Bethanien Kinderdorf Bergisch Gladbach, "children's village" Bergisch Gladbach - Refrath, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; 1962-68
Gottfried Böhm
«In Bethanien Children's Village Böhm found a visual solution for encounters between the children and the development of their personalities. This was only possible using highly differentiated rooms. He gave the complex a center, a village square, in the middle of which the concrete folded structure of the church roof towers upward. The public life of the community takes place within the structure of paved plaza-like spaces between the church and the animated structure of grouped buildings with central functions. On the other side of the administrative building there is a large meadow, wide enough to encapsulate the breadth of the estate and offering an area for the children to move freely and play, yet small enough to ensure that the feeling of being looked after (...). On the outside it is curbed by a wall that runs without interruption in one grand curve around the meadow. (...) The wall is clearly staged as a protective element. The residential buildings are not placed behind the wall, but embedded in it. Böhm has artistically orchestrated the transition from the public space of the development to the private zone behind the wall. From the curving path providing access to the complex, two paths branch off to the houses, which are separated from the meadow by a specially installed watercourse. A footbridge leads the children to the house, they then pass through a gate in the wall, and walk across a small, private yard to the front door. Böhm consciously exploited the double meaning of the wall, which simultaneously acts as a dividing and opening element: Though it is a closed wall, it has openings for the windows in the houses. Strip lighting placed at right angles to the wall just out on both sides and simultaneously illuminates the entrances in front and the courtyards behind.» by Gabriele Wiesemann.
see map | more information 1, 2 | about the architect 1, 2
via "Gottfried Böhm", Wolfgang Voigt; Jovis Verlag, Berlin (2006)
