DESIGNING PRESCHOOL

A PROJECT IN DESIGN 03
By: ABAYABAY, MARK OLIVER
PENULLAR, IVAN GHEROME
REPE, MAIARAH ANTOINETTE
VILLAMIN, JOAQUIN CARLOS
VISTRO PATRICIA MAE

9/2/2019
Table of contents

Introduction

Space Needs and Its Definition

Related Projects
Subaru Nursery

Child Day Care Center

Fantasia Blossom School

Nanjing Galaxy Kindergarten

Taihu New Town Wujun Kindergarten

Primary School and Kindergarten Tauffelen

Maison de l’Enfance

Kakogawa Kindergarten

Park Legend Kindergarten

Hangzhou Tides

Furnitures
Tables and Chairs

Shelves

Toys

Teacher’s Table

Boards

Teacher’s Cabinet

Sofa

Fixtures
Toilet and Lavatory
Design Concept, Design Philosophy, Design Consideration
By: Abayabay, Mark Oliver

By: Penullar, Ivan Gherome

By: Repe, Maiarah Antoinette

By: Villamin, Joaquin Carlos

By: Vistro, Patricia Mae

References
INTRODUCTION
SPACE NEEDS AND ITS DEFINITION
Physical Space

Physical Space is affected by the number of children and staff on duty who will make use of the

space. It is also affected by the number or amount of furniture, equipment and the size of the play space

for the developmental activities of the children. This physical space considers the characteristics,

personalities, behavioural patterns of the children who will be using the space including their age,

abilities, cultural experiences and also their habits. It is important to address the temperature, proper

ventilation and also natural light within the space. Spaces may increase especially when there are

children with special needs and considerations although oftentimes small spaces make children more at

home and comfortable.

 Classroom

The most important physical space in a preschool is of course the classroom of the children where

they can learn, communicate and play at the same time. When the classroom is too large, children

would tend to run around without focus or wander. If the room was too small, the children would be

crowded. But when it is just right for the circulation, children seem to feel comfortable and have enough

space to participate freely.

 Teacher’s Office and Faculty

It is where the teachers will keep their important belongings away from the children. It is also

sometimes the place where teacher keep the profiles and daily activities of the children.

 Waiting Area/ Lobby

It is the area where parents can wait for their children after school hours. The waiting area could be

as large in size as wide as possible especially when there are a lot of students enrolled in the preschool.
  Playground

The play space intended for the children where they can spend fun activities with their classmates.

 Canteen

The area where children can buy and eat their food. The space could also be as large as possible.

 Toilet

A fixed space where children, teacher as well as visitors can urinate and defecate.

Factors to Consider in Designing the Space

Toys, Furniture and Furnishing

Too large – If the space is too large the children would be distracted by having too many toys.

Too small – If the space is too small and crowded, the children cannot focus on a single activity. And if it

doesn’t have enough toys to engage their interest, behavioural problems would most likely to arise

because of inability to share.

Just right – If the space is just right in a way that children would be satisfied on what they need, then

they will happily engaged in activities that hold their interest and are able to make choices without

conflicting others.

Safety of the Children

It refers as to how the space would be beneficial for the health and wellness of the children.

Designing with small space is not an option here since infectious diseases spread more quickly when the

children are crowded. In designing spaces that considers the safety of the children, these questions must

be answered:
  Is the space clean and free from disease-causing bacteria?

 Are the children free of hazards from toys, equipments and furnishings especially from sharp

edges and non-toxic materials?

 Are the children protected by shock-absorbing surfaces?

 Are the size of the toys and equipments suitable and appropriate to the ages of the children?

 Are the furniture child sized?

Designing Space for Children with Special Needs

Of course, the designer cannot neglect children with special needs, thus planning the space in

which it is accessible for them would be appropriate.

 Do children who are not mobile are not mobile have separate are where they are protected

from walk ways and areas used by older children?

 Is the space suitable for children with special needs?

 Is the play equipment accessible to children with special needs?

RELATED PROJECTS

Subaru Nursery

Subaru Nursery is a Day Care Centre that is located at 17 Rue Gustave Geffroy, 75013

Paris, France. It was designed by Rh+ Architects in 2014, with an area of 1800.0 sqm. It is surrounded by

historical and typical French buildings. The low density of the neighbourhood, the street shape gave an

impression of a small provincial town having a 2.5m difference in height. This will also highlight the

history of the other buildings nearby.

As provided by the Architects, their main

ideas for this project is to build or design a

building that fits perfectly in its heterogeneous

environment and to provide a simple

architecture, yet distinct and remarkable that

separates it to the other design. The base has a

set of volumes that’s been placed in a way that it

allows different perspectives and views. And it

was designed to preserve a visual connection to the street to reduce the slope effect and to differentiate
the height of the street. It is implanted to follow the natural slope of the street. It is composed of three

volumes; The northern volume was the highest and it leans on the party wall of a five-story, The central

volume was the longest which serves as the entrance and lastly The southern volume that provides the

visual continuity and marks the entrance of the building. These are made up of white concrete and

angled roofs.

