Gredig Walser Architekten

Description

The new triple kindergarten continues the development concept typical for the area with its layered longitudinal structures and completes the existing sequence of school recreation areas. With its exterior volumes sculpturally staggered in height, the one-storey building echoes the configuration of the interior spaces. Upon entering, one finds oneself in a stony-looking corridor that widens and then narrows again. The wardrobe berths docked onto the corridor with their wall benches of solid Swiss pine receive the children with a welcoming gesture. Like the living rooms in old Engadine houses, the walls and ceilings of the main rooms are lined in panelling of untreated pine from the Lower Engadine mountain forests, reinterpreted in a new form. A pleasant aroma of pine wood lies in the air, which supposedly has a calming effect on people. The new triple kindergarten derives its special qualities from the solidness of the bright concrete sculptural volume in conjunction with installations of crisp pine wood. It is a building that creates atmospheric spaces for the children while echoing in many facets the building traditions of the Engadine valley.