Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
Three Trees Learning Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand by Collingridge and Smith Architects
February 20th, 2020 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Collingridge and Smith Architects
The ‘Three Trees’ Early Learning Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, embraces a natural approach that focuses on providing children with experiences to learn from and grow within nature. The pedagogy of the centre focuses on “childcentered learning through play that embraces the great outdoors”, and this philosophy has been carried through in the architectural approach to the design of this Early Learning Centre.
The most striking feature of the centre is its sculptural modulating roof. The folding timber geometry works to soften and break up the mass of the building, extending the geometry of the canopy of trees from around the site into the built structure. Timber features as the dominant material throughout the building’s façade for both its visual warmth and softness, as well as for maximum carbon sequestration (also achieved through timber structure).
The building site originally featured many large mature trees, and it was important to retain as many of these as possible. Careful planning and orientation mean the building is nestled into the site without having to remove an excessive number of trees, and children can play amongst a natural environment which also features reinstated native planting. Any trees that were removed have been recycled into bark chip and stepping logs in the playground. Part of the garden has been left untouched, to create a more natural and wild outdoor experience for children in contrast to the landscaped playgrounds. Internally, the classrooms have been arranged to provide flexibility in room sizes. The six classrooms have been designed with the idea of sharing services, with main play spaces separated with folding walls so they can be adjusted for different group sizes. The design maximises daylight and natural ventilation in deep plan rooms through an extensively glazed façade, which helps ensure a healthy indoor environment is maintained whilst also making the building efficient to run.
IEQ – All Floor, wall and ceiling coverings were all environmentally certified resulting in best possible internal air quality.
Specified plasterboard is environmentally certified
Specified paint finishes are environmentally certified and low VOC
Specified sheet timber products are FSC certified and low VOC
Specified Carpet and vinyl floor finishes both low VOC and environmentally certified
Specified adhesives and sealants low VOC / environmentally certified
Specified 4 – 6 star WELS rated tapware, 4 star WELS rated WCs and 3 star WELS rated shower all minimise potable water usage
Flow to sewer reduced due to high rated water appliances
Natural daylighting – The building has been designed to maximise natural daylighting, including the use of a clerestory to the central hallway
Great indoor / outdoor flow with classrooms experiencing high visual connectivity to outside from each room
LED lighting throughout
Openable low-e coated double glazed windows, bi-folds and doors provide natural ventilation
Design oriented for solar gain in winter. Natural ventilation, shading and thermal mass cools building naturally in summer
The building is fully accessible to wheelchair and ambulant disabled users – flush thresholds on all doors and accessible reception desk and WC provided. Kitchen, laundry and all other staff facilities all fully accessible
High thermal insulation value to timber framed walls
High R-Value warm roof
Design of centre consciously retains mature native trees
Carbon sequestration through timber structure and features
This entry was posted
on Thursday, February 20th, 2020 at 7:11 am.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
