The Playground
The project: a new nursery school in Madrid
In 2014, architects Berta González and Alegría Zorrilla partnered with the Parisian architecture firm Des Clics et Des Calques. Together they participated in an international competition for the construction of a new nursery school for the French Lyceum in Madrid, for which they won first prize.
The architects' objective was to create rich and comfortable places by maximising resources and engaging in interaction with the environment. The spatial design contains smart solutions that improve the building's sustainability profile, including a system that ensures natural light and regulated natural ventilation throughout the building, as well as solar heating of the classrooms.
Special care has been taken in the selection of natural materials, such as wood chip panels, birch boards, ecological paints, Marmoleum flooring, and lots of plants.
Adding softness and warmth with Marmoleum
For children between 3 and 6 years old, the classroom is a space for play and rest, where they leave their shoes outside and move around barefoot, lie down, or sit down, making the flooring surface the protagonist of the interior of the classrooms. A soft, comfortable surface material that works well with a floor heating system was part of the requirements defined by the architects.
Marmoleum Concrete | 3726 Venus and wooden furniture were chosen to add warmth to the classrooms. These natural materials create an agreeable balance with the raw concrete structure of the interior. With the sand-coloured Marmoleum for the interior, a connection is made between the indoor learning spaces and the outside playground, thus safeguarding a visual continuity.
The detail video in the second tab above explains why Berta and Alegría specifically chose Marmoleum. Watch the detail video
About AZOOTEA
Alegría Zorrilla studied at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She graduated in 2003 as an architect and urban planner and got her master’s degree in advanced architectural projects in 2009 at the same university.
Berta González graduated as an architect from the University of Alcalá de Henares in 2007. In 2011, she completed her master’s in advanced architectural projects at the UPM. She is currently an associate professor of projects at the University of Alcalá de Henares.
Both based in Madrid, Berta and Alegría started their collaboration in 2012 with a focus on residential projects. They have been using the name AZOOTEA for their collaborative projects since 2019.
With special thanks to:
Alegría Zorrilla and Berta González | AZOOTEA
Gal Keshet | directing, filming and editing
Juan Sepulveda | photography exterior school
Paula Arroyo | photography interior school