Visitors enter this nursery in northeast France through a curving concrete orifice.

Architects Michel Grasso and Paul Le Quernec designed the nursery, which is located beside a noisy road in the town of Sarreguemines.

The undulating entrance walls lead into a round reception room at the centre of the building.

The rest of the nursery is arranged like a human body cell, with classrooms and playrooms encircling this central nucleus.

Ceiling heights in these surrounding rooms slope down to just over two metres-high to create a comfortable environment for young children.

Rooms around the building’s perimeter open onto sheltered terraces and a surrounding garden.

Other nurseries and kindergartens on Dezeen include one with pyramidal chimneys and another with brightly coloured rotating shutters - see more stories about kindergartens here.

Photography is by the architects, unless otherwise stated.

Here's a short description of the project from Michel Grasso:

Nursery in Sarreguemines (France)

It's with a feeling of total freedom that we designed this project. Our first intention was to provide a protective and protected building, for comfort and safety of children, but also for the tranquility of their parents.

Our second intention was to introduce the concept of double standards within the building, the children and adult, because we don't lose sight that it is primarily children who are the main subject of this institution. Finally, our third purpose was to find a way to modify the perception of the building.

Indeed, the requirements impose a development on the ground floor of the 1350 square meters of the building...

The project was designed as a body cell with its nucleus (the nursery), its cytoplasm (the gardens) and its membrane (the wall closure).

The perception of the nursery is a bush of bamboo with small boxes bringing the light into a building with curved lines.

The project:
1 350 m2
2 400 000 euro

Client: Communauté d'Agglomération Sarreguemines Confluences
Architects: Paul Le Quernec & Michel Grasso