Minimalism?
As the first step in a rather vague urban plan, the childcare centre taps into the unchanging elements of the site such as the park’s hundred-year-old trees, the boulevard, the nearby brick houses and the site’s industrial past. Our solution is brutally neutral. It is a block 30 metres wide, 60 metres long and 4.2 metres high. The bottom half is glass; the top half is made of oxidized steel. The glass reflects the streets, the park and the weeds in the adjacent plot, and sometimes, depending on the light and the point of view, appears virtually to disappear, making it seem as though the oxidized steel is floating in the air. Seen from the boulevard, this large horizontal block with its patina sheen looks as if the park’s ancient trees are resting on it, like the surface beneath a still life. It also protects the park from the noise and visual pollution of the boulevard. The oxidized steel echoes the brick of the nearby houses, is reminiscent of the long walls of the original factory and sets off the sodden earth and tree bark hues of the park behind. The lower glazed part is subdivided by blind areas that house the service facilities and private areas. The upper, oxidized-steel part contains the building’s technical nerve system. Its underside is sculpted so as to create spaces of different sizes serving different purposes. In anticipation of future construction next door, the roof has been designed as a large sun deck. Technical features are hidden away in the dry area, which is covered with metal gratings. This high, oxidized-steel box literally becomes the roof of the childcare centre, unifying and protecting it.