Ajurinmäki Daycare Center / AFKS
© Jussi Tiainen
Architects: AFKS / Frondelius + Keppo + Salmenperä
Location: Espoo, Finland
Client: City of Espoo
Project Area: 1,060 sqm
Project Year: 2005-2009
Photographs: Jussi Tiainen
floor plan
The Ajurinmäki Daycare Center is situated in the district of Leppävaara in Espoo. The building comprises three separate “home areas” for different groups within the children’s daycare centre, as well as an open door daycare centre.
© Jussi Tiainen
section
The rear of the plot rises up from a steep rock out-crop, where there are also fortification works (nowadays protected) dating from the Second World War. Construction was confined to the southward sloping south side of the plot, where there are favourable climatic and construction conditions. The plot contains part of an old garden, belonging to an area of single-family houses, where there grows old varieties of garden plants, such as fruit trees. This area has now been preserved as part of the daycare centre and as a local residents’ playground, with a fence marking as large an area as possible.
© Jussi Tiainen
The building has the shape of an organic, living entity that feeds the imagination and in the sheltered embrace of which the yard opens up towards the favorable southerly orientation. The orientations vary in height and utilize the attic space below the shallow roof planes. An essential part of the architecture is the seemingly arbitrary placement of the windows and the artificial landscape of slope formed by the roof, where the “light lanterns” stand as miniature buildings, as well as also enlivening the interior.
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- © Jussi Tiainen
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- © Jussi Tiainen
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- © Jussi Tiainen
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- © Jussi Tiainen
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- © Jussi Tiainen
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- © Jussi Tiainen
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- floor plan
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- elevation 01
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- elevation 02
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- elevations 03 & 04
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- hall plans
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- section
Nice building… :)
The way they managed the interior space and the arrangement of the windows is quite awesome, and the color is a nice detail, looks great in red.
The way the interiors balance and respect natural light is beautiful.
I also like the color too…now…What concerns me is how weathering will affect it. I can easily see this building becoming a repulsive sun-bleached pink within a few years.
A little nitpick: what other kind of lantern is there?