
Yummy! Wow! Ooops! The playful, colorful and juicy Taka-Tuka-Land
kindergarten in Berlin evokes a rambunctious reaction. You hear the
kids at play. You see the bright colors. You sense the kids are happy.
So it is no wonder that the students who designed and created this
funhouse call their approach “sensuous architecture.”
Baupiloten is
a group of architecture students who during their studies at Faculty
VI, Institute for Architecture at Berlin Technical University
(Technische Universität Berlin) develop their own projects from concept
to implementation under professional guidance. Architect Susanne
Hoffmann founded Baupiloten (Bau=build, Piloten=pilot) in 2003 and has
headed it since 2004.

The Taka-Tuka-Land kindergarten was originally erected as a
temporary solution, but with the fantastic Baupiloten approach to the
refurbishment, it has become a permanent place for children.
The
Taka-Tuka-Land is part of the Pippi Longstocking lore created by the
Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Pippi in Taka-Tuka Country is a movie
based on one of her novels. The children at the kindergarten and their
teachers created collages, models, drawings and ideas based on
Taka-Tuka Land with bridges, huts, merry-go-rounds made of blossoms and
thrones made of seashells. The Baupiloten students then spent several
days with the children observing their daily routines, their schedules
and their ways of communication.

From this extensive groundwork, the design story for the space was
developed. The building itself is Pippi’s old oak tree that contains a
lemonade factory. The lemonade breaks through the bark of the tree and
flows outside creating padded play areas. The story of the building is
a trip through the seven stages of the lemon tree, each facilitating a
different activity: The lemonade tree, Glittering lemonade in the sun,
Lemonade drops, The lemonade island, Waiting for the parents, Lemonade
gallery, The bark breaks open, and Delving into lemonade. Pippi’s most
likely verdict would be “Jätte god!”
By Tuija Seipell.
