The building of the kindergarten, reminiscent of a landed spaceship-sphere with cut off "poles", was invented by the team of the curator and director of the project - Alexandra Ivlieva, developers of the architectural part, Skydom bureau, and interior designers, Chekhard bureau. Its form fully follows the function - it is, in fact, a single space for free and unrestricted play, which is usually badly lacking for pupils of ordinary kindergartens.
The object of the game in this case is the building itself - so unusual and interesting that the flight of imagination of its little users is guaranteed. And this is the main task of the inspirers of the ball garden.
The sphere is a pre-fabricated dome-frame structure on a pile foundation with a diameter of 15 meters and a total area of 300 m2. It is almost a Fuller dome made of ecological materials: the self-supporting structure is made of LVL, with a shell covered with larch shingles on top of it. The shingle makes the sphere look like a spruce cone. From the inside, too, everything is wooden - the finish is made of bleached imitation of pine needles.
The dome is known to have many advantages. It reduces the outer surface of the walls and is therefore economical both in terms of material and energy efficiency. The dome allows optimal and variable use of space, placing rooms and windows in any place and in any sequence. This, of course, affects both the light performance and the internal flexibility and the comfort of the space.
At the same time, the spherical shape requires experience in calculations and absolute precision in the manufacture of parts. In particular, this applies to non-standard window nodes. Thanks to Skydom engineers, solutions were developed for the use of vertical windows and the use of roof windows made by VELUX. Thus, on the first floor, large wooden floor-to-ceiling windows appeared, through which the space of the playing hall is perfectly visible, and from the inside - a large wooden terrace with a sandbox, which becomes a continuation of the play area and unites the interior with the street.
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zooming 1/3 "Sadik-ball" in the Moscow region Provided by Skydom
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zooming 2/3 "Sadik-ball" in the suburbs Courtesy of Skydom
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zooming 3/3 "Sadik-Sharik" in the Moscow Region Courtesy of Skydom
The VELUX roof windows in the second tier are elongated, doubled, due to which they closely follow the shape of the building envelope, keeping the architect's idea. Skydom used them for the first time in a domed structure in this technical solution to increase natural light on the second floor.
The space does not have a second light, but it is not needed here, since there are only a few small closed areas inside - the kitchen, bathrooms and an office. Everything else is a free area for playing on the first floor and for arranging sleeping "houses" on the second. All the furniture inside is wooden. There are almost no walls, but there are many items in order to use them in the game. In the center of the sphere, for the same purpose, a game art object was erected - a tree with climbing frames, a slide and houses, around which a spiral staircase to the second floor is entwined. By the way, even the fire exit from the second floor is equipped with a slide for the descent of children.
The kindergarten is designed for 20 children, i.e. approximately two groups with their own visiting schedule and hobby activities. Its device is universal and theoretically can increase its capacity, as well as the sphere itself - its size. However, for adherents of the "play" type of education, in which there is no clear schedule and educational processes, this is hardly useful. There is a lot of individual work with children, which does not involve large groups.
Thus, the lightweight and pre-fabricated domed house perfectly reflects the idea of "environmentally friendly" education. The external simplicity of the form hides the complex engineering systems that make the project truly "green". They are associated with maintaining the temperature in different zones of the building, ventilation, air purification and ionization, built-in vacuum cleaners, the presence of a warm water floor on the ground floor, water treatment and water purification. The very shape of the building also contributes to a decrease in energy consumption, through which air constantly circulates naturally.
The kindergarten-ball is still a unique phenomenon, but from the point of view of the industrial structure of the structure itself, as the architects say, it is possible to send "house kits" anywhere in the world, everything will fit into compact containers. During the construction, neither specialized equipment, nor the removal of a huge amount of construction waste, nor a complex foundation will be required. As in the “playful” education itself, a complex and deep meaning is hidden behind a simple-looking one.
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zooming 1/3 "Sadik-ball" in the Moscow region Provided by Skydom
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zooming 2/3 "Sadik-ball" in the suburbs Courtesy of Skydom
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zooming 3/3 "Sadik-Sharik" in the Moscow Region Courtesy of Skydom
