We created a nursery school
that could be described as a village of its own,
with neighborhoods, streets and squares,
all at the size of its young inhabitants.
Color was our main tool, creating a special place
in the outskirts of a rather characterless
small village.
In the foothill of ancient Olympia,
in the outskirts of Karatoula village,
we designed a nursery school for 30 children.
The complex consists of
two units for toddlers and a unit for babies,
as well as of a dining room that also fits for various activities,
an administration unit and the necessary utility rooms.
The main idea behind our design
was to recreate a sense of community living,
around the architectural element of the “public square”,
here being a large atrium, for children to play
in a protected and pleasant outdoors space.
Classes are sited around this atrium,
and all circulations are made possible
through transparent corridors,
that seem like flowing into spaces.
The use of color was a basic design tool,
with big colorful cantilevers of windows
acting as the complex’ s trade mark.
In a rather dull village enviroment,
keeping the school building in low hights
and using one way sloping roofs
refers to the cosy scale of country houses.
As for the class units, toddlers’ scale led us
to create each space as a whole, autonomous living area,
with internal mezzanines for an afternoon nap,
as well as bathrooms and cloak rooms for each class.
The design and construction of the Karatoula kindergarten
was made possible
due to Holy Church of Cyprus’ generous donation
to the local municipality,
after the disastrous fire of 2007 in Peloponnese.
PROJECT DATA
DESIGN – CONSTRUCTION
2008-2010
COLLABORATORS
Ifigenia Skamnaki, architect
Chryssi Nikoloutsou, architect
SURFACE
700m²
COST
1.050.000€