Day Nursery, Nagykovácsi

Architect: László Földes 
Text: Ágnes Bechtold 
Photos: Levente Sirokai 

Nagykovácsi is a cul-de-sac village on the margins of Budapest. It is located in a beautiful, protected, peaceful natural neighbourhood. Its unique property is that many of its inhabitants are families with young children (25 % of its population are children) and communal life appears to be quite intense. The first public day nursery of the village was designed by László Földes to be built next to the kindergarten completed in 2010. The objective, to adjust the building to the scales and proportions of the village, was achieved to the full. The day nursery building has a simple gabled roof and units that follow the proportions of vernacular peasant houses and seamlessly fit into the townscape. As a result, an utterly simplified and crystallized complex was born, which does not lack character. The simplicity of the building mass is reinforced by the homogenuous use of materials: the masonry walls are the same tone of red as the roof. The strictness of the building is counteracted by ribbed plates inserted in-between the smooth tiles at a random rhythm, the windows, which are simple and configurated in a playful manner, and the inclination of the roofs, which is fairly varied. The functional units are organised into pavilions, which are shifted on the same level. Communication between them is provided by glass-walled bottlenecks. The facades opening upward also suggest the willingness to receive. By moving the pavilions the differentiation of interior and exterior spaces was made possible, just like the creation of garden sections of the pavilion that show a variety of of qualities.

General design: Földes és Társai Építésziroda Kft.
Leading architect: László Földes
Architect: Péter Sónicz
Fellow architects: Eszter Bagdy, Hanga Györgyi, Dániel Laczó
Structure: Zoltán V. Nagy – Lapidárium Mérnöki Kft.
HVAC: Attila Lucz – HVArC Mérnöki Iroda Kft.
Electrical engineering: Judit Balázs – ArtVill Mérnöki Iroda Kft.
Kitchen technology: Ágnes Palainé Straub
Rehabilitation expert: Éva Jávor
Garden design: Tamás Sándor
Client: Nagykovácsi Nagyközség Önkormányzata