Kinderland Westside - raumhochrosen

Ravensburger and raumhochrosen are to design the Kinderland in the newly opened “West Side” in Bern. Ravensburger, a traditional company with extensive experience, is known for challenging game designs as well as the professional production of game worlds in all sizes. They have found an engaged partner in the architectural office from Bregenz to design imaginative high quality spaces and to implement their construction. In Kinderland up to a hundred children between the ages of 0 to 12 can simultaneously play, do crafts, climb, fool around or simply relax under the supervision of specialized carers for hours while their parents spend time in the shopping mall, the food court, the cinema centre or the adventure swimming pool of the West Side.

The West Side, designed by the New York architect Daniel Libeskind is the newest shopping and free time centre in Switzerland with 55 individual shops, an adventure pool, a cinema centre as well as ten restaurants, a hotel and a senior residence. This seamless unity of shopping, senior residence, hotel and free time offers on the city periphery of Bern is the realisation of a 40 year old vision of city planning and is accessible in only eight minutes from the city centre with the commuter train.

All too often children say, “Shopping is so boring”; their parents find it “terribly exhausting” when they take up the ritual of shopping with their offspring. There is often little room for childish spontaneity among the extreme irritations and offers of the shops and their advertising world. The discipline to try and take only select things on the endlessly long journey is a challenge.

This is why in the middle of this shopping world Kinderland offers an oasis of play which does justice to the demands and abilities of the children between the ages of 0 and 12 years. Up to six carers watch over the children, guide them, provide for them and put them down to rest when they are tired. Security is also ensured; not only the giraffes but also the carers have an overview of the diverse play areas with the aid of several cameras. Here the children have the opportunity to act on their need for physical activity in the climbing landscape and discovery trips or to lose themselves in individual crafts, games and reading. Although electronic games are also offered, they are pushed to the back in order to maintain balance with the analogous game offers. The central resting room and a lavatory for little children are available for quiet times and for special game activities or children’s birthdays. Many game surfaces subtly extend into each other. With only a few utensils and the fantasy of the children, they can be transformed into one of many play options in the wink of an eye.

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groundplan

The design is oriented on the basic theme of “animals in the savannah”, a habitat which can be found on every continent and incorporates the whole planet. Whether as a North American prairie, an Asian steppe or an African savannah the design is usually characterised by regular pictures of the landscape inhabited by various creatures and plants. Many are already known to the children – like lions and elephants, but, nonetheless, a sufficient number of new and unexpected animals wait to be discovered. Soft silhouettes of hills and other notable elements of the landscape serve as the starting point for components which extend over two levels to form a comprehensive landscape.

Illustrations from The Feather by Klaus Österle of the Graphic Agency “Wohnzimmer” in Feldkirch, enliven Kinderland. The characteristics of the plants and animals from select habitats has been carefully chosen so that they may accompany the children’s play and animate the play landscape: a kangaroo with its baby in its pouch can be found in the stroller parking lot, a curious desert fox is on the steps going upstairs, an adventurous elephant family on the slide, the pondering monkey and attentive bison around the crafts area. The creative spectrum reaches from colour prints of animal drawings on surfaces made of natural material to softly stimulating worlds of colour. They produce a visually thickness and realism which makes the use and transition to natural play materials easy.

Also the worlds of colour in the Kinderland are oriented around these habitats. A soft sand tone characterises the floor; a light blue connects the ceiling surfaces. Colours of an Australian outback sun set and an American canyon welcome visitors in the vicinity of the cloakroom. The children experience the gallery with the reading area like a light green nest cradled in the tree tops. Whoever enters the supply hall to the play materials and wet rooms also dives into a strong, bath of colour – this time red.

Kinderland spreads out behind the distinctively furnished silhouette of an animal caravan which serves both as an attraction and a protection. It’s structured in a main room beginning with a reception area and a cloak room; the big slide hill can be reached over a staircase or a climbing terrace. On one side the main room ends with a crafts area, encircled by a long bench with a softly flowing riverbank and heavenly blue “watering hole”. There is also the possibility for a children’s cinema there, or a puppet theatre under the climbing hill. In the wink of an eye the theatre can be transformed into a play shop or kitchen. There the wild lions’ footprints take the lead, only to be followed by Bobby Cars on safari as they fly through a tunnel under the climbing hill. Accompanied by all sorts of mischievous monkeys, the climbing terrace challenges children to cross through a pool of balls, climb a climbing wall, cross over a crocodile ditch with the aid of a rope bridge over a climbing net and finally transverse the passage which opens down to the safety of the gallery in order to, after mastering the rope labyrinth, slide into the depths on the large slide. In a glass skylight in the highest point of the gallery, bird and flower silhouettes turn, blown by the wind. The skylight separates the rope labyrinth and the entrance to the big slide from the reading area in the gallery which has natural light from a broad band of windows. Here in the green oasis, bookworms browse cradled in the crown of the trees. Across from them lions and tigers wait in the grass in order to be fed in the throwing game. A Wii console offers movement in virtual space. From the skylight a soft light falls down into the resting room which offers a space for a nap or quiet time for the smallest children. Here you can find wall games with sensual sensory learning effects.