A brightly-lit, larchwood-clad extension to the municipal “Kinderplanet” day nursery in Heimbach-Weis (Neuwied) has since July 2015 offered 40 new childcare places to children aged under three years. The roof of the new building has an eye-catching design that with coloured soft impact surfaces by Polytan has been transformed into an extraordinary play terrace.
The architects have essentially “turned a boring roof into poetry” by designing a versatile usable playscape that promotes the creativity of children solely through the colourful surface design and without the use of standard play equipment. The 840-square-metre roof consists of twelve areas 60 to 90 m² large in brick red, yellow, light grey, slate grey, pea green, rainbow blue, Capri blue, rainbow green, purple and orange. The striking colours have been arranged in such a way that they clearly stand out from each other. One challenge on installation was, for example, the flush integration of the skylights into the floor surfaces.