2025

öffentlich zugänglich

Josef-Wirth-Weg 11, 80939 München

Verzinkter Stahl, pulverbeschichtetes Lochblech, Antriebsriemen

Architecture: N-V-O Nuyken von Oefele Architekten und Stadtplaner, München

Landscape architecture: BL9 Landschaftsarchitekten, München

Photos: Henning Koepke

Text: Judith Csiki

With WETTERSCHAU (WEATHER SHOW), the Stiftung Freizeit has realized an art in architecture project at the newly constructed daycare center on Josef-Wirth-Weg, translating the building’s guiding principles — sustainability, energy efficiency, and pedagogical openness — into a succinct visual language. The work expands the facility’s architectural and social space.

A sequence of five pictograms — sun, wind, clouds, rain, and snow — unfolds on the wooden facade. Made of colored, powder-coated perforated sheet metal and designed in a minimalist, child-friendly style, the elements are mounted on a rail system that can be moved vertically using hand cranks. The rails are divided into two levels. The lower level contains a reservoir of possible weather patterns, from which the actual weather is drawn by cranking the corresponding symbols upwards. There – above a horizon line – is a large arrow labeled WETTERSCHAU.

The artwork thus invites children to engage in impromptu discussions about their environment in multiple ways. The horizon line can be used to address and visualize phenomena such as sunrise and sunset, as well as scalability, for example, in relation to wind strength, which increases upwards. Furthermore, multiple symbols can overlap. The daily observation of the weather thus becomes an act of conscious observation and perception using all senses and engaging in a performative action that, as a community-building ritual, can structure situations of transition: children, parents, and caregivers create a changing composition that renders the moment visible and gives rise to a feeling of simultaneity, gradual differences, and change.

Through its structure, the artwork WETTERSCHAU encompasses several communicative dimensions. The clear symbols allow children to express impressions without speaking; non-verbal communication is a fundamental form of dialogue, one that is highly significant in early childhood education. The prominent placement of the symbols also addresses the neighborhood, thus embedding the daycare center within a larger social context. This is
reinforced by reading the second part of the title as an imperative: “SCHAU” (“Look!”). There are probably few verbs used more frequently in early childhood development — by children as well as all adult caregivers — than the request to look, that is, to perceive something that has been deemed significant. Feelings of belonging and efficacy arise from
this, provided it is not dismissed as irrelevant by the other person. Finally, communication with older children can be expanded to include symbolic representations of emotional states, as expressed in idioms such as “a face like three days of rainy weather” or “a ray of sunshine,” and “being blown away.”

WETTERSCHAU exists at the intersection of concrete art, constructive semiotics, and approaches social sculpture. Its reduced formal language draws on minimalist systems of order, but it is translated here into an everyday and participatory context. The work thus exemplifies a contemporary understanding of art in architecture: not merely decorative embellishment, but an open, sensually perceptible system that encourages use. With WETTERSCHAU, Stiftung Freizeit creates a space for experience where climate, perception, and symbolic forms of communication are equally present. The project combines spontaneous playfulness with conceptual depth, creating an interface between childlike curiosity and adult reflection.