The Architects provide an optimal natural lighting that develops the perception of being alive

and boost the learning stimulation of the children, by giving them a comfortable and safe surroundings.

They also decided to make the spaces fun and lively, wherein they treated the areas with different

colours. Indoor spaces provides various materials, like Activ’air Placo-impact in walls and coloured

plastic grounds, etc. It has specific volume and colour and all the windows frames and joints are

wooden and lacquered in colours, while the terrace are covered in cushioned rubber floor.

Child Day Care Centre

It is located at Nieuwland 194, 1000 Brussel, Belgium, built by Burobill, ZAmpone architecture in

2015, having an area of 1407.0 sqm. This can house 68 children and there are spaces in this building

that hosts 3 schools, music academy, after-school care and a lot of organizations that guides the children

as they enter the building till they leave school at the age of 18.
 As provided by the Architects, there is a concrete curves that guides the parents with their

children to the entrance on the first floor. The same curves on the second floor that serves as the

playground for the children. The designers limited the weight of the concrete construction by designing

a concrete terrace with a system of modulation of supporting beams. In fact, this project awarded

because of its design that have a very low energy consuming renovation and extension of an existing

building.

Fantasia Blossom School

Fantasia Blossom School is located at No. 66 Yonghe Avenue, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Designed

by the PURE Architects. At the west side of the building was the Yangma River, while at the North side

was the Aquatic plants and shrubs in the wetland park.

As provided by the Architects, Their plan is to

create an ‘art work’ that are suitable for children to

play and learn. They wanted children to embrace

nature and society that is a suitable place children can

enjoy the surroundings for them to have a good spatial

senses and behavioural personalities as they grow older.

The Architects creates a Flowing structure and a Folding ramp that provide children to run freely

and be inspired in sports. There are four freely distributed boxes that forms the main structure of the

building. Both indoor and outdoor are connected in series along the path that allows the children to

have a contact with nature and society. It is designed to embrace and reconnects to the outside world.

The design is minimal, smooth and the posture is much stretched.

The designers tried to integrate the building with the environment and bringing it into the

interior. They have provided the interior with more white spaces which formed a good foundation for

the interior design itself. They wanted to destroy the boundaries in order to allow the children to

explore, discover and communicate.

Nanjing Galaxy Kindergarten

Located at North Hongshan Rd, Xuanwu District, Nanjing China. designed by Lacime Architects in

2019, having a 4326.37 m2 . it is close to the Xuanwu Lake and two major roads of Nanjing where

children can feel natural and free to explore the surroundings.

 As provided by the architects, it is

designed to combined different theme areas and

public spaces for the activities to be separated in

inner courtyard from the outer. It has a U-

shaped layout and consist of 7 well-arranged

containers. The designed helps the children to

feel closer to nature, be able to explore freely

and have fun and be healthy an individual inside

the building. They provided a white tree house and shallow water for the children to have their own

small world inside.

The inner courtyard is surrounded by an indoor winding corridor with a plenty of glass to show

the landscape of the courtyard. Also, folded roof was used in municipal green space which becomes an

unconventional wall.

Taihu New Town Wujun Kindergarten

It is located at Wujun District, Taihu New Town, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. Having an area of

20,503.5 sqm, it designed by Tus-design Architects in 2019. The building was adjacent to the water

surface of the East and Taihu Lake in the southeast.

 As the Architects provided, Almost all of the building in the area are mainly reflects grey and

loess tones, so they thought that they could bring a colour to the lakeside environment and add more

vitality to the community that provides

the children a colourful childhood.

It was inspired by the works of

famous British contemporary artist

Howard Hodgkin. The colour of the

building becomes the gift of the city

since the Architects justifies and gave

sense to the bright sunshine and

gorgeous scenery of the lake. There are

main colour in the entrance namely, Lemon yellow, orange, and green. They made the surroundings

more colourful since children treat colours differently from adults. They can be able to fully digest and

absorb the colour of joy unlike the adult who sometimes get irritated with too much colours.

Primary School and Kindergarten Tauffelen

 It was designed by Morscher

Architekten in 2018, located at

Tauffelen, Switzerland that has an area

of 1700.0 m2. It preserves the generous

space of the outdoor environment and

offers a maximum window seat that

benefits from the fantastic views of the

Berner Seeland. It is linked with the

sports hall that integrates the village

structure and surroundings.

As provided by the Architects, Sloping terreain characterizes the concept of the outdoor-spaces

and development of the structure. It hosts four spacious classrooms, two flexible kindergartens at the

first floor and several multi-purpose rooms. The building complies with different aspects of special

needs. The former long dark hallways attractively furnished multifunction spaces that allows the

children and the staffs to work, rest and chat.

