The Lion International Kindergarten Project is located in an old residential community in the Tianhe District of Guangzhou. Surrounded by old-fashioned houses, the community itself lacks a venue for children’s activities. Children here are in desperate need of a comfortable and safe environment to learn and play.
The project sits in an old granary with an area of barely 500sqm, and presents multiple contradictions between functionality, spatial distribution and environment adequacy. Through conscious design, VMPDE breaks away with the restrictions generated by the surrounding areas and the space available, to create a healthy and sustainable environment for children to grow.
Hangzhou Tides Kindergarten is located in Wangjiang Unit, Shangcheng District, downtown of Hangzhou with 16 classes as planned. The land is in an irregular shape, with a high-density residential area in the northwest and an urban road in the southeast. Architects hope to create a healthy and happy space in an environment surrounded by high-rise buildings and urban roads through design strategies for children to grow up.
An ever closer relationship links architecture and pedagogy: school spaces play today a decisive role in the education of children, fostering their wellbeing and accompanying their learning process.
This is the principle behind the project by Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, architecture studio based in Milan and Shanghai, for Gymboree Play & Music. The American brand – with 700 centres in more than 40 countries around world – offers courses for infants and children up to the age of 6, with the aim of developing their cognitive and relational skills in early childhood, through play activities based on listening to music, art classes, group activities and problem solving games.
This is a nursery which parents found, who want to raise children in rich nature environment. To meet their expectation, by making use of rich nature surrounding it, the nursery is planned to design where children can feel nature in a whole day, and play excited and stimulating, so that they can develop their sensibility and creativity.
The kindergarten is part of the new residential area in Yu Hang in the east of Hangzhou, China.
The three-storey new building is planned for 180 children in 6 groups dependant from their age. Each group has a separate cluster consisting an own bedroom, changing/bath and playroom.
The central area is bounded to the left and right by the stacked volumes of the clusters and to the north by a service volume. This open three-story high space is like a large atrium and natural light can be used through a big glass roof.
This kindergarten has been contributed to the community in the City of Toyota for more than 40 years by supporting many families based in Toyota. They decided to build a new nursery facility next to the existing kindergarten to upgrade the management system to Nintei- Kodomoen(certified child care facilities).
*Nintei-Kodomoen has combined characteristics of kindergartens and nurseries so they could provide variety of assistance programs to the community.
Frankfurt am Main is the fifth largest city in Germany, with more than 700,000 inhabitants. It is a high-rise city with about thirty towers reaching above a hundred meters in and around the centre. The population is growing, bringing an increase in housing demand in all market segments. Within walking distance of the Central Station, where the former station post office once stood, a multifunctional residential tower is being developed by Phoenix and Gross & Partner. The competition for this development has been won by Mecanoo.
A first, the client wanted a new kinder-garden on an irregular site with 5 converging roads. It is a prominent site in the neighborhood with long curved edges touching the roads. The maximum floor space was a prerequisite requirement from the beginning like most projects in Seoul, but the space program of 5 large classrooms for different age groups allowed for linear shaped, skipped rectangles with a central stairway that merged with children exhibition space. At the top, there was a small house for the client’s family. The basement was designed as a communal kitchen and dinning room.
The new Kindergarten – Nová Ruda in Vratislavice nad Nisou – solves the need of the city district regarding its growing population, by providing educational spaces and a leisure area for children.
The plot is the property of the city and was chosen as most suitable for the new housing development planned in the immediate vicinity and the new kindergarten. The site itself is still undeveloped and the larger part of the land is defined as public greenery. In the immediate vicinity there is a historic building, a secondary art school, and several patches of family houses, which as a whole, form a rather rural context.
Launched in July 2018, Big and Tiny is a unique enrichment space in Santa Monica that fosters productivity, creativity, and community for both parents and kids. It is the first integrated learn, play and work space with entrepreneurial parents in mind. We bring the flexibility of traditional co-working spaces to child care.
The mission of the company is to support and empower our vibrant community of parents by helping them integrate their personal and professional lives. Based on this premise, Big and Tiny was designed with both adults and children in mind.