Location: Opative nad Labem, Czech republic
Investor: Opatovice nad Labem
Project: 2024
Authors: Jan Mach, Tobiáš Hrabec, Hana Podešvová, Matěj Tobiáš

“What class are you in? I go up there, to that little wooden cottage!”

Our first visit to Opatovice nad Labem, to see the village’s only kindergarten, revealed a somewhat faded composition of disparate buildings and annexes. A newly renovated historic structure stood at the core, a few dozen metres away, a white 1960s modernist cube, and finally, an early-21st-century addition stitching these together through a network of elongated, roofed corridors. Even the kitchen occupied a separate building. The brief emerged almost naturally – to consolidate and unify.

Beneath the initial sense of chaos created by such contrasting masses, however, laid a clear narrative of growth over time. This was also our main task – build an addition for a new school group. A lightweight, fast, and easily adaptable timber construction. A direct answer to the pressing shortage of capacity. For us, adaptability is key. The duration of this overcrowding is unknown, and so the option of easy dismantling or further expansion becomes a fundamental quality of the proposal.

Designing a kindergarten is a delicate craft. It is like unlocking Pandora’s box of nostalgia, long-forgotten grievances, unfinished lunches and long-lost friends. At the same time, it offers a rare chance to leave behind the rigidity of adult life with its rules and constraints – and to play once again. Without prejudice, without fear. It is the reminder that children’s delight does not lie in the refined aesthetics of minimalism, but in a space whose magic rests in its capacity to transform – a fantastical castle one moment, a mysterious jungle the next.

A kindergarten is where a child first begins to build a relationship with the world. We believe it should be a place of playfulness and discovery, offering abundant stimuli within a safe environment for experiential learning. The main classroom – the space where children spend most of their day – is therefore designed to accommodate a spectrum of atmospheres. From a generous central volume, illuminated by a large skylight, five alcoves branch out like the tentacles of an octopus. Here, openness meets the intimacy of smaller spaces. Safety. Here’s a fluffy carpet, there a patch of wood and right next to it a cork wall. And those big windows!

One of these opens onto a rooftop terrace, offering children a new vantage point. From here, they watch their friends in the lower classrooms while simultaneously sharing the world of birds among the treetops. Thanks to the strong visual connection with the main interior, the threshold between inside and outside dissolves. The same principle is also newly applied to the ground-floor classroom, where standard windows with high sills – largely meaningless for children – are replaced with large French windows, reinforcing the connection to the newly refurbished courtyard.

Beyond the timber extension, we sought to address the fragmented ensemble of existing structures. A perforated metal façade provides coherence, while in the evening it comes alive with an enigmatic glow from within. Increasing storage capacity and creating a new head teacher’s office were also integral to the project, achieved through subtle interventions into both the existing and the newly added volumes.