Everything begins with the International Competition Europan -9, in the city of Selb, 2008. Architects under 40 years of age from all over the Europe present their proposals for improving the urban structure of sites selected for this edition of the competition. A project presented by two Spanish architecture studios Gutiérrez-delafuente Arquitectos and TallerDE2 Arquitectos is awarded a prize which turns into a collaboration with the city of Selb. Four years pass and the first of the four projects comissioned by the city hall is finished successfully.

Now the Childminders Centre in being Selb is awarded with the Biennial International Prize ‘First Works-2013’ by the German magazine Bauwelt.

Text: Gutiérrez-delafuente Arquitectos y TallerDE2 Arquitectos

From curing acupuncture to preventive acupuncture

The working subject for the 9th Europan competition in Selb was Curing Acupuncture as an answer to an existing urban structure problems, and as a solution to the lack of services and infrastructures within the city centre for eldery people.

This idea focuses on improving the standard of living of this particular social group through renovation of privetly owned structures the same as public infrastructure. It would offer  studio services and it would redefine a network of shared spaces. This mechanism was activated thanks to a catalogue of programme layers with highly specialized funcions, that work like prosthesis. These prosthesis adapt existing housing for new necessities and through a strategy of adding elements, they create an entirely new urban entity.

During the implementation process, having worked on the development of the inicial competition proposals together with the client and EUROPAN Deutschland, the team reoriented the urban strategy to the following idea: “prevent is better than cure”. From that moment on, all the works focused on the Preventive Acupuncture as a solution to the current problems of a shrinking city such as Selb.

The aim is to activate and regenerate the city centre by attracting young people that would come from other cities and by creating social infrastructure essencial for children and for youths. Construction of new social tissue would help to generate a bond of inhabitants with the city of Selb, that would prevent people from abandoning the city.

The Europan 9 Selb implementation includes the folloing projects:

- Childminders Centre (Haus der Tagesmütter), destined for children from birth up to 14 years old. Construction concluded in 2012.

- Pabellón de fútbol indoor, destined for children and youths. Construction cancelled.

- Hostel and Youth Centre (Jugendhotel und Jugendzentrum), destined for youths. Construction conlusion in 2013.

- Social housing for young families (IQ Innerstädtische Wohnquartiere ). Construction conlusion in 2014.

Childminders Centre (Haus der Tagesmütter)

Childminders Centre (Haus der Tagesmütter) is a program self-managed by mothers associations with the aim of taking care of babies during office hours and children after school hours, making conciliation of family life and work easier. The proposed system is characterized by its flexibility. It consists on organizing the project into specialized programmatic stripes, which work by addition. Existing urban voids among buildings are filled in with these stripes, and so urban facades of incomplete blocks become continuous. Roofs and facades of the Project use the same material along every stripe. Scale and color of these pieces are adapted to the domestic scale of the neighborhood as well as the public use of the building. So integration and differentiation joins together to establish a nice dialogue with the Bavarian urban landscape. Programmatic and spatial specialization of every stripe results in the use of specific materials and colors, providing the inner space with a code which combines color, use, activity timing, acoustic environment and energy demand.