What kind of building emerges when the world of its future users becomes part of the architecture? And what happens when a child's own drawing finds a permanent place on its facade?

In the Männistö district of Kuopio, rabbits, animal figures, ice cream cones and other drawings created by children wrap around the ground floor of a daycare centre. Some can be seen from a distance, while others only reveal themselves when you look more closely. Your gaze begins to wander across the concrete surface, pauses at a familiar figure and moves on to the next. You feel tempted to lean in closer and trace with your finger a line that someone once drew on paper.

The drawings captured in the graphic concrete surface are an integral part of the building's architecture. They are not decorations added afterwards, but the result of an idea that emerged during the design process: what might an environment designed for children look like?

The young artists behind the drawings, Ines Mikkonen, Ellen Sipilä and Vuokko Takalo, were eight years old when they created them. At the time of the interview, they were 15. Childhood has given way to adolescence, yet their creative marks remain visible on the daycare centre's concrete surfaces, waiting to be discovered and marvelled at by new generations of children.

How can a drawing created on an ordinary day become something that lives on for decades?

The young artists, from left to right: Vuokko Takalo, Ellen Sipilä and Ines Mikkonen. The drawings they created at the age of eight became part of the graphic concrete facade of Männistö Daycare Centre.

At Männistö Daycare Centre, children's drawings form an integral part of the building's graphic concrete facade. Architectural visualisation: PAVE Arkkitehdit Oy.

When User-Centric Design Became Part of the Building

Männistö Daycare Centre, designed by PAVE Arkkitehdit, was completed in Kuopio in 2021. The competition proposal, developed in collaboration with Suomen Hoivatilat, drew its inspiration from the kantele, a traditional Finnish string instrument. The building's playful, sculptural form offers a modern interpretation of this instrument.

The design emphasised a child's sense of scale, engaging experiences and an environment that would be easy to understand and navigate. Yet one of the building's most distinctive features emerged almost by chance.

At the PAVE Arkkitehdit office, it was Bring Your Child to Work Day. At the same time, the architects were exploring ideas for the appearance of the lower part of the building in their competition proposal. The children visiting the office were given pencils and paper, along with a task: to draw pictures for a daycare centre.

Rabbits, animals and ice cream cones began to appear on the paper. The world of children, just as they themselves see it.

The drawings immediately sparked excitement among the architects.

Pictured from left to right: Ellen Sipilä, Ines Mikkonen and Vuokko Takalo with their own drawings at the Männistö Daycare Centre construction site. The drawings they created at the age of eight found a permanent place on the building's graphic concrete facade as part of Finland's Percent for Art initiative.

Figures drawn by the children, including rabbits, vehicles and animals, have been given a permanent form on the graphic concrete surface.

I can imagine the moment at the office. The drawings are spread out, people gather to look at them, and someone sees a possibility that had not occurred to anyone just moments before. An ordinary working day takes an unexpected turn.

Visual artist Markku Kolehmainen also contributed to the overall composition of the patterns. His bear motifs, together with the striped details featured on some animal figures designed by Riikka Takalo, complement the children's drawings on the building's concrete surfaces.

What I find particularly interesting is that the children's involvement did not need to be organised as a separate activity around an already completed design. The children were there, they drew, and the adults recognised something meaningful in their drawings.

The children's creative marks became part of the architecture from the very beginning, already in the competition proposal.

This captures something essential about user-centric design. Participation is not simply about listening to people or gathering their opinions. At its best, it can lead to solutions that no one could have imagined or planned in advance.

Who Shapes the Environment Designed for Children?

The built environment influences how we experience a place and our relationship with it. From a child's perspective, entirely different things may be meaningful than those that matter to an adult.

A detail that we barely notice may be fascinating to a child, offer a sense of security or spark their imagination. Sometimes, what a designer needs most is the ability to listen and see the world through someone else's eyes.

Why should it always be an adult who draws for a child? Could a child's own lines, just as they are, be interesting and valuable enough to become part of a public building?

Pave Mikkonen describes how questioning established ways of thinking is an important part of his design approach. Using children's drawings on the facade is one example of this.

The patterns reveal the individuality of their young creators. A line can be hesitant or confident, a figure small or large. Everything does not need to be uniform or perfected to meet an adult's idea of a finished drawing.

Graphic concrete replicates the distinctive lines and details of children's drawings as an integral part of a durable building material.

On the completed building, the large rabbits can be seen from a distance. The smaller figures only reveal themselves as you come closer. The scale of observation changes with the person moving through the space.

While an adult may take in the building as a whole, a child might notice a small figure on the concrete surface, a familiar shape or an intriguing detail. Perhaps one stops to look at it, points it out to someone else and then discovers another.

Could this be the very moment when a child begins to feel that this environment was designed for them, too?

A high-quality environment is shaped by more than functional spaces and durable materials. What also matters is the kind of relationship a building enables between the people who use it and their surroundings.

In Männistö, concrete is more than just the base of the building. It becomes part of a child's world of experiences.

