to a level dimensioned according to the scale of the users: it simultaneously allows children to freely roam the area and the teachers to supervise them easily. The interconnected fields become a living organism that can be used in an unlimited number of scenarios. The fields in the form of children's courtyards, gardens and playgrounds extend into the interior and form the daycare rooms of the center and nursery units, common areas and specific communication. In the interior, the rigid framework of the matrix is modified, connecting to servant spaces, communications and access roads.
Exterior and interior spaces thus become equivalent. Since the lot is rather narrow and completely shaded by the adjacent building wings, the matrix is partially raised to the first storey and forms a series of the daycare center units. The nursery unit sequence is located on the ground floor, looking directly onto the outside fields, while the kindergarten units descend to the fields via a roof terrace. The shift in height rotates a simple roof panel into two intersecting planes, ensuring visual contact between the two storeys. Slits in the roof ensure a multilateral penetration of light and the ventilation of the internal fields.