Imagine this: You've carefully picked your outfit for the first day of Kindergarten, equipped with a primary-colored patchwork backpack and a pair of rubber rain boots. Your paper bag lunch is stowed neatly in your cartoon lunchbox and your new pencils and notebook paper await your first day of learning.
As you arrive at the school grounds, you look up at the building's entrance. This isn't a normal building, you notice. It is a cat kindergarten, and all of your wildest childhood dreams spark an imaginative learning environment as you enter through a whiskered front door, your eager classmates awaiting you.
This is probably what it's like for any child attending his or her first day at Kindergarten Wolfartsweier in Karlsruhe, Germany, a brilliant collaboration between artist Tomi Ungerer and architect Ayla Suzan Yöndel.
Milk Magazine recently ran a piece on the incredible structure that boasts cat-like stand-ins for traditional schoolyard features. For example, a slide out of the back of the building that leads to the playground looks much like a cat tail; two large, circular windows function like sleepy kitten eyes; and pointed shapes on either side of the building elicit cat ears — one of the building's most pronounced features.
See more of the building below, and SHARE this article with your friends on Facebook if you loved it as much as we did!
Slopes in the building's exterior look like long, crouching cat legs.
The kindergarten features angular slants that create the illusion of cat-like features like paws and pointy ears.
Large windows let the building remain sun-flooded year-round — the perfect kind of learning environment.
And what would a kindergarten be without its playground? A tail-like slide slithers out of the back of the building from the second story and into an outdoor play area.
You wouldn't ever know it! The inside looks just the same as any other kindergarten.
"The unfolded tongue serves as the front door and hall of mouth," writes Milk Magazine. "The legs are spaces dedicated to the game. The belly of the cat consists of a changing room, classrooms, a kitchen, a dining room and a staircase. The anatomical tour continues upstairs. The cat's head is a main dining room, bathed in light through the eyes and ears."
The building's facade makes no mistake about its design.
The building's large, circular windows function like sleepy cat eyes, and pointed inclines on either side of the building's roof elicit cat ears. No cat would be complete without its whiskers, so the front door features three on each side.
What did you think of this kitty kindergarten? Let us know in the comments, and SHARE this post with your friends on Facebook if you loved it, too!
