Kindergarten, Nagymaros

In Nagymaros, in 1909, 3 kindergartens were built in a well thought-out way. All of them are of the same design, eclectic in style, in 3 different locations in the town, adapting to the local conditions. Originally, each of them was designed with two classrooms, including a one-room servant's quarters for the kindergarten teacher, so that a complete system was conceived. Over the years, these apartments were attached to the nursery space, thus increasing the number of classrooms. All three buildings are now under local protection.

The kindergarten in question is located in a valley street at the bottom of Elsővölgy street, on a steeply sloping plot. The original 1909 single-storey building was extended in the 1960s with the addition of a classroom, a social work project. This added a new wing perpendicular to the old one. The new part of the house adapts to the old building in mass and form, but in detail and quality of materials it is far inferior. The window frames are only painted, the stone plinth is cement plaster instead of a stone plinth, the plaster is trowelled instead of painted, there is no decorative eaves trimming, etc.. The windows are green painted wooden structures.

The existing building stands on a horizontally designed plateau. The classrooms face east, towards the garden and the panorama. Behind the building was a steep slope with a notch. Given these conditions, the extension could only be placed behind the building, otherwise all the existing group rooms would be covered. There is not enough room for the extension on either side.

The extension was designed with the fact that it is a listed building in mind. The extension (including a classroom, a gym, a warming kitchen and offices) is designed as an independent new wing (building) with a third connecting wing lower than the previous one. This connecting part is also the lobby of the new nursery school, a central distribution area with changing rooms. This allowed the restoration of the now indoors facade of the protected building to its original form. Inside, the yellow and white exterior plaster architecture is still visible. Following the same principle, the new wing also has the external façade with wood-brick cladding, turning over the central, connecting wing.

When we renovated the 1960s extension from the old building, we added details of the 1909 construction. This part of the building also received plaster frames, eaves and fascia boards, corner plasterwork, etc... All the windows and doors of the old building were rebuilt from the original, painted green, while the windows and doors of the new wing are modern, unstained woodwork without any division.

The façade of the new wing is of timber-framed construction, with exposed brick infill walls. The colour-painted façade panels, based on drawings by local kindergarten children, fit into this scheme.