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Architects: Atelier Deshaus
- Area: 660 m²
- Year: 2011
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Photographs: SHU He
Text description provided by the architects. The kindergarten is located in the Jiading new town of the northern suburb in Shanghai, it is neither countryside nor urban in the traditional sense. Face to the ambiguous and uncertain surrounding, the architecture emphasizes the self-improvement, directly intervening into the site, and making a very clear juxtaposition of the architecture and the site. Compare with the open environment, the kindergarten acts as an introversive area. The architecture is divided into two general parts: one is the rational and efficient area, which is composed of 15 classrooms and a number of playrooms; the other is the intentionally enlarged transportation space, which is an atrium with ramp ways connecting with different storey.
This atrium contributes to an emotional and entertaining spatial experience that is beyond the common daily experiencing. Beside the transportation function, it is the vagueness and uncertainty that also provide a number of possibilities in spatial utilization. The external form and the façade represent the inevitability to the internal relation as well. Apart from the two separated shapes of this architecture, the constantly transformed height among different floors is been represented onto the façade as well.
The open activity space are being put into these changed elevation places, and the courtyards has been extended along the vertical direction instead of the horizontal direction in the traditional method. Thus, the courtyards and activities of the children act as an important part of the façades. Everyday, kids and teachers are shuttling between the architecture and the site, between the two-separated parts of the architecture. They are shielded by the architecture and experiencing the inside and outside, the balance of passion and reason.
