Sustainability-certified new nursery building

As part of an extension of the nursery, an existing building in Immenstadt-Stein in the Allgäu region was renovated and extended with a modern new wooden building where children and staff can feel at ease.

The Stein kindergarten in Pfarrdorf Immenstadt-Stein in the Allgäu region offers space for a total of three nursery groups and five kindergarten groups after the renovation of the yellow-painted old building – built in 1890 – and the addition of a modern new wooden building with a typical regional wooden shingle facade right next door. The two gabled roof buildings are connected by a shared foyer in the form of a modern flat roof cube.

Certified feel-good oasis

Under the leadership of FG-Architektur, the city of Immenstadt has built a wooden house for children and staff according to the highest KFW design standard, which is a real oasis of well-being with its open, spacious, bright rooms designed with natural materials and is also sustainability-certified. Numerous windows, some of which are floor-to-ceiling, let lots of light into the interior and offer an unrestricted view of the playground on the ground floor.

Kindergarten Stein nursery was the first childcare facility in Germany to receive the “Sustainability certification according to the audit catalogue of KlimaHaus School Agentur Boze”. The “KlimaHaus School” certification refers to newly built or renovated school and nursery buildings. This focuses on buildings that are in line with the sustainability concept and the ecological and socio-economic aspects. Sound absorption and a good indoor climate for health and concentration also play a particularly important role here.

Wood is everywhere

Wood is everywhere in the new building, which is divided into zones and heated using geothermal energy, and accounts for around 90 percent of the total materials processed. Only the escape stairs were made of reinforced concrete. Wooden floors and white walls are combined with furniture made of untreated light wood. Large and small wood-framed bulwarks provide views, for example from the toilets to the group rooms. In the upper rooms, robust wooden beams exude a sense of security under the high sloping roofs.

Acoustic panels round off the overall design

Acoustic panels from the Line design solution fulfil a wide range of purposes, both on the ceilings directly under the roof and in all other rooms, including the toilets, the wide play hallway and the covered balcony on the upper floor. They ensure good acoustics and round off the overall design concept. “We worked with the nursery staff very early on,” explained the architect. This ensures that the needs of the teachers and children were included in the planning. “We're familiar with the reverberation from classrooms – children screaming,” explained Bloch, “here we have cement-bonded wood fibre ceilings that insulate the sound.” The staff were full of praise at the open day: “The rooms are now really beautiful,” says Director Lisa Fehr. She particularly likes the acoustic ceilings, “which keep the noise level low and thus make for a pleasant working atmosphere”.