Kindergarten in Vilnius

A new kindergarten with an area of 4 580 m2 is being built in the northern part of Vilnius, in the Pašilaičiai district. This 12-metre high, A++ energy-efficient building will accommodate 290 children in 16 groups. The kindergarten will have playgrounds, green spaces and an underground car park.

The building’s architecture is child-centred, aiming to create a safe and welcoming environment that encourages exploration, curiosity, socialisation, creativity and learning through play. The orientation of the building along the plot and parallel to Bieliūnų Street allows for the regulation of the large flow of children and parents arriving at the kindergarten in the morning and picking them up in the evening. Access to the nursery area is designed from both the south-east and the north-west.

The scale of the architecture is constructed from the child’s perspective. As a result, rather than designing a monolithic volume, the building is broken down into blocks, each with the expression and scale of an individual house. Children may equate being in a kindergarten group with being at home. The hulls are pushed relative to each other. This creates an environment of chamber-like outdoor spaces, giving each group a sense of a personal courtyard.

The ground floor is glazed to the maximum extent possible for visual lightness and maximum insolation. Houses with solid wood finishes are “superimposed” on the ground floor glass volumes. On the second floor, asymmetrically arranged windows of different sizes are designed, which are illuminated scenographically during the dark hours of the day. This creates a special fairy-tale atmosphere when you go to kindergarten early in the morning and come home at night.