It offers flowing spatial and multi-levelled landscape for a lot of usage. Different qualities of the

rooms that has a unique identity allow new forms of learning and social communications.

Maison de l’Enfance

Made by the Y.Architectes in 2019, located at Saint-Genis-Les-Ollieres, Rhone, Rhone-Alpes,

France that have an area of 1100.0 m2 and composed of a nursery, recreation center and maternal

assistants relay. It creates link with other public equipments and was developed as a continuity of urban

plot with new public squares in the entrance and pedestrian way.
 As provided by the designers, its principle is

a game of various layers with variations acroteria

allowing it to have a transition between the

different spaces typologies. It is made of concrete

that imposed the form of public equipment. The

façade frame lighten the shape while highlighting

the stamped concrete that imitates the wood. In

fact, all doors on the exterior seems to disappear

because they are lined with the wood.

Kakogawa Kindergarten

Located at Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan and was designed by Takenaka Corporation in

2018. The site is surrounded by a pond, forest, parks gardens and a lot more. The design concept of this

building is ‘Forest-ness’ using the benefits of the surroundings it provides a porous open-air structure

that connects to the environment.

 Scattered rooms allows the children to interact with the environment through its countless

studies by combining various size of spaces, it obtains an ambiguous freeness and continuation of the

environment. It helps children to get active and help them to develop their curiosity and eagerness to

learn. All of the colours and materials play an important role in both interior and exterior.

The designer chose a natural wooden product where children can approach directly. It also

reflects the tradition of Japanese colour palette through different flowers and plants. Both colours and

materials expressed lively and active atmosphere of the building.

Park Legend Kindergarten

Located at Tianfu New Area, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Deisgned by Challenge Design in 2018. It

is close to Luxelakes Eco-City, Xinglong Lake and Tianfu Central Park. It features a sound ecosystem. It is

also surrounded by a 100 meter long green belt to the north. Layout fits well with the unregularly shape

of the site since the structure itself creates a harmonious blend of modern and nature.
 As the architects provided, they

divide the indoor spaces and

scientifically placed several entrances

for the children and parents that comes

from different rooms inside the building

without forming jams at the exits and

other doors. They placed the

kindergarten room in the south to

secure the sunlight and outdoor activity

spaces.

The building provides an example of letting geometrical elements and nature form the design of

the building, allowing the pupils to have an opportunity to grow in a natural environment with a touch

of modernity. It also mimics the mountains to make people feel that they are surrounded by real

mountains and forests.

Hangzhou Tides

Designed by GLA in 2018 and is

located at Haichao Road, Shangcheng

District, Hangzhou, China. It has a 16

classes and the land is in an irregular

shape. The designers hope to create a

happy and healthy space for the

children in an environment that was

surrounded by high-rise buildings and urban roads.

As provided by the Architects, northwest side is where the main building was built to match the

ratio of the floor area. Southeast spaces is for outdoor activities. Spaces and streamline are closely

related that stimulates the chance of more activities in the area. There are circular corridors on both

sides of the southeast that are connected to the interior and exterior spaces.

Children can move and run freely in the corridors since the large areas of the southeast part are

left empty without anything blocking the sunlight. The long glass destroys the boundaries between

indoor and outdoor views, creating a connection between the children and the environment outside.
Furnitures:

Tables and Chairs:

Shelves:
Toys: Teacher’s table

Boards:
Teacher’s Cabinet Sofa

Fixtures:

Toilet and Lavatory

Abayabay, Mark Oliver
Penullar, Ivan Gherome

Design concept

Pre-school institutions are the place to prepare children for school, here they are taught the basics like
colors, shapes, numbers, letters, etc. This is also the place where they learn how to cooperate and
socialize with other people. That being said, they should be given a fairly open space with furniture and
finishes that has bright colors in order for the children to feel energized and creative. Furniture should
also be space saving and flexible so that they could be moved around to create more space if needed.

Design philosophy

"Less is a bore"

-Robert Venturi

With this particular design I would have to agree with this quote, since we are designing for children we
cannot make the interiors of the structure simple and minimal, we should fill it up with colorful and
somewhat quirky objects that would be enjoyable for the children.

Design Considerations

Our primary concern is safety because children are the ones who will be using the spaces that we will be
designing. I suggest using furniture with rounded corners to avoid injury since children tend to be very
energetic and playful. I would also suggest using finishes or furniture that requires minimal maintenance
so that it would be easy to clean. Lastly, I would also suggest using furniture and fixtures that would be
easily accessible by the children.
Repe, Maiarah Antoinette

Design Concept

Students need to be comfortable with their surroundings when studying most especially for kids under
preparatory schools need to have a good ambience in their environment. The ideal learning
environments for pre-school students are more likely to have bright colors and texture – most
preferably for kids. Bright colors symbolize joy and happiness unlike darker colors which may affect the
atmosphere inside the classroom especially in intellectual and social development. The furniture and
fixtures are specifically made and designed for children to ensure that the uses of these are within their
capability. In this regard, the children will have a boosted self-confidence to discover new things by
themselves.

