Petr Stolín, in collaboration with Alena Mičekova, has designed the Nová Ruda kindergarten outside Liberec, a daycare center that addresses the neighborhood's growing population by providing new educational spaces and playgrounds for children. Two long wings, each with a classroom for 25 pupils, are connected by a one-level construction containing the dining room, offices, lockers, and other necessary elements. The three volumes shape a protected area, the inner courtyard, which is prolonged upward to a terrace on top of the canteen and beyond to the exterior galleries.
The inside shows a mix and combination of spaces of different heights, turning the building into a large maze that makes for freedom of movement and play. The classrooms are not the usual isolated rectangular spaces, but connect visually with the outside through large windows, and with the school's other floors by means of atriums. A semi-translucent fiberglass encasement all these spaces an intriguing transparency as well as a feeling of safety in the small world of every child.