GEEDESIGN has completed a new kindergarten in Foshan, China. The studio has designed a fairy tale-like village with scattered spaces and original materials penetrating between city and nature.

Named Everbright Kindergarten, the design is based on the idea of being environmentally friendly to the city, we put forward the design concept of "fairy tale village" as the basis for the space design of the kindergarten. 

An Emerging Ancient City, An Antiquated New City

Urban impression and regional development

What you can barely get away from in Foshan is its fascinating food culture. In fact, there are many famous historical figures here as well, such as Wong Fei-hung, Ip Man, Kang You-wei and Jeme Tien Yow. From the performer once witnessed the great changes of the time to the surfers who rides the waves, this city is undoubtedly a place where the ancient and the modern blend wonderfully.

As the focal point of urban living environment improvement and renovation, the Beiwei Industrial Area, relying on the construction opportunity of Leshang Town, integrates diversified industries, public services and intelligent living. 

Located at the intersection of Chuangfu Road and Chuangxing 7th Road in the south of the area, the Everbright Kindergarten is surrounded by water network and criss-crossed by natural landscape. In the north, it is a high-quality residential area under construction. In the future, it is planned to introduce the best quality education resources in the region.

Multiple Defined Growing Community

Restrictions and demands sorting out

Due to the boundary restrictions of the residential areas and the control of the multi-layer retreat boundary in the intersection zone, it is extremely difficult to make the building. At the same time, it serves as a community supporting kindergarten that needs to accommodate 12 classes, a super-sized music-event room and two activity areas. The occupied area is only 5,400 square meters, and the cramped space still needs to coordinate with the various interfaces of the city.

How to create a humanized, natural and childlike educational space under many limited conditions has become a fundamental problem faced by architects. The architects hope that this place can be the intersection of the new and the old city to find the unique human touch, so that the struggling people here can spend a pleasant parent-child time.

Enjoy the Fairy Tale Village

Inspiration and design strategy

At the beginning, we extracted the space to play from the multiple constraints, and combined the educational concept with the positioning of the community. Based on the idea of being environmentally friendly to the city, we put forward the design concept of "fairy tale village" as the basis for the space design of the kindergarten.

The symbiotic blossom

The functional layout of this "small village" is quite exquisite, and the topological relationship between the activity place and the architectural space subtly resolves the dilemma of the limited land conditions. 

This form effectively promotes the "here while faraway" between each unit, maximizes the richness of the urban interface from the perspective of the street, and forms a sense of rhythm with gradual ups and downs.

Penetrating breathing

Given the advantages of the landscape resources of the urban park and water system in the south, the design echoes the characteristics between the city and nature on the facade, and matches the bamboo and wood materials on the basis of the pure white paint. 

This is the way to adopt the natural method, endue the original environment, and strengthen the sense of family and permeability. In terms of visual attraction, the architectural space stimulates children's yearning for the natural landscape, and they can still pursue the natural wild interest in the city.

Scattered while interesting

According to the actual needs of the class quantity and space capacity, the whole will be divided into approximately proportional units. Through the interspersion and dislocation between the main block and the small volume, the outdoor space will be transferred to the building, forming an interesting and changeable landscape platform and ‘gray spaces’. 

Considering the practicability of children's activities and the permeability of sunlight, we scattered the inner patio of each room on the slope roof to create a colorful light and shadow experience.

From the building to the interior, the independent and continuous unit modules can become a "home", which encourages children to explore freely in the lively and warm space and build a sense of belonging in the garden.

Taking from the Original, Using for Refined Building.

Materials and construction

The selection of building materials is based on the original intention of the design of the kindergarten itself. The studio hopes that the building can present the natural texture of the family members, so as to select the bamboo and wood with natural and original properties, and organically integrate with the surrounding environment from the user's considerable and perceptible experience.

White coating implication is pure, origin, can maximize the warm color department on the vision of the formation of a sense of package, at the same time with the combination of jumping rhythm of the unit, the wild interest flavor arises spontaneously.

The process of transforming materials into architectural entities requires application and practice. Through the combination of real and virtual materials such as bamboo, white coating, aluminum plate and glass, we repeatedly made samples and explored the field comparison. 

The bevel connection between the aluminum plate of the front facade and the curtain wall adopts the imitation copper profile to receive the edge. Under the premise of not affecting the overall atmosphere, the node is rich in the texture of modern technology.

Ground floor plan

Second floor plan

Third floor plan

Sections

Elevations

Elevations

Conceptual drawing

Site analysis

Context

Function diagram

Project facts

Client: Vanke, Excellence Group

Location: Foshan, China

Type: Public & Education

Gross Floor Area: 3,200 sqm

Architect: GEEDESIGN  

Design Team: Zhu Yu, Liang Shen, Pei Yuexuan, Tang Fusheng

All images © CAAI

All drawings © GEEDESIGN

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