Design Philosophy

“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.” – Charles Eames

Design Considerations

The design should be applicable for the following components to maintain the learning stability
of pupils.

 Level. The height of the furniture and fixtures should be within the reach of an average
children’s range. The students would exert less time in struggling issues involving the
level of the furniture in performing their proper use.
 Safety and Security. The most essential part of designing a structure is for the people’s
protection against hazardous accidents. The furniture should have rounded or curvy
edges for the students to lessen the risk of incidents.
 Comfortability. Students must feel easeful within their surroundings. Hence, the setting
should have pleasant and cozy feeling.
Villamin, Joaquin Villamin

Design Concept

 Pre-schools are for children getting ready to face a bigger environment. In here, they
being prepared to have the proper social skills that will help them get through the
childhood. It is only proper to give the school a child-friendly design, with colorful
finishes and furniture that can help bring out their creativity in a young age. Rectangular
shaped furniture is too monochromatic for the children, so curvy shapes are the way to
go. In this design, the concept behind this is to have an Art Nouveau – esque design but
integrated into a child friendly design with more bright colors.

Design Philosophy

“A house is a machine for living in”

- Le Corbusier

Just like a house, any structure is built not for the environment or aesthetics only, schools are
also built for the people using it. In this case, the people using it are children well below the age of 10. It
is very important to take note of the user of the building being design, to be able to design a more
comfortable and suitable building.

Design considerations

As we are working a design for children, it is very important to assure their safety. The reason
for curvy shaped furnitures is to reduce the chance of accidents inside the classrooms or even the
school. Another issue that can be addressed is the odour control, children are not yet very aware of
proper hygiene and bathroom etiquette, so it is important to consider to put the comfort rooms in a
place where the sun can reach it, so that moisture can be minimized and bacteria reduced.
Vistro, Patricia Mae

Concept: Nature

In today’s modern world, where high-rise buildings are dominating, long highways that are
exhausting, smoky vehicles that pollutes the air and trees being unnoticeable because of frequent cut
downs. It is just right to design a building that depicts nature, especially to the place where children
stays. It will allow the pupils to reconnect themselves with nature and at the same time be comfortably
and healthy while learning. Healthy environment helps the people specially the children to be active,
creative and develop their curiosity.

Design Philosophy:

“Design itself provides security and safety. “

Considerations:

Accessibility: Allows disabled people to access the building, since there are a lot of different people that
comes in and out of the building.

Orientation: observe and use true north, sun path, and wind pattern to benefit the site.

Building laws: Follow National Building code (PD 1096), Fire code of the Philippines (RA 9514), National
Plumbing code (1378) for safety.

Zoning: Determined noise, views, access, public and private etc in order for rooms and different areas to
be properly placed.

Circulation: Since it is use to accommodate number of children and people, circulation is very important.
Circulation includes pathways, entrance, exits, dead end, pedestrians etc.

Sustainability: Together with the concept, it is important to consider the sustainability of the structure.
References:

Han, S. (2019, August 28). Fantasia Blossom School / PURE Architects. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/923657/fantasia-star-blossom-school-pure-architects

Han, S. (2019, August 5). Nanjing Galaxy Kindergarten/ Lacime Architects. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/922218/nanjing-galaxy-kindergarten-lacime-architects

Pintos, P. (2019, April 7). Primary School and Kindergarten Täuffelen/ Morscher Architekten.

Retrieved from: https://www.archdaily.com/914218/primary-school-and-kindergarten-

tauffelen-morscher-architekten

Han, S. (2019, June 17). Taihu New Town Wujun Kindergarten/ Tus-Design. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/918856/taihu-new-town-wujun-kindergarten-tus-design

Han, S. (2019, April 2). Hangzhou Tides Kindergarten. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/913953/hangzhou-tides-kindergarten-gla

Pintos, P. (2019, May 1). Maison de l’Enfance/ Y.Architectes. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/916099/maison-de-lenfance-yarchitectes

Ott, C. (2019, May 6). Kakogawa Kindergarten/ Takenaka Corporation. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/916347/kakogawa-kindergarten-takenaka-corporation

Han, S. (2019, May 15). Park Legend Kindergarten/ Challenge Design. Retrieved from:

https://www.archdaily.com/916869/park-legend-kindergarten-challenge-design

Mairs, J. (2014, October 27). RH+ creates daycare centre with a crumpled facade. Retrieved from:

https://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/27/rh-plus-architecture-child-care-centre-paris-

geometric-facade/