In-Sufficiency Childcare
Professor Hansjörg Göritz | Spring 2020
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Notoriously underfunded, daycare facilities are cheaply made in terms of materials and quality. Electrical and daylighting are both inappropriate. Surfaces are cold, sterile, and unwelcoming. Band-aid decor and toys litter the room in an effort to make up for such inadequacies. The truth of the matter is, children need a highly-sensorial environment in order to develop normally. Light and shadow, smell, haptic, and acoustic qualities are all highly important in a child’s habitat. Handing children a pile of baby-proofed plastic and expecting them to stay busy just doesn’t work as well as we would like.
Many 3rd world builders bake their own bricks for the sake of affordability and durability. As it turns out, several of the buildings on Knoxville College Campus have hand-made bricks as well due to the fact that it was a low-budget historical black college dating back to 1875. Additionally, brick offers excellent thermal mass and could contribute to a passive system that may save this daycare a lot of money in the long run in terms of cooling during the summer months. Thermal mass can also be found in stone, concrete and rock so I have added those materials to my palatte as well as water and shade trees for tackling cooling.
I also attempted to align doors and windows for ideal circulation and added a double roof and a stack ventilation cooling tower. Additionally, I proposed a geothermal radiant heating system which would heat the building through the floor. Typically these are rare in areas of high humidity, but Dr. Miller, Gary Bergeron and I discussed at length during integrations how this could be done with passive ventilation and an active dehumidification system.
These drawings show how I started to think about structure and that the building might be able to be supported almost entirely with loadbearing brick. I also wanted to utilize an arcade to define spaces that could be open to the elements and allow children to go outside while still being somewhat protected from the elements.
When choosing a site, Knoxville College Campus just seemed to make sense. This is a vacant historical black college campus sitting in the middle of an impoverished region of Knoxville. There are literally habitat homes right across the street. I believe that impoverished regions could benefit greatly from a cooperative childcare facility. Family members could come and donate small amounts of time each week to care for the kids in order to cut back on staffing costs. Then they could benefit from discounted or free childcare for their own children, allowing them to work without falling further into poverty.
Additionally, I hoped that this project might jump start this dead college campus. Not only could the residents here benefit in terms of being able to work, the daycare could also care for their children while the parents attend school, allowing them to improve their income in the long term and, hopefully, escape poverty entirely.
When I began thinking about how the building should sit on the site, I decided I wanted to take advantage of the demolished road angling off of Knoxville College Drive. Additionally, I wanted increase emphasis on pedestrian connections between the homes lining Knoxville College Drive and McKee Hall. Welcoming foot traffic with a calm, pleasant, and natural environment should be a good way to draw attention to this dead campus and instigate change.
