Children's Home of the Future Kerteminde, Denmark
Designed with the initial title “The Children’s Home of the Future”, Villaen is a pioneering project for an entirely new type of 24-hour care centre for marginalised children. It takes the familiar basic shapes of the typical Danish home as its starting point: the classic pitched-roof house and the dormer motif. By using the shapes in a new and playful way, the design marks the house as an out-of-the-ordinary place while also recognising it as a dwelling with a safe, homely environment.The layout keeps staff close to residents, enabling efficient routines and more time for care.
In Denmark, marginalised children, whose parents are not capable of taking care of them, are preferably placed in foster families rather than institutions. This means that there are very few remaining children’s homes, and building an entirely new one is an extraordinary thing that demands a rethinking of the 24-hour institution.
A place like home
The vision for the new institution is to establish a care centre that fosters social relations and a sense of community while also accommodating the children’s individual needs – a place they are proud to call home and that prepares them for their future path in life in the best possible way. The physical surroundings reflect a practice-oriented pedagogical approach, so that the architecture actively supports the staff’s daily work with children who struggle with behavioural, social and mental health problems.
Villaen is based on CEBRA’s concept “Our House”, which combines the traditional home’s safe environment with new ideas and conceptions of what a children’s home is and what needs it should fulfil. It is organised as four interconnected houses to reduce the building’s scale and create self-contained, varied units for different groups of residents. The quartered shape is modified by the distinctive dormer profiles, which grow into and out of the individual houses, are turned upside down, and even rise to form an observation tower. This flexible concept gives residents the opportunity to leave their own mark on the arrangement, décor, and use of these“bonus spaces” to suit their needs and activities.
Less institution
The layout aims to provide the residents with a sense of belonging to their unit – a homely base where they can retreat alone or in smaller groups. The younger children’s units are retracted from the street and oriented towards the garden with direct access to the playground. The central unit houses the main entrance to the parking lot, giving staff an overview of visitors arriving and deliveries without affecting the housing units. The teenagers’ unit is the most extroverted section of the building and is oriented towards the street. The older residents are encouraged to use the city and engage in social activities on equal terms with their peers.
Typical institutional functions such as administration, staff rooms and storage are mostly located in the basement and on the 1st floor so that they get “lifted” out of the resident’s everyday life and minimise the feeling of being in an institution. The building’s rational organisation ensures short distances and proximity between the different units so that the personnel are always close to every resident. Thus, the personnel’s working procedures are effectively incorporated into the daily routines, thereby freeing up more time to care for the children – more home, less institution.
Selected references
