Bernex Crèche

The composition of this crèche by Genevan architects Aeby & Perneger, tends to disguise the customary reference points one expects to find in a building designed for very small children. There is no mimicry of a child's world, no false adult projection of a childish universe. There is no clever colour coding to help with the identification of places, no break in scale to aid the child in its perception of space. The form of the six-faced building, which does not try to set up a dialogue with the surroundings, its internal composition and the surface finishes all tend towards abstraction. In the centre of the building, reached through a door in a translucent membrane, is the oval psychomotricity room which is lined with corrugated acrylic glass. Cut off from the external world, it does not correspond to normal sensory perception. Perhaps it is in spaces such as this that a child could develop a personality that transcends the often overly rigid traditional setting of kindergartens.