Kinder (!) Garten

For decades municipalities in Lower Austria have cooperated with the provincial government to provide families with - mostly free - kindergarten places near their homes. In December 2007 regulations came into force that allow children from the age of two-and-a-half to enter kindergarten, as opposed to the age of three previously. This led to the creation of additional kindergarten places. From 2008 and almost concurrently, more than three hundred municipalities set out to implement this expansion programme. Within three years 667 additional classes were created and some 65% of the infrastructure of Lower Austrian public kindergartens renovated. This enormous number of architectural impulses has literally reformed the kindergarten scene in Lower Austria like nothing that went before. A unique architectural, logistic and economic achievement and an infrastructure project without parallel anywhere in the world. Contents: Preface; Visual essay; A historical concept; Learning with all the senses; Room planning; Energy engineering; Adaptations; Extensions; New buildings; Facts and Figures; Building projects; Biographies; CO-Authors. AUTHOR: Josef Staar is Jurist and Head of the Kindergarten and Schools Department of the provincial government of Lower Austria. Renate Steger is a Psychologist and Deputy Head of the Kindergarten Department of the provincial government of Lower Austria. Reinhart Handl is a Staff member of the Kindergarten Department of the provincial government of Lower Austria. Heinz Kienast is a Technician in the Structural Engineering Department of the provincial government of Lower Austria. Lois Lammerhuber is an internationally renowned photographer. His photographs are in demand around the world and have been published in hundreds of books and magazines, in more than 3,000 reportages and on numerous covers. SELLING POINTS: ?This book showcases the concurrent approaches of one generation of architects (204 individuals) to creating buildings for the same function ?Unites architectural positions on one functional theme ?Reflects current architectural theories on kindergartens in terms of 'form follows function' ?Compiles a series of new landmark buildings in rural areas as a manifestation of a certain aesthetic arriving in non-urban places ?This book attempts to answer the question: Will architecture be a teacher? 565 colour illustrations