Kindergarten Viiratsi, Estonia

When it comes to looking after little ones, education providers have two priorities. The first is to create a welcoming atmosphere, where children feel comfortable and well looked after while they develop and grow through learning and play. The second is to provide a safe, clean and hygienic environment to reassure parents that their children are in the best possible hands.

Choosing the right flooring is a key factor in preschool design when it comes to achieving these core objectives because it’s where children come together to learn, socialise and play. As such, it’s important to choose flooring that is easy to clean and maintain, cost efficient, durable and able to withstand daily wear and tear.

Flooring played a major role in the delivery of the new Kindergarten Viiratsi. The state-of-the-art nursery provides children aged three to seven with a dedicated childcare team, including teachers and teaching assistants, all in one convenient location.

The well-appointed kindergarten is filled with modern touches, such as seating areas, classrooms, a canteen, cloakroom, playrooms and a climbing wall. It has been designed to enhance the children’s sensory experience and make sure their days are filled with exciting activities that have the power to pique their curiosity, while meeting their early years educational requirements.

The nursery team was integral to many of the design decisions taken for the new development, which was led by architect Kaari Metslang, for interior design consultancy Ruumimeister OÜ. The overarching design concept was to provide a friendly and calm spatial experience for small users, with elements of vibrancy and playfulness dotted throughout. As the ceilings are very low, creating a light and airy feeling was an important goal for this project, which is why flooring played a vital part.

The team opted to install Polyflor’s Palettone range – the perfect choice for an educational environment from a design point of view, with its ability to handle heavy traffic and footfall, and ease of maintenance. The nursery chose from the range’s portfolio of 50 shades, selecting several calming colours including muted pinks, browns, yellows and greens, and created designs and motifs within the floor itself.

Altogether, Polyflor supplied 331m2 of Palettone throughout the main communal areas of the kindergarten, including the classrooms, playrooms, cloakrooms, study areas and kitchen. Elegant & calming Harvest Air from Palettone, with its subtle tone-on-tone design was used to create a sense of harmony throughout the kindergarten.

Allison Edge, Export Sales Executive for Polyflor, liaised with Floorin AS, which is ​one of the biggest floor covering material wholesale and retail dealers in Estonia, to deliver the project.

She said: “Flooring design plays an important role in the nursery experience. Parents want to know that their children are in safe, well-maintained surroundings, while enjoying a level of comfort similar to what they would expect at home.

“Floorin AS has been a Polyflor distribution partner since 2004, meaning that we enjoy a long standing relationship. We worked closely with Floorin AS, architects, end users and contractors to advise on both the technical suitability and design preferences for this project as it took shape.

“This has resulted in an established level of trust in Polyflor’s products which is something we are really proud of. More importantly, parents and staff continue to compliment the flooring, and how the overall design is uplifting and contributes to how the children’s time is spent at the kindergarten.

“The project demonstrates how integral flooring is to achieving an overall welcoming aesthetic and atmosphere, and I’m pleased we were able to contribute.”