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Architects: HIBINOSEKKEI, Youji no Shiro
- Area: 1080 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Studio Bauhaus, Ryuji Inoue
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Manufacturers: Bozo, Joly Pad, Toko Shutter
Text description provided by the architects. This is a nursery at the site which used to be a fire department. It is on a part of Chitose New Town straddling the border between Toyonaka city and Suita city. In this area, communities had been built and developed around the housing estates, but now they tend to decline and disappear. The nursery is a place to develop children’s personality and also, it’s important to tell children the history of their neighborhood and old scