Daycare Centre hisa Malteser

The new rooms should encourage the children to move, play and have fun in the same way as the swimming pool did. The children are allowed to move freely throughout the daycare center. The pedagogical work is based on the situational approach, in which the children are motivated to act independently. The words of Maria Montessori “Help me to do it myself” are the guiding principle of the daycare. The baths had a central, large swimming hall and two flanking side wings that housed the changing rooms, showers and a sauna area. Both ends of the main hall are adorned with elaborately designed mosaic walls, which were to be preserved in the course of the conversion into a daycare center.

The cave is covered with a color-coordinated floor grid so that good ventilation and lighting is provided. In the play cave itself there are cushions, pillows and inflatable swimming animals. The underwater world has become the central and special place of the daycare center. All built-in railings on low levels or the slide bar are made of stainless steel and their characteristic rounded shape is based on those in a swimming pool.

The former swimming pool was covered with a wooden framework to make the well-lit space above usable. An underground play cave was created in the center of the former pool, into which the children can dive via a newly installed slide bar or slide next to the stairs. The interplay with the turquoise blue tiles of the old pool floor creates an underwater world for children. When the slide bar, which is secured by a railing with a gate, is then released by the educators for play, an atmosphere is created that pays tribute to the former swimming pool.

In all group rooms, so-called low levels were created in the area of the former pool. Here, the floor was lowered to create a lower play level as well as storage space in the former pool area. Here, too, the original tiles of the pool are visible in parts. Naturalness of materials is one of the main features of this daycare center extension: oiled wooden platforms, fixtures and multifunctional elements provide enough play and movement opportunities for children to get by with very few additional toys.

In the longitudinal axis, the centered corridor provides a view of both mosaic walls. In the transverse axis, the view can also go continuously from window front to window front. In its center, the former fully glazed lifeguard’s house still stands, which was converted into a ball pool and in which many original elements such as the signage and some old stickers were preserved. A platform landscape with embedded ball pool and transparent balls creates the feeling of a bath in wild spray.

In the new checkroom area and all bathrooms, the orange-brown hue of the original tiles was incorporated into the color scheme and complemented by a vibrant purple as an accent color. The original signage was also preserved in these areas. The new ball lights and water balls also serve as supporting elements to bring the flair of the pool to life.

The tile mosaics in the main hall and the acoustic perforated tiles installed around them were protected with large glass panels. An additional challenge was to preserve the acoustic perforated tiles. Since the insulation wool behind the acoustical perforated tiles is contaminated with pollutants, but the tiles were still to remain fully visible as a requirement of the historic preservation authority, the installation of an airtight glass envelope became necessary.

The design takes into account the different needs of children in their respective age groups and stages of development. Uneven surfaces and obstacles turn the various floor coverings into challenges for the youngest children. The first motor skills are trained in the process. The original starting blocks of the former swimming pool serve as play elements in the outdoor area. In front of the entrance area, the swimming pool is reminded right at the beginning.