The daycare centre, designed by Käpy and Simo Paavilainen, lies in a pine grove behind a south-facing sandy beach in a bend of Mellstenintie, on the site of a summer colony hostel, designed by Hilding Ekelund. All that remained was a sandy terrace facing the sea, with a stone quay leading off it. The terrace and the quay were given a key role in the daycare centre building, and the building is a U-shape around the terrace. It forms a barrier between the road and the yard where the children play. The terrace itself is where the small children play, the bigger ones having a larger and more diverse yard with trees in it.

The ’home areas’ and gym surround the yard. The kitchen and staff facilities are on the north side. The office and is on the west side, which curves with the shape of Mellstenintie. Parking and service traffic is on the north side. The roofs are sloping, ridge-shaped and curved, striving to give the impression of a complex of buildings and to form a kind of ’old town silhouette’- The bearing frame of the building is made of glue-laminated columns and beams. The elevations are in white lime-sand brick as far as this was possible without needing a civic shelter. In other respects, they are white-painted planking. The use of red gives the entrances warmth, and the redbrick open fire and chimney are the heart of the building.

Käpy and Simo Paavilainen were assisted by Niina Lehikoinen, Darren Capel, Marina Fogdell, Mika Heinonen, Kimmo Lehtola, Petri Neuvonen, Lauri Olin and Maija Salmi.

Text: Finnish Architectural Review 4/1994