Press Release
Forward-Looking Childcare Centre in Pfaffenhausen
Focus on eco-friendly materials certified by a building biology institute
September 2014 – Since the middle of this year, a new childcare centre in
Pfaffenhausen in south-western Germany has been offering space for 29
children younger than three and another 100 enrolled in kindergarten to play,
romp and learn in. The builder and owner is the town of Pfaffenhausen itself,
which has created a facility capable of serving as a model for others.
Building a childcare centre in Germany poses quite a few challenges. For one
thing, it’s necessary to comply with regulations on special-purpose public
buildings and rules designed to keep energy consumption down. It’s also at
least as important to create rooms in which children will be content to spend
many hours a day and can satisfy their urge to play and learn. In addition, the
building must provide optimal working conditions for teachers and other staff so
they can offer the children an ideal environment in which to grow and develop.
Architecture for the Future: Modular and Flexible
The result is an elongated single-storey building with a gently sloping pitched
roof and, on its south-east side, five abutting two-storey structures with
monopitch roofs. The ground floor has a versatile layout. Five large group
rooms (two for the younger children and three for the kindergarten-age kids)
can be flexibly enlarged by opening up adjacent smaller rooms. Each of the
three kindergarten units comprises a group room, an intensive resource room, a
kitchen and a directly accessible play gallery. The ground floor also features
additional group rooms for media education, active play, language work and
Page 1 of 9
Member of
Press Release
arts & crafts. The building is also designed to permit later expansion of the
upper floor if needed. Pfaffenhausen has truly been proactive and forwardlooking in creating an innovative childcare centre that sets an example for the
future. “We have greatly exceeded the requirements in many respects, for
example in the amount of space available to the children. Our goal was to
develop a concept that would not only meet our current needs but also enable
us to master challenges further down the road,” says Pfaffenhausen’s mayor,
Roland Krieger.
Intelligent Timber Construction with System: Quick and Dependable
Child-appropriate architecture isn’t only about a building’s functionality. From
the start, the town of Pfaffenhausen made it clear that only environmentally
friendly construction materials certified by a building biology institute should be
used. It therefore made sense to use wood and wood-based materials. An ecofriendly timber construction approach was taken, involving an external thermal
insulation composite system (ETICS) and fully insulated timber-stud interior
walls with natural gypsum boarding. The roofs consist of a fully insulated timber
frame decked with ceramic tiles.
Another advantage of timber construction is that it allows extensive
prefabrication, which greatly reduces the time required to erect a building. “That
was another of the reasons why we decided to go with timber construction,”
explains Roland Krieger. “We were under pressure to meet a tight deadline. If
the work had taken much longer, our government subsidies would have been at
risk.”
Staff of the timber construction department of Hubert Schmid Bauunternehmen
GmbH, the building contractor, prefabricated and insulated entire sections
Page 2 of 9
Member of
Press Release
indoors in their plant, where they didn’t need to worry about the weather. For
insulating the roofs and walls, Pfaffenhausen chose wood-fibre insulation from
KRONOPLY. KRONOPLY flex is a flexible, highly effective and water-vapourpermeable insulation product that is made from natural wood fibre and affords
reliable protection from cold, heat and noise. It was laid in a single ply 240 mm
thick on the roofs and with a thickness of 120 mm on the walls, which facilitated
the work. Actual assembly of the building on-site from the prefabricated sections
then took considerably less time than conventional construction methods.
An Indoor Feel-Good Climate That Promotes Good Health
Our wellbeing and behaviour are greatly influenced by the buildings we spend
much of our time in. Being eco-friendly, timber and engineered wood materials
directly enhance rooms.
KRONOPLY flex, owing to its low thermal conductivity (0.039 W/m*k), its high
thermal storage capacity (2,100 J/kg*K) and its good absorption properties, is
ideal for creating a healthy indoor climate. Acoustic insulation is of course very
important in a childcare facility, as children tend to be relatively loud. Thanks to
its porous fibre structure and high bulk density (55 kg/m3), KRONOPLY flex
noticeably reduces the audible noise level.
“The fascinating thing about wood and wood-based materials is how they
deliver the double benefits of resource conservation and better health,” says
Uwe Jöst, Managing Director of KRONOPLY and KRONOTEX. “Sustainability,
a system approach, good thermal insulation, sophisticated architecture and a
healthy indoor climate: wood, a renewable raw material, lets you achieve all of
these without any trade-offs.”
Page 3 of 9
Member of
Press Release
KRONOPLY flex has been awarded natureplus certification, an internationally
acknowledged mark of quality for the healthiness, eco-friendliness and
functionality of sustainable building materials. All of the wood used to
manufacture it comes from sustainably managed forests and bears the PEFC
seal. KRONOPLY flex also boasts an environmental product declaration as well
as declarations of performance and CE marks indicating compliance with the
current regulations on construction products.
Feedback: Happy Kids and Satisfied Staff
Everyone involved is thrilled with the outcome. The children feel great in their
new surroundings, and the staff are no less enthusiastic about their new place
of work. The centre has already held two open houses that attracted droves of
visitors. At each of the events, the facility was crammed with around a thousand
people who had come to look round the new building and ask questions.
Facts at a Glance:
Building type
New childcare centre
Owner
Town of Pfaffenhausen
Years built
2012-2014
Planning firm / architects
Planungsgemeinschaft Lechner Steinhauser
www.lechner-steinhauser.de
DIE HAUSDESIGNER GmbH
www.diehausdesigner.de
Page 4 of 9
Member of
Press Release
Built by
Hubert Schmid Bauunternehmen GmbH
www.hubert-schmid.de
Walls and roofs
Approx. 600 m3 of KRONOPLY flex
(120 and 240 mm thick)
Reduced CO2 emissions
as a result of timber
construction
Approx. 277 m³ of wood and about 600 m³ of
KRONOPLY flex translate into around 330
tonnes less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
Images
The images below are available for downloading in print-ready resolution from the
following link. They may be used in publications provided that they are credited to
“KRONOPLY”.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0zovxd24kucq66h/AABbQ3LN61AySj93tlUvuJJla?dl=0
Page 5 of 9
Member of
Press Release
Exterior views of the new childcare centre in Pfaffenhausen: rear-ventilated timber
outer panelling (left) and solar panels on the roofs (right)
Interior views of the new child care centre Pfaffenhausen: bright, friendly rooms that
create a harmonious overall impression and an environment in which children thrive.
Design sketches: views from every direction (left) and the first storey with grounds
(right)
Page 6 of 9
Member of
Press Release
Design sketches: timber construction system for the new childcare centre in
Pfeffenhausen
Layouts/construction plans for the ground floor (left) and upper storey (right)
Prefabrication of the individual indoors out of the weather
Insulation with KRONOPLY flex (120 and 240 mm thick) was also done in the plant.
Page 7 of 9
Member of
Press Release
Professional cutting rig with various angle settings and an allpurpose hand saw for fast, precise cutting of KRONOPLY flex
On-site assembly of the building sections
About KRONOPLY
Established in 2000, Heiligengrabe, Germany-based KRONOPLY GmbH belongs to
the SWISS KRONO GROUP, one of the world’s leading specialists in wood-based
materials. KRONOPLY GmbH ranks among Europe’s most successful producers of
OSB boards. Its core competencies also include producing MDF and HDF as well as
high-quality wood-fibre insulation. The firm offers customer-focused solutions which
involve innovative, environmentally friendly products and are backed by
comprehensive consulting and support. Employing 640 staff, KRONOPLY produces
flexibly deployable, custom-tailored materials based on wood, a natural raw material, in
full awareness of its responsibility to society. www.kronoply.com
Page 8 of 9
Member of
Press Release
Press Contact
Ute Bachmann
Tel.: +49 (0) 176 99938586
Fax: 03222 3350590
Email: u.bachmann@werbeagentur-nowack.de
Page 9 of 9
KRONOPLY GmbH
Wittstocker Chaussee 1
16909 Heiligengrabe
Germany
www.kronoply.com
Member of