aiming to reintroduce the role of an architect in the public building development in greece, klab architecture presents a new public nursery in glyfada, a southern suburb of athens. the low-budget project is a complex of prefabricated white classrooms, which are to relate to the scale of the students.

small courtyards all images © mariana bisti

the design and construction of public buildings in greece are problematic, as the architect is not in charge of the construction. one of the biggest challenges of this project was to reintroduce the role of the architect as the essential contributor. additionally, klab architecture intended to give prominence to the construction method of prefabrication.

prefabrication, one of the conditions of the competition, also defined the final form of the building as the basic module would have to be transported on a truck. the concept of the project was to design a building that would relate to the scale of its users while also introducing a new typology of the urban village.

bird’s eye view

the main module draws inspiration from the archetypal drawing of a house as perceived by a child. the nursery school was designed so that all the classrooms have three open sides. as a consequence, the arrangement of the classrooms is organized around a central courtyard while also formed by smaller atriums.

the architects attempted to employ rather common materials and construction methods in order to create a more complicated structure with a small energy footprint. the exterior walls are 10 centimeters thick, allowing to maximize the available interior area, and are clad, along with the roofs, with exterior wall insulation. 

due to the construction of wooden pergolas along with the careful placement of the windows on the exterior walls, the building is sustainable providing comfort to the children. on the other hand, the architects hope that the vegetation will become a quintessential element of the design as large platanus trees will provide shade to the interior courtyard while other tree species will highlight the seasonal changes.

the entrance to the nursery

typical classroom of the public nursery

concept diagram, construction diagram, unit axonometric

address: pyrgou str. glyfada, athens

design team: konstantinos labrinopoulos, veronika vasileiou, petra xynidou (intern), myrto lantza (intern)

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: maria erman | designboom

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