Kinderdagverblijf Nieuw Kinderland

The project for the Nieuw Kinderland crèche in Brussels is a design by Burobill in association with ZAmpone architecture. It is a conversion of an existing complex. The architects were given one floor of the school building for the accommodation of the crèche. These rooms turned out to be too cramped, however, and a location on the second floor was not ideal given the safeguarding function of the facility. Furthermore, it was impossible to provide direct access to a connected outdoor area. The solution is as simple as it is spectacular. An elegant slope links the street to the first floor and provides a canopy for the playground beneath. The hectic pace of the metropolis — parents with loaded bicycles dropping their offspring at the school gates, or arriving and departing with buggies in great haste — is all staged by means of an architectural promenade. The tiled floor, with modulating graphic motifs by the artist Benoît van Innis, leads to a generous balcony via a spiral staircase where, suddenly, one seems to have escaped the closed nature of the street block.

Here, in the open air, while floating above the ground and looking out over the backs of dilapidated houses, an exceptional place has been created, one that retreats from the bustle of the city.

This text is based on an article by Maarten Van Den Driessche, published in Flanders Architectural Review N°12: Tailored Architecture.