Eight modular day-care centers

Due to an increase in the number of children, the City of Helsinki urgently required six movable daycare centres. The design began in February and the first buildings were inaugurated as early as March the same year.

In all eight daycare centres were implemented as standardmade modular units. A five-year temporary building permit was sought for them, the requirement of which was a design that adapted to the surroundings.

Three different types of day-care centres were designed. Two were sized for two groups of children. One of them included a kitchen of its own, while the other one was designed as an annex. The third type was tailored from the two and three-group pavilion.

The width of the modular units is 3.3 or 4.5 metres and the length 9 metres. The depth of the roofed terrace unit is three metres. There are eight different modular units.

The load-bearing gable walls have 200 mm timber frame, the floors have 220 m longitudinally load-bearing glued laminated beams and the ceiling longitudinally load-bearing timber grid. The glued laminated cantilever beams were supported on the ceiling grids. The dividing walls are 45mm glued laminated spine walls.

The long façades are sheeted with composite panels. The colours of the yard façade have been borrowed from surrounding buildings. The back wall has been designed from light boards. The gables are of lock-formed metal sheet. The terrace surfaces are of heat and translucent surface treated wood.

The buildings have been designed so that only a few boards or panels are removed at seams when moving the building. If the new location requires a new colour, it is easy to achieve by changing a few panels.