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2021 GFD 🏆 Awards

Winner | Shuta Kindergarden | Yuan Ye Architects

The kindergarten plot 35 of Tianjin Zhongxin Eco-city is located in the central area of the Eco-city, adjacent to Huasan Road to the northeast and urban belt park to the southeast. It covers an area of 6004.2 square meters with a scale of 15 classes and 30 children per class.

Global Future Design Awards 2022: Discounted Entries Open Now! Save $50
Super Early Discount – 20th October 2021 to 30th December 2021 – $199 = $149

🏆 Winner
Global Future Design Awards 2021

Shuta Kindergarden
Educational Architecture Concept

Firm
Yuan Ye Architects

Architect/Designer
Yuan Ye Architects

Design Team
Yuan Ye Architects

Location
Tianjin

Country
China

Photographer/Copyright
©Yuan Ye Architects

The design of the kindergarten is based on the psychology and perspective of the children, with “Tree Tower – a kindergarten that can grow” as the origin of the design concept. Take circle as a basic element and via varies combination of circular volumes, we propose to create a unique figure of kindergarten and a very colorful indoor and outdoor space experience, which integrates the new preschool education concept and urban ecological thoughts. It will be a high-quality education building with clear personality and inject new vitality into the development of children’s education, urban ecology and humanistic environment in Eco-city as a whole.

A low-carbon, humanistic fairy tale world

“Ecology” is the core urban development concept of Eco-city, and it is also an important direction for early education in the future. This proposal is based on “low carbon” concept and integrates the kindergarten’s architecture and environment into “forest city” vision of the Eco-city through the concept of “tree tower”. And the “tree tower” is not only an image of green ecology, but also a concentrated expression of the building’s ecological strategies including roof planting, vertical greening, rainwater collection and recycling, natural ventilation, sufficient natural light and shading, and a series of passive ecological technologies are fully reflected in this small kindergarten.

It is also a humanized kindergarten. From children’s point of view and way of thinking, the program carried out the circular spaces, and organized it with multiple features just like a fairy tale castle or a fantasy forest with a set of huge tree trunks, which children can define according to their own imagination. Children can understand it through their own imagination. Children’s scale, their natural desire to explore space and looking for new paths and their psychological needs for solitude, friendship, and group activities are all reflected in the design.

A large number of wooden grilles are used inside and outside of the building, and the vertical greening above the grilles and the roof planting (native Tianjin trees, planted in boxes) make the building a close-to-natural ecological container that blends in with the surrounding green environment and grows continuously.

A fun and safe place

The kindergarten’s curved corridor extends and changes direction, forming a fun three-dimensional migratory path that allows children to run and explore; three white cylindrical stairs with stretched square glass windows have a mysterious feeling, allowing children to experience the space, light and color between floors.

The middle courtyard is enclosed as a irregular site, forming a core space and a variety of small spaces with rich variations in scale. The corridors open up to the view, and the changing light throughout the day forms a kaleidoscope like courtyard. The courtyard is also designed with safety concern that teachers can see where the children are at all times, and the circular space reduces the risk of bumps for children who are not yet fully able to control their bodies.

The large circular green playground on the roof of the classrooms on the second and third floors is like a “city in the sky”, giving the children unlimited imagination and  increasing the area for outdoor activities, allowing the children to extend their natural abilities and grow healthily with enough outdoor experience.


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