Family Crèche in Drulingen

The family creche is both a living space where the children thrive and a workplace for the staff. The building is the set for this environment in every aspects and needs but also in its poetical dimension. The facility is seen as a cocoon sheltering the most fragile, it symbolises the idea of quietness and protection, the rigor and cleanliness reigns in this leisure space where the child starts his life in society. Introverted in appearence, the building is sheltered by an envelope in the physical and symbolic meanings of the term, a border between the everyday life and the warm and cosy interior of the creche. Located at the town entrance and bordering a busy road, the plot is a small piece of land of 2000 sqm with a triangular shape. The building sits on the three property limits and at a regulatory distance from an existing police station. Therefore, the project has been enriched by the struggle to fit the elements of the brief in the site.

The construction of this creche of 2400 sqm includes a flexible attendance childcare centre for 40 children, a drop-in centers for parents and children a childminder facility, a childcare day center for 30 children as well as a kitchen for 100 meals. The front facade is in siberian larch lattice and cladding. The concrete frame is externally insulated with cellulose wadding to give an important thermal inertia which help maintaining a steady interior temperature. All the flat roofs are planted exception made for the yard on the first floor which is covered with a waterproof concrete screed. The project consumes 140kWhep/sqm/year for a contextualised target of 156kWhep/sqm/year hence a gain of 10 % compared to the current french Energy Consumption Guidelines. The building can be considered HEP High environmental performance.