Architects: Alberto Campo Baeza
Area: 250 m²
Year: 2024
Category: Kindergarten
Architect: Alberto Campo Baeza
Collaborators Architects: Alejandro Cervilla, García Ignacio Aguirre López, Alfonso Guajardo-Fajardo Cruz, Elena Jiménez Sánchez, Juanjo Sánchez Rivas, Àngels Cañellas Genius, Elena Pérez Espigares, Marta Carranza Ostos
Local Architect: DAAP Architecture studio (Aleksandr Danielyan), Valeria Parkacheva, Siranush Varderesyan
Master Plan: SP2 (Sarhat Petrosyan)
Client: Children of Armenia Fund (COAF)
City: Armavir
Country: Armenia
The Nursery in Armavir, designed by Alberto Campo Baeza in collaboration with DAAP Architecture Studio, serves as the entrance to the Children of Armenia Fund Campus. Conceived after winning a competition organized by COAF, the 250 m² project is guided by the phrase “sub umbra alarum tuarum protege nos” (“under the shadow of your wings protect us”) from the Book of Psalms, which inspired the architects to express the notion of shelter through built form. A 20×20-meter reinforced concrete grid supports a horizontal slab that shades the program below, creating a calm and protected environment for children. Beneath this canopy, white masonry and glass walls define luminous spaces arranged with precision and order. The architects intend to enclose the square in the future with a continuous white wall, reinforcing the project’s symbolic and spatial sense of protection.
My philosophy is to serve our society with my best labor. The most creative and rigorous work using all my knowledge in the best possible way. I push my students to become wise architects. Wisdom in Architecture is not reserved for genial people. You can, you must be wise.
Interview with Alberto Campo Baeza of Estudio Arquitectura Campo Baeza
The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) invited the architects to participate in a competition for the design of a school near Mount Ararat, a site traditionally associated with Noah’s Ark.
After winning the commission, the team was assigned the task of designing a nursery at the entrance to the COAF Campus.
The architects reference the Book of Psalms—“sub umbra alarum tuarum protege nos” (under the shadow of your wings protect us)—as the conceptual core of the nursery. The design aims to manifest this sense of protection through spatial form, offering shade and security for children within the facility.
The nursery is developed on a single level and occupies 250 m². It follows a strict 20×20 meter grid structure composed of equidistant reinforced concrete pillars, forming a canopy-like slab 3.6 meters high. This structural “table” frames and shelters the program housed below, which is constructed with white masonry walls and transparent glass. Though only the lower volume has been completed, the architects envision enclosing the entire square with a white wall in the future.
The project maintains a subdued and disciplined architectural language. As the architects describe it, the proposal presents “an understated and quiet architecture” that remains fully aligned with the functional and symbolic needs of the brief.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Armavir, Armenia
The location specified is intended for general reference and may denote a city or country, but it does not identify a precise address.
La sencillez de la resolución, la respuesta simple al salmo que guía el diseño es admirable. El silencio que leo en la arquitectura es una “marca” de campo Baeza. Admirable