Nature all round at the KinderNaturGarten
It’s literally nature all round at the new KinderNaturGarten in Darmstadt. The elliptical single-storey rotunda with green roof and a surface area of around 1,000 m2 is part of the innovative Alnatura campus in the south west of the city.
In addition to the public Waldorf Kindergarten, the plot totalling 55,000 m2 is home to the new company headquarters of the organic German grocer and a vegetarian restaurant as well as an organic shopping centre and theme park.
The KinderNaturGarten offers places for up to 88 children. The main feature of the Waldorf educational institution is daily interaction with nature. For this reason, each of the five groups has direct access to the garden, which spans some 3,300 m2. There is another green space in the open-air courtyard which joins the three main areas of primary use – group rooms, multi-purpose room and administration. The areas are laid out in keeping with the path of the sun from east to west. For example, the group rooms and the multi-purpose room are in the southern semicircle of the building, while the administration and foyer as well as the plant room are in the northern semicircle.
Each group has its own dormitory, washroom, cloakroom, kitchen and dining areas. There are also separate lounge and recreation rooms as well as a large multipurpose room with special motion elements, which is also available for parent and child courses.
When constructing the completely accessible KinderNaturGarten, the planners prioritised natural and renewable materials such as wood, clay and linoleum. Inside the bright building, wooden cupboards and furniture made from beech and alder add their pleasant scent to the room. The floors are a bold red, while the curtains radiate in sunny yellow. The cob walls form a complement in natural white.
Creatively designed to complement the wooden furniture, the Troldtekt acoustic panels built into the ceiling area help create a welcoming atmosphere. Made of the natural material wood, and cement extracted from Danish mineral resources, these panels offer an acoustic solution with unique sound-absorbing properties and contribute to a healthy indoor climate.
