Forfatterhuset Kindergarten, Copenhagen
/Forfatterhuset Kindergarten (The Writers’ House) opened in 2014 although work continues on the landscape of the street immediately around the school. It was designed by the architectural practice COBE and is on the north side of De Gamles By (City of the Old). The new buildings are in a square that is open on the north-east side to Sjællandsgade. Buildings around the school date mainly from about 1900 and were originally built for a hospital for the elderly.
The new nursery school is in a striking and novel form but picks up the deep red brick colour of the earlier buildings. The square-section vertical bars or slats are continued as a band that forms a high fence for the large play area at the south west end of the site. Windows and doors have a metal square-section architrave in deep red that projects forward of the system of the wall face.
The plan is a series of interlinked pavilions with rounded corners and with flat roofs but with roof gardens to make best use of the site. Buildings and fencing wrap around mature trees and the building has the character of a large tree house.
Inside, white railings continue the theme of vertical lines, looking rather like bamboo, running the full height of hallways and enclosing the staircases and landings - presumably for safety. The main building actually has three floors around a full height atrium and staircase and the main entrance is into that taller block with a narrow entrance court that almost feels as if it has been created by someone pushing hard at the fence to move it inwards.
