Kindergarten, Niederolang

Architects: feld72
Text: Zsuzsa Beliczay
Photos: Hertha Hurnhaus

The house for a kindergarten in Valdaora di Sotto, South Tyrol, illustrates the local mesh of tradition, contemporary life and nature within the slowly grown village structure. This third kindergarten designed by feld72 aligns itself to the setting, without being subordinate to it. Subtly placed, the structure responds to the predominant presence of the parish church with its cemetery chapel and the elementary school in the village centre. The timber building is surrounded by a solid wall, as if it were sitting in a case. Together they provide a hideaway. Boundaries and fences determine the village fabric. It is a settlement of clear-cut edges separating private and public space. The kindergarten as an architectural intervention plays with the boundaries’ diverse intensities by putting them into its enclosing multiform wall. That effects an exciting contextual merge with a prevailing element of the built environment. The surrounding wall creates distinct spatial edges within the village ensemble.

Architects: feld72
Engineering consultancy: Ingenieurteam Bergmeister
Collaborators: Marino Fei, Carl Friedrich, David Kovařík, Therese Leick, Gerhard Mair, Edoardo Nobili
Client: Valdaora City