“Lidhja e Prizrenit” kindergarten is located in Paskuqan, Kamëz, near Tirana River. After the earthquake of November 2019, the existing structure was beyond repair, so a new building was required to accommodate a growing number of children in the area. The new kindergarten serves 250 children between the ages 2 and 6.
This kindergarten school designed by the architect Carolina Penna for the Municipality of São Caetano do Sul is open to use by the community. Inserted in the clearing of an important square in the city, it is surrounded by vegetation and equipment for leisure and contemplation, and has environments supported by a circular cover, integrating the spaces. Empowering current pedagogical practices, the voids of the school are as important as the classrooms.
Designed by VMPDE, the IBOBI SUPER SCHOOL is located in Dachong, the tech hub of Shenzhen. Shenzhen is one of the core engines of regional development in the Greater Bay Area, and Dachong is synonymous to prosperity and potential. Here is the gathering place for hi-tech talents and companies, densely populated, dense building and high plot ratio, busy families living here demand a great kindergarten with integrated accessibility.
The project is located on the terrace, second floor of a mall, which is one of the few places in this area with large outdoor space.
The outdoor terrace and the indoor space are well connected to each other, forming an enclosed site.
This is a nursery newly built in Hitachi-omiya in Ibaraki. There are paddy fields and forests near the nursery. Its beautiful and rich nature develop children’s healthy body and rich mindset. From this image, the design concept ‘Greenhouse to watch over warmly’ is made.
From the shape of surrounding fields, a corridor is laid out in the center like a footpath between rice fields. With the top light, people can feel like touching nature even inside. For the exterior material, metal is used with the image of protecting children strongly. On the other hand, natural things are used for the interior to look warm.
This is a nursery newly built in Hitachi-omiya in Ibaraki. There are paddy fields and forests near the nursery. Its beautiful and rich nature develop children’s healthy body and rich mindset. From this image, the design concept ‘Greenhouse to watch over warmly’ is made.
From the shape of surrounding fields, a corridor is laid out in the center like a footpath between rice fields. With the top light, people can feel like touching nature even inside. For the exterior material, metal is used with the image of protecting children strongly. On the other hand, natural things are used for the interior to look warm.
In 2019, the architect received a commission to design a standard 6-classroom kindergarten in Wuhan. The project is located in Hankou, Wuhan, only 1 kilometer away from the South China Seafood Market where the pandemic first broke out three months after the design started. The project plan was temporarily suspended due to the disease for half a year in 2020. Thanks to the unremitting efforts of the whole team, the project plan was restored and completed after the unblocking of Wuhan.
“The world does not belong to obedient children. The world belongs to those who know the world well enough to be able to change it.”
Colour and object abstemiousness and absence of loud toys and motives are connected to educational specifics, which are built on Montessori tools and system.
It is a public space for infants and children to play. These days, children spend space at the expense of using it. Children pay for the academy and meet their friends to study, and teenagers stay at cafes by paying the fee. Not only children and teenagers but also infants and toddlers can play at kids cafes and amusement parks. In this world of consuming space, people who are in financial difficulties are not free to use space even to study or play. Therefore, we need public play space for infants and children to use it free, not consumption of space. Publicly operated spaces for infants and children should have been able to operate flexibly due to changes in the program rather than the installation of special amusement facilities at existing kids’ cafes. Above all, we hoped that it would be a place like a house where children can come to their own house and play comfortably. We installed small houses that fit the eyes of small children, and each house will be filled with a different kind of toy or play program. It is a space where naughty people can play around in their own homes.
This is a new kindergarten and nursery for 76 children, which is built in the playground of the former facility. In the playground of the former building, there was a big tree and under the shade of that tree children used to enjoy gathering, finding interesting things in each season, and creating their own plays.
Thus, the concept of the new building ‘Connect to the Shade of Tree’ is created for the kindergarten’s characteristic and history that the shade of tree makes children’s sensitivity cultivated and makes people comfortable.
The kindergarten, built in solid wood construction, expresses itself as a quiet, single-storey building in a heterogeneous environment. The forecourt to the east connects to the public space and leads to the entrance area, which forms a clear closure to the playground and gardens and thus serves as a privacy screen and noise protection.