Kinder (!) Garten

KINDER (!) GARTEN . documents the changes in the kindergartenscape of Lower Austria between 2008 and 2012. An architectural effort without parallel anywhere on the globe.

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.