The nursery school was conceived as an architectural link connecting the two elementary schools. It is located in the center of the complex and it is also the axis of its symmetry. Its appearance is known from the competition design of 1925; the final plans were designed in 1927 and the construction was finished in August 1928. The final inspection took place in 1937.
The building is a proof of Gočár’s shift or transition from purist architecture to functionalism. Though small in scale, the building is a revolutionary concept and it was the first Gočár’s major work designed in his longest, most valuable and last creative period. It is quite different from the other surrounding school buildings. It was not built of bricks but reinforced concrete and it had a white façade. The structures of reinforced concrete with supporting brick walls made the building look subtle.
The street façade is symmetrical. On the axis, the front door are covered with a reinforced concrete slab supported by two columns. The courtyard façade has covered walkways around the central curved section with adjoining sun terraces with pipe railing and outdoor staircases of both the wings. The pavilion is elevated on fifteen columns above the courtyard.
Between two horizontal terraces, there is a circle arc; behind the arc, there used to be
a playroom. On sunny days, the playroom could be fully open to make the children feel like in the nature. The nursery school fascinated photographer Josef Sudek who photographed it as soon as it was built. One of the reasons might be that the proximity of a hydroelectric power plant made the impression a steamer full of children has just landed there. This impression was ruined by the demolition of the central heating chimney (the steamer chimney with
a lighthouse lantern), heaving fifteen meters above the roof. The appearance of the nursery school was also predetermined by the designed pool, which was to extend beneath
the terrace. In the 1920s, the water level was associated with the sea, which evoked a desire to go on a cruise on a transatlantic steamer, considered one of the sources of inspiration for the progressive architecture of the times. The glazed and rounded terrace evokes
the captain’s bridge of an imaginary ocean liner with massive chimneys.
Behind the entrance, there was a classroom with an adjacent teacher’s room on both sides.
At the teacher’s room, on the left, there was a shower room and toilet. Behind the classrooms, there was a semicircular playroom with a terrace facing the courtyard. There were parquet floors in the games room. The equipment inside the kindergarten was created according to Gočár’s design.
According to Marie Benešová, the nursery school represents the culmination of Gočár’s “transition to functionalist architecture: and became the first work in his longest creative period.
In 1985, the nursery school was transformed into a school lunchroom (designed by
V. Rohlíček) which led to substantial interventions in the interior and exterior construction, including the demolition of the chimney. In the central section, there is now the issue counter; on both sides, the original playroom was transformed into a lunchroom. The covered walkway around the courtyard arched section and the side basement wings are glassed. The former nursery school is now used as a lunchroom of Josef Gočár Elementary School (no. 692). 692).
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