Kindergarten in Tenero Contra

It ‘s a range of colorful and safe spaces to play and grow up.

The proposal provides the creation of a school campus with an integrated system to coordinate the existing primary school’s buildings and the new kindergarten. The goals are: the optimization of space, the anthropized environmental care and the natural landscape protection. For this purpose the new building is positioned close to the existing building, creating a unique and organic building core. The green areas and gardens are designed as protective filter spaces between the schools and the adjacent infrastructures.

A driveway and pedestrian access from the south-eastern lot’s gate separates the two buildings, allowing a smooth access to the site.
A number of parking for visitors and users has been placed along this private road.

In this way also the accessibility of the existing school is improved thanks to a driveway that comes very close to the back accesses.
The proximity between the two buildings has been considered crucial for the masterplan layout: the common refectory requires a reduced distance and an easier use.

The green area in front of the elementary school is completely preserved to allow potential future interventions or extensions.
The new kindergarten develops on one level and is oriented to express a planimetric integration with the existing school, underlining its axial asset and also to take advantage of natural lighting. Our attention to the orientation becomes a discernible architectural motif around which was developed the project: the five sections are oriented to the southeast as is preferable, according to the cantonal guidelines, they are arranged to generate a simple but effective external spatial demarcation able to differentiate the areas making them uniques. The projection of the overhanging roofs and the continuation of the lateral septa create semi-protected areas for outdoor and educational activities. In this way this gardens are easy to control and safe.

The “fan-shaped” disposal create wide views on the surrounding park.
The access to the building is allowed by an atrium located in a center position that distribute users to the different sections and to the block services with refectory.
A second access, located on an perpendicular axis, is used for service’s logistics and it’s an extension of the driveway on the northwest quadrant.
The decision to prefer a single story building allowed to manage the composition of the volumes on the only horizontal plane, creating an “extended” building with an organic formal composition.

Location / Tenero Contra | Locarno | Switzerland

Year / 2014

Client / Tenero Contra Municipality

Stage / Design competition entry

Lot area / 2.000 sqm

Surface / 60.000 sqm