Kita Hürth

The goal of daycare centers is to provide children with a place where they can feel at home for a large part of the day.

Arrive and feel at home

The goal of daycare centers is to provide children with a place where they can find a second home for a large part of the day. In doing so, there are many invisible transitional moments for the little ones to navigate: arriving, entering, getting changed, saying goodbye, and staying. With the natural light provided by INDU LIGHT’s flat-roof windows, these transitional spaces in the new St. Franziskus daycare center in Hürth become communication areas with a high quality of stay.

Project

Kindertagesstätte St. Franziskus

Location

Hürth (Hermülheim)

Client

Caritasverband für den Rhein-Erft-Kreis e.V.

Execution

pbundl architects - Cologne BRÜGGEMANN Holzbau GmbH & Co KG - Neuenkirchen INDU LIGHT

Products used

INDU LIGHT sets accents

Stella Flat Roof Window

Flat-roof windows with flexible standard sizes, customizable glazing options, and convenient electric opening systems for ventilation and comfort.

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Hallways and coat rooms are transformed into lively spaces for interaction and communication thanks to natural light.

The streets here are named Fasanenweg, Sperberweg, and Sperlingsweg. The daycare center itself is located on Bussardweg. This suggests a certain connection to nature and seems to fit the provider’s mission: the focus of the educational program is on learning with all the senses. “In order
for children to explore the world on their own, their interest in a subject must be holistically connected to the child’s personal experience,” states the educational program of the Caritas facility. “Through imagination, play, and creativity, children process their experiences and learn.” In this sense, the daycare’s rooms are designed as spaces for exploration. This guiding principle significantly shapes the atmosphere of the facility.

Daylight: The Key to Well-Being

Making the start of the day and the children’s time at the center as pleasant as possible is the clear goal of the new St. Franziskus daycare center in Hürth, just outside Cologne. The anthracite-gray façade serves as a backdrop for the children’s vibrant lives. Walls and ceilings are finished in bright white. Doors in various shades of blue provide colorful accents that create striking contrasts. Daylight is the key to well-being in this daycare center. This applies to the common areas as well as the hallways. While light enters the group rooms through the windows in the facade, flat-roof windows from INDU LIGHT provide natural light through the ceiling in the interior rooms. Corridors and coat rooms are thus not merely functional passageways, but become lively spaces for interaction and communication for 70 children aged between six months and six years, their parents, and the daycare center’s fourteen educational staff members.

Stimulating indoor environment

After just ten months of construction, the daycare center—built entirely of wood—was ready for occupancy. As a single-story structure, the building makes the most efficient use of the lot, which is framed by large trees. The compact layout of the 900-square-meter space on a square floor plan with 30-meter sides results in
deep rooms. To create a stimulating spatial quality with light from above even in the innermost parts of the building, the designers opted for the new Stella flat-roof windows from INDU LIGHT. The roof windows, which measure up to 2.25 square meters, have a second effect. Unlike conventional skylights with their opaque
plastic shells, these glass roof windows also allow you to look out. You can see the sky, clouds, and trees; feel the sun, rain, and snow; and feel connected to nature while remaining completely protected within your space.

Arranged in a rhythmic pattern, the skylights illuminate the entrance area and offer a view of the sky.

Rhythmically staggered skylights

The flat roof is shared by the windows and a solar panel system for generating electricity. The skylight design not only defines the interior spaces; the designers also recognized the value of the natural light streaming in from above for the sheltered outdoor area.
Set back from the building, the daycare center’s red-framed entrance is located at a corner of the structure. The undisturbed form of the flat roof preserves the building’s overall cubic appearance while also providing weather-protected access to the building. The canopy is perforated with seven elongated openings, above which flat-roof windows from INDU LIGHT provide daylight. Arranged in a rhythmic pattern, they illuminate the entrance area and open up a view of the sky. In this way, the transition from the exterior to the interior is introduced both climatically and atmospherically, creating an attractive gathering place in front of the building. With this welcoming gesture and the quality of light inside the daycare center, the project succeeds in offering children and educators a setting that can be summed up in two words: Arrival and Well-being.

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