Kindergarten of the French School in Barcelona
- Frank Kaltenbach
Coloured horizontal bands lend the new kindergarten tract of the French school a refreshing note and help integrate the development into the historical context. The building replaces one of what were originally two identical villas dating from the early 20th century. The coloured curtain-wall facade, consisting of powder-coated aluminium fins, serves both as a means of weather protection for the wooden skin to the steel skeleton structure and also as a sunscreen in front of the glazed areas. The white, yellowish-green and orange-coloured vertical fins reflect the colour range of the refurbished historical villa, and the rounded corners of the new building also correspond to features of the existing structure. In view of the different heights of the horizontal bands, it is not easy to determine the floor levels in the new building externally, thus reducing any sense of dominance of the five-storey development. Functional and design elements have been combined in the concept: for example, safety parapets in front of window openings are continued above the dining hall in the form of terrace balustrades; and around the roof garden along the courtyard front, the fin facade becomes a fence consisting of filigree vertical strips. The different colours, heights and depths of the fins contribute a sense of variety to the building, and their different spacings lend the outer skin a dynamic depth - an effect that is intensified when the pivoting fins on the top two storeys are moved individually to control shading and views out. The wooden facade manifests itself most strongly behind the metal curtain-walling on the first floor, where it merges with the strip-like structure in the form of deep cross-members that shade the French doors to the classrooms.