At the entrance to Männistö Daycare Centre, children's drawings come close to the viewer, becoming a recognisable part of the building's identity. Architectural visualisation: PAVE Arkkitehdit Oy.

When a Drawing Takes Permanent Form

There were many ways the children's drawings could have been realized into the building. In Männistö, graphic concrete was chosen as the solution.

With graphic concrete, the pattern is created on the concrete surface during the production of the precast element. It is not an image painted or attached to the surface afterwards, but an integral part of the material itself.

During the design process, the colour of the concrete, the aggregates and the visibility of the patterns were carefully explored. Sample panels were used to find the right contrast, ensuring that the character of the drawings and the liveliness of their lines would be preserved on the concrete surface. The process involved close collaboration between PAVE Arkkitehdit and Graphic Concrete.

Details of the graphic concrete at Männistö Daycare Centre. The contrast between the concrete surface and the patterns brings out the lines and even the smallest details of the children's drawings.

Graphic concrete offers a way to combine the durability of a building material with individual artistic expression. The pattern can be based on an artist's work, a photograph, a graphic design or, as in Männistö, a child's own drawing.

Concrete is often perceived as a strong, heavy and permanent material. A child's drawing, on the other hand, is created with a light touch, perhaps quickly, sometimes simply on the spur of the moment.

In Männistö, these two very different worlds come together.

A delicate, hand-drawn line takes permanent form in concrete. At the same time, the building's surface gains a new, distinctly human dimension.

The graphic concrete patterns are also part of the building's Percent for Art scheme. Here, art is not a separate element added to the building, but an integral part of its material expression and the story of how it came to be.

A Building as Part of the Story of Growing Up

At Männistö Daycare Centre, childhood, growing up and the passage of time come together in an intriguing way through the building's Percent for Art scheme.

In sculptor Jarkko Liuttu's artwork The Flow of Life, located in the main staircase, a child presses their hand against the building's wall. On the opposite side, a hand reaches towards a ship. A flowing composition of colourful aluminium discs represents the different stages of life, while the ship symbolises the journey towards the future. The artwork can also be seen in the video at the end of this article.

There is something touching about the symbolism of the artwork. Growing up means gradually learning to let go and finding one's own path.

At the same time, the graphic concrete surfaces of the building preserve the actual marks left by real children.

Liuttu's The Flow of Life and the graphic concrete patterns are separate works of art, yet a natural connection emerges between them. One tells the story of growing up through symbolism, while the other preserves a tangible moment from childhood.

The children's original drawings became a permanent part of the facade of Männistö Daycare Centre. Graphic concrete preserves the distinctive lines and details of their drawings on the concrete surface.

Männistö Daycare Centre has eight daycare groups and places for approximately 160 children. Wood, concrete, organic forms and art throughout the building create an environment where everyday life and imagination can come together.

The people who use the building will change over the years. New children will begin their journey at the daycare centre, grow up and eventually move on.

My thoughts return once again to Ines, Ellen and Vuokko.

At the time of the interview, they were 15 years old. Perhaps the way they draw has changed, and their plans for the future have begun to take shape. Meanwhile, the figures they drew when they were eight continue their own quiet existence on the concrete surfaces of Männistö Daycare Centre.

A new child arriving at the daycare centre may never know who drew the rabbit or the ice cream cone. To them, it may simply be a delightful discovery, a familiar shape, a small moment of pause on the way inside.

And they don't need to know.

The bear motif designed by Markku Kolehmainen, the striped details on the animal figures designed by Riikka Takalo, and the children's drawings come together on the same graphic concrete surface. Their different forms of artistic expression create a harmonious entirety.

The success of a building project is measured in many ways. Functionality, cost, durability and a long life cycle are rightly considered key objectives. Alongside these, however, are values that are more difficult to measure: a place's distinctive identity, the users' sense of belonging and participation, and a building's ability to create meaningful encounters.

Männistö Daycare Centre demonstrates how a small idea can give a building its own distinctive and recognisable identity. When the users' perspective is included from the very beginning of the design process and becomes an integral part of a durable building material, its significance can extend far beyond the moment in which the idea first emerged.

Project Information
Architecture: PAVE Arkkitehdit Oy
Lead Architect: Pave Mikkonen
Architectural Designer: Riikka Takalo
Patterns: Children's drawings and patterns designed by Markku Kolehmainen, Percent for Art
Graphic Concrete: Graphic Concrete Oy
Developer: Suomen Hoivatilat Oyj
Client: City of Kuopio
Precast Concrete Manufacturer: Rudus Ämmän Betoni Oy
Address: Männistönkatu 13, Kuopio, Finland
Building Type: Daycare Centre
Year of Completion: 2021

Artists and Designers of the Graphic Concrete Patterns, Percent for Art: Ines Mikkonen, Ellen Sipilä, Vuokko Takalo, visual artist Markku Kolehmainen and Riikka Takalo (striped details on the animal figures)
Other Percent for Art Artwork: The Flow of Life, sculptor Jarkko Liuttu