Kindergarten in Chana – Elisa Valero Arquitectura – Spain

Architects: Elisa Valero Arquitectura
Location: Granada, Spain
Project Year: 2010
Project Area: 880.90 m²
Photographs: Fernando Alda

Place, program and construction determine the form of this kindergarten. The objectives are to make a functional building facing the right way, opening the classrooms and the large patio to the south, and doing so in a rapid, rational way. Straightforward geometry, all on one level to facilitate access. The entire building program is resolved under a roof of three continuous strips separated by patios. The outside is enclosed in high white wall that protects the children and their play from the view and noise of the street and the nearby railroad crossing. The entryway is angled so that the exit is tangential to the street. There are two entries, one for the children and parents, and the other for supplies, the service zone and kitchen. All of the classrooms for children from one to three years open onto a patio of over 600 meters which is a safe zone in case of evacutation. This rational distribution is adapted to a modular structure that optimizes the use of steel, the search for light and a large playground to the south for the children. Facilitating construction, minimizing details and meeting, with a minimum number of elements, all the specific demands of the program while avoiding singularities. This was the way of establishing the building criteria, rules of construction logic that facilitated the process and minimized on-the-job errors.  The program consisted of a kindergarten with seven units: 2 for 0-1 years, 2 for 1-2 years and 3 for 2-3 years, for a total of 102 children. Each unit required a classroom with its corresponding bathrooms, which could be shared by two classrooms, an administration area, a bathroom for the handicapped, a multipurpose space and a service area with a scullery, pantry, garbage room, laundry room, cleaning closet, equipment room and dressing rooms for the personnel. This is completed with a porch area at the entrance and a playground to the south, with a vegetable garden.