You are warmly welcome to visit the Mala ulica Family Centre, the first such centre in Slovenia, intended for families with preschool children.

Mala ulica Family Centre is a public day room intended for families with preschool children, in which you will find a whole bunch of toys and interesting games, a maze and a ‘city park’, a book corner, baby corner, coffee stop for mums, dads’ blocks and much much more ...

The centre is open on weekdays from 9am to 7pm, and at weekends and on public holidays from 10am to 6pm. Admission is €2 per child, while there is a discount of 20% on annual and family membership available until 10 February 2013.

The spaces, equipment and details of the Centre are designed such that children are introduced to various imaginary worlds thus stimulating their desire to discover and get to know new things.

The Family Centre’s programme design is based on three principles:

1. to the greatest extent, the design is intended for preschool children, inasmuch as the functionality permits the use of internal and external space with an emphasis on safety
2. the interior is designed with a desire for it to be educational with innovative equipment, games and toys
3. the play area helps children to get to know Ljubljana through games and play, which refer to familiar urban locations (buildings, parks, monuments, flora and fauna).

In the centre, you will first find yourselves at the city gates (entrance area, reception), a city street (the central play area), a city square (a space for workshops, teaching, parents’ meetings, birthday parties and so on), a city park, pond, city cafe, a ‘block block’ (a playroom in a tower), a library under a cloud (a viewing library in a tower) and last but not least, a city people’s bath (aquatic ambience in the basement with toilets).

Through its innovative design and equipment and greater functionality, the design of the outside playground attempts to relate to the indoor covered play area. The play equipment chosen is mainly from natural materials – wood, rope and washed concrete. The space is (bearing in mind the route of the emergency access paths) divided into three sections that allow different types of games:

- a playground for younger children, where the ground surface is covered with soft rubber, enabling exploration of the terrain (valley, hill) and water (splash pool) and play in a sandpit (which is covered when the playground is closed);
- a hardened section of the emergency access path, where the asphalted surface enables ball games, skipping ropes, roller skating, skateboarding, riding bikes etc.
- a play area for older children has a sandy surface, which is suitable for individual play on a spring, climbing frame, a swing and a slide.

The whole play area is shaded naturally by trees which are conserved or newly planted. Greenery is provided by climbing plants on walls and fences. There are also relaxation areas in the playground – mountable benches have been designed especially for this play area and thoughtfully placed around the space. In addition to a hand basin, there is a wooden storage area in the shape of a tower in the playground for additional toys and equipment.

You can follow goings-on at the Mala ulica Family Centre on its website.