kirigami kinderwelt

a competition entry (3rd prize) for a new kindergarten and nursery in puch bei weiz, austria. the design translates the japanese art of kirigami (切り紙: kiru 'to cut', kami 'paper') into architecture: an archetypal gabled-roof house is laid across the sloping site and reinterpreted through precise diagonal cuts.

concept

the cuts create atria and openings that draw daylight deep into the rooms and interlock inside and outside. the single-storey building follows the topography exactly. kindergarten (north) and nursery (south) are autonomous units, each with its own entrance, cloakrooms and atrium; under the cut-open roof, open sequences of rooms hold playable boxes to climb on. all group rooms open downhill into the garden, and together with the existing schools they form a legible education campus.

construction

clt timber on a thermally active concrete base, with a saw-rough, untreated larch façade. a green roof with photovoltaics, natural ventilation through the atria, recycled concrete and external textile sun shading — a robust, child-friendly building with a low ecological footprint.