A Building for Childrenby | 23.06.2016

Kindergarten La Maison Kangourou

To create daycare facilities especially for children. When they set up their architecture firm Archipel41 in 2001, Managing Directors Laurent Dachet, Marco Ferrer, Carlos Vasconcelos, and Christophe Alamargot realized how difficult it was for their employees to find daycare facilities near their workplace. To find a long-term solution to this shortage, they launched a partnership with the social organization "La Maison Kangourou”. It runs 20 day nurseries in Paris and the surrounding area with the aim of giving children and families space to play and grow together – places based on mutual respect, qualified staff, and building designs that meet the highest architectural requirements.

Together with Archipel41 the organization has now built seven daycare nurseries. The latest and largest project by the two partners is currently underway in Saint Mard, a village 45 kilometers north of Paris. Here the architects are planning two pavilion-style facilities for children and staff in one building. This setup is designed above all to promote social cohesion. The children are allowed and indeed encouraged to move around the building and from room to room. Even the open courtyard in the middle of the building is freely accessible to the children. To let plenty of daylight into the interior, the windows extend down to plinth level. This gives the rooms a bright and friendly atmosphere. Even safety has been taken into account: the open architecture means that staff can keep an eye on the play areas from all sides at all times.

The planners refer to their construction projects for children as "places to live". This approach is an attempt to harmonize architecture and technology with an implementation that is suitable for children. It requires a well thought out, obstacle-free planning process, and powerful software. So the architects use Allplan, the BIM solution, for all phases. From initial designs to completion, they worked in the intelligent Allplan building model. With Allplan they are able to centrally record all important planning data throughout the entire planning and construction phase. The methodical building design combined with 3D planning allows the designers to keep control of the project at all times. Integrated project processing ensures that planning errors, such as collisions between components, can be identified and avoided in advance.

Error-free planning across all phases makes it possible for the architects to implement the functional requirements of a day nursery quickly and effectively. And this means guaranteeing safe activities for children and staff at all levels. Reliable planning across all phases also makes it possible to implement all project requirements as desired. Smooth, interdisciplinary co-operation is, on the one hand, a prerequisite for realizing projects technically and economically. On the other, this interaction also increases understanding for the needs of other specialist planners. An interdisciplinary platform, Allplan supports information exchange with more than 50 file formats. Not only does it allow planners to quickly and easily send data to their planning partners – it also vastly reduces the complexity of coordination.

The new day nursery in Saint Mard is expected to open in December 2015. It will be a new "place to live" – a place where small children can be happy and grow.

»»Our customers and partners expect us to deliver fast, reliable results. With Allplan we can meet this challenge." Johann Gemar, Archipel41

Archipel41 was established in 2001 by Laurent Dachet, Marco Ferrer, Carlos Vasconcelos, and Christophe Alamargot, and today employs 13 staff members. The company's range of services includes a wide variety tasks across all phases of a construction project. One of its main focuses is the design of residential and commercial buildings.

Software used: Allplan Architecture