The architecture studio won the Wooden Building of the Year 2020 competition

Prague - Prague has received an award for didactic outdoor playrooms, which serve students of kindergarten and primary schools during the season. The project won the Wooden Building of the Year 2020 competition. In the playrooms, children can work with tools and other aids to develop their skills and creativity. This was reported by the spokesperson for the Prague City Hall, Vít Hofman. The capital city currently has three seasonal classrooms and playrooms, seven of which are for year-round education.

"Our projects have once again confirmed the precision with which they are prepared here and have recorded enormous success," said Prague's Councillor for Education, Vít Šimral (Pirates). "It is evident that we are heading in the right direction in terms of education and can set an example for other cities and regions,” added the councillor.

Since autumn 2017, outdoor classrooms and playrooms have been built in kindergartens and primary schools operated by the capital. These spaces are intended to facilitate children's development while they are outdoors. The outdoor classroom enables both regular teaching and leisure activities for the school club.

Classrooms for basic education are equipped with mobile boards, folding wooden chairs, writing or drawing mats, and storage boxes for educational materials. In the playrooms, children learn to combine different shapes, practice basic tasks, and handle tools and other aids. This develops their manual dexterity, fine motor skills, technical imagination, and creativity.

The main structural framework of the playrooms consists of wooden beams. A vertical wooden lattice from slats serves as the outer shell mounted on these load-bearing beams. The roof and floor are supported by wooden planks. Safety glass is placed on the roof into glazing strips, and rainwater is directed to the garden via a gutter.

Seasonal playrooms are located in the primary and kindergarten school on Kukučínova Street, in the grounds of Thomayer Hospital, and in the primary and kindergarten school on Žitná Street.

The Wooden Building of the Year competition focuses exclusively on wooden structures. The goal is to raise public awareness that wooden buildings have the smallest ecological impact. The jury includes expert appraisers in the field of furniture design, interior designers, and teachers from technical universities. The competition has been held since 2014.

This year, the capital won in the public voting category of Wooden Playgrounds - Small, with the construction of didactic outdoor playrooms designed by the architecture studio of Martin Rajniš. Last year, the metropolis was awarded for the design of a year-round classroom. The winners of this year's competition also include a wooden cottage in the Little Carpathians from OK Pyrus, a kindergarten building in Všetaty-Přívory from Domesi, a 3D maze with a lookout tower in Most, and an amusement park in Hradec Králové from Unipark. This year, 99 wooden buildings and 20 wooden attractions competed in the survey.