Day-care centres in timber construction

Each group has its own house

In Borken, we designed a four-group day-care centre for the Montessori-Fördergemeinschaft: four classic pitched-roof houses connected by a low, linear wing. Each group occupies one of these houses, with all the rooms set out in the room schedule of the LWL (the regional authority for Westphalia-Lippe). The large group room opens onto the garden; under the open roof, a timber staircase leads up to a second level with quiet retreats. The connecting wing serves as corridor, cloakroom, space for movement and meeting point. It also houses the kitchen, where fresh meals are cooked every day.

The day-care centre borders the Lunsberg and Hombornquelle nature reserve. We carried this ecological approach through into the construction method and brought in Holzbau Schöttler, a partner with long experience in timber construction. The centre cares for 75 children on 800 square metres of usable floor space. View the project

Eight groups under four tent roofs

On the grounds of the Forschungszentrum Jülich research centre, the ‘Kleine Füchse’ day-care centre was built with the Terhalle group: around 2,000 square metres of building area and about 6,000 square metres of outdoor space for 127 children aged between four months and 14 years. The eight groups are housed in four large tent-roofed houses along a shared axis; each tent roof works like a small house of its own, with group rooms and ancillary rooms, washrooms and a cloakroom. View the project

What makes designing a day-care centre special

• Many people at the table: The operator, the local authority, early years educators and often parents too contribute their experience. For the Montessori day-care centre, members of the operating association supported the construction on a voluntary basis.
• Two approvals: As well as the building permit, every day-care centre needs an operating licence under § 45 SGB VIII (Book VIII of the German Social Code). In Westphalia-Lippe, it is issued by the LWL-Landesjugendamt, the regional youth welfare office; its room schedule is the basis for the floor plans.
• Safety in the details: Escape routes, fall protection, and stairs and doors at children’s height. Day-care centres are subject to specific guidance from the statutory accident insurance, which we build into the design from the start.
• The outdoors is space too: Outdoor areas are part of the brief, around 6,000 square metres in Jülich. That is why group rooms open onto the garden.
• Keeping construction time predictable: Prefabricated timber elements and construction phases make the process on site more reliable.