A former underground data center in Bonn, Germany, has been converted into a children’s daycare center.

As reported by General Anzeiger, Swiss Life Asset Managers has redeveloped a former data center along Bonner Talweg for the city of Bonn as part of a wider redevelopment project.

The facility is being occupied by childcare provider Terminal for Kids, and is now hosting its first intake of 20 children, aged two-six years old. The site can accommodate up to 70 children.

The city of Bonn and Swiss Life Asset Managers had entered into a contractual agreement that a daycare center would be built as part of the project on Poppelsdorfer Allee.

"We initially considered various other options," said Karsten Kus, architect at RKW Architektur +, which led on the project. He added: "In the end, the empty data center convinced us."

The underground data center was constructed in the 1980s for insurance firm Deutscher Herold; the original three-story building was mostly underground and surrounded by taller office structures.

However, a lighting study from 2019 showed that under the right conditions, enough light could actually get into the building for a daycare center to be used, Kus told the publication.

To ensure that enough daylight could enter, two floors of the data center were demolished, and the inner courtyard was unsealed.

The converted building now offers modern rooms for the new daycare center, offering 2,400 square meters (25,833.39 square feet) of gross floor space. Around 1,200 sqm (12,916 sq ft) are for the interior spaces, while 895 sqm (9,633 sq ft) are available for outdoor facilities and play areas.

The data center's former vault is now used as a rainwater retention basin. The facade is made of heat-treated, compacted bamboo.

The renovation of the Deutscher Herold will also see the demolition of the former Hotel Bristol, and more than 300 new apartments and office space developed. Swiss Life Asset Managers is the developer and owner of the site, acquiring it in 2016. Parts of the site, along Poppelsdorfer Allee, date back to the 1950s.

Previously owned by Deutsche Bank, Zurich Financial Services acquired Deutscher Herold around 2001. Plans to leave the Bonn campus and relocate to Cologne were announced in 2015, and the company exited the site around 2019.