In Northern Tallinn, where the heart of the old Baltic Manufactory awaits a new life, we faced a challenge: how to create a safe home for 120 children around a director’s villa built in 1899? Rudolf Otto von Knüpffer’s masterpiece, which burned down in 2019, left behind only the foundation and memories. The answer came from “The Little Prince” – the story of a boamas who swallowed an elephant. What if the historic villa is not just an object to be preserved, but the heart of a living creature, surrounded by new wings?

Five arched wings of the building bend around the villa, forming a safe courtyard facing south. The winding body of the boamas gives the architecture a playful feel and creates five different colored portals towards the courtyard – each like a doorway to another world. The shape of the building and the arrangement of the paths naturally create ten different zones, each with its own character. Rainwater from the roofs is naturally channeled to the lower parts of the landscape, providing children with a living lesson in the diversity of nature.

Coming in second place showed that our innovative approach – where buildings and landscape form a unified system – offered a significant alternative in the context of the competition. “The Little Prince” is more than a kindergarten – it is a story about how architecture can transform storytelling into a physical experience, where each space tells its part of a larger story.