The development activities for this project started in 2010 with a public tender competition for an old villa owned by the city district located on a beautiful site in Weißensee lake´s park. Initial target was to restore the villa to become a Kita hosting 90 children however unexpected planning objections crossed the plans.

Fortunately we managed to acquire a bordering strip of land on which the new build Kita am See is now located. The old villa is history as it had to be knocket down. The park around the former villa gets used as the children’s playground with over 2.400 sqm of size. Parts of the demolition material is reused in the outside playgrounds as rubble walls.

The new-build Kita am See contains 140 day care spaces including the obligatory kitchen to serve the house. A wooden facade dresses the monolithic building an harmonizes with the park-like ambiance of the surrounding. A decentral combined heat and power station supplies the building and ensures the energetic efficiency of the house.

The group rooms are facing the playgrounds with a view to the nearby lake. By their exposure to the South the natural illumination is excellent.

Works have started in October 2012. On the first of August 2013 the cornerstone of the building was laid by Berlin Sentor Sandra Scheeres. Official opening of the Kita will be June 2014.

A targeted future project of ours in Weißensee is re-activation of the public Freilichtbühne Weißensee, a formerly great and meanwhile slumbering cultural location for the neighborhood and beyond.