The roads, which are quite close to the building on two sides, are not very busy and do not disturb the children, as they are on the shaded side of the kindergarten. On the sunny side, green areas with playground equipment are available for the children, connected by a covered terrace, from which they have direct access from the playrooms.
Architect Vesna Novak Temniker designed the kindergarten so that the service and administrative spaces are on the north side, while the educational and play areas are on the south side. Interestingly, the kindergarten does not have corridors across its entire 632 m² area. The building, constructed to low-energy standards, incorporates about 150 m³ of spruce wood. It meets very high standards for fire and earthquake safety as well as acoustics of reverberation sound and between spaces.
The children enriched the ceremonial program with singing and dancing under the guidance of their educators. After the official part, they guided parents and grandparents through the new kindergarten and served them snacks prepared by students of the Slovenj Gradec and Muta School Centre.
Ivica Vaukan, the director of the Slovenj Gradec Educational and Care Institution, emphasized the openness of the new building at the ceremony, which is essential for children as it means it can adapt to the activities carried out by the children at any moment. Of course, this also means that the groups of children can be larger or smaller.
Silvo Pritržnik, CEO of GG, highlighted that the City Municipality of Slovenj Gradec is one of the few that incorporates so many wooden buildings into its space. Indeed, with a public-private partnership, it supported the construction of three wooden kindergartens within a good year. Although the Forest Dwarf does not appear wooden from the outside, its entire structure is completely wooden. Still, to adapt to the environment, architect Vesna Novak Temniker chose a facade that fits architecturally and aesthetically among the existing buildings, Pritržnik added.
Mayor of the City Municipality of Slovenj Gradec, Andrej Čas, supports wooden construction and also finds the choice of names for the kindergartens fitting, especially for the one in Legen, whose opening coincided with the events in the Land of Dwarfs that delight children from near and far every autumn. “The investment in the Legen and Podgorje kindergartens amounts to 2.2 million euros excluding VAT, which the municipality will pay according to the public-private partnership contract with an annual usage fee over 15 years, during which time the VAT will also be distributed,” explained the mayor. After 15 years, the kindergartens will become the property of the municipality, which will cost about 500,000 euros annually for the financing of all three wooden kindergartens, comparable to bank loans that would otherwise have been taken out for their construction.
