Betlehem Calvinist Kindergarten, Rákoscsaba

Functioning to host six groups of children, the building with a ground plan of approximately 1,400 m² is not opened from the street. Thanks to the local authority the Calvinist church had received two long building sites available for this purpose, which made it possible to have the kindergarten built further at the back of it, far from the busy main road. The front of the site is occupied by a spacious parking lot with separate lanes for bikers and pedestrians made complete with a bicycle store to avoid rush and just jumping out of the car and into it when arriving here in the morning and leaving in the afternoon. From the gate we are to walk a bit to get to the house stretching in the yard lengthwise and thus we can have some time to enjoy arriving here taking pleasure in the playful chiaroscuro of light and shadow projected onto ruined limestone tiles that envelope the facade as a surface of fine texture. The first thing striking us when taking a tour of the kindergarten is that after the stone facework of the first wing – behind which there are the rooms of the kindergarten teachers – we can see cylinder-shaped wings painted rich saturated colours projecting in a system of pavillions well-organized but still loosely connected. Guiding us all throughout the chain of homely nooks the designer explains these are the rooms for the children’s groups, each of which protrudes out of the flat-roofed backbone of the structure as an attached extension with a gently inclined roof. There is a tiny front garden wedged between the arched ending and the main block with a projecting roof above. This is the area of their own, designed exclusively for the 20-25 children who possess the block of their colour as a separate realm. To the southeast and the south there are 3-3 such projecting blocks, farthest back the gym hall is towering with a cylindrical floor and walls pierced with longish and slender windows resembling loops.

Eszter Götz

építész vezető tervező / architect: Nánásy Ilona                                 

építész munkatárs / fellow architects: Magyarné Hámori Veronika, Magyar Mihály

tartószerkezet / structure: Zámbó Ernő

épületgépészet / plumbing & HVAC: Kordé Csaba

épületgépész munkatársak: Kordé Balázs, Borza György, Andrejszki Györgyi, Kesztyűs Ferenc

épületvillamosság / electrical engineering: Jurics Jolán                                  

konyhatechnológia / kitchen technology: Miseta Zsolt

konzulens / consultant: Váradi Gáborné óvodavezető