Urban Agency, in collaboration with CORA and GVA Planning, has revealed the designs for Hyde & Seek Childcare, a facility for varying age groups, ranging from infants to up to 12 years of age, in Dublin, Ireland. Due to the project’s triangular site at the junction of two busy roads, the design of the building is specified to minimize traffic noise and prevent onlooking, by reducing the number of ground level windows.
The facility itself is centered on the site, creating three garden spaces that can be individualized to serve separate age groups of children.
On the ground floor, four circular elements are arranged around a multipurpose foyer space that can be used as an entrance, event area, dining hall, or play area. The second story is composed of a single, circular piece that serves as a large-scale playground and is surrounded by a three-meter-high parapet wall around its entirety. This wall contains carefully placed windows that serve as windscreens, but that would also allow for future expansion without altering the rest of the building.
These window placements deceive the eye in terms of scale perceptions from the exterior of the building, due to their sizes and placements, which accommodate the heights of a sitting toddler, a mid-aged child, and an adult.
Red terracotta concrete panels cover the exterior of the building, as well as the wall around it, in an effort to harmoniously fit in with the multitude of red brick structures in the nearby area.
Set to break ground in November 2015, the project will be completed by the summer of 2016. Learn more in the image gallery below, or here.
News via Urban Agency.
- Architects: URBAN AGENCY, CORA, GVA planning
- Area: 450.0 sqm
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Courtesy of Urban Agency
