Children’s Day-Care Centre in Berlin
- Sabine Drey
A Berlin Plattenbau (prefab concrete housing block) is truly far removed from the architectural ideas of anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner. Nevertheless, in Prenzlauer Berg a Waldorf school has been set up in one of these pragmatic buildings from the 1970s. But the day-care centre that won the competition for an addition to the existing building exudes the spirit of Steiner's lively organic architecture. The facades and internal walls of the low, honeycomb-shaped volume that was docked to the old building have hardly any right angles and the architects used mainly renewable materials in their natural state. The timber frame construction was insulated with bales of straw and given a 40 mm-thick inner layer of clay render in which, at places, wall heating is integrated. Externally, larch boards of different widths and depths give the facade, which was prefabricated in sections, an animated sculptural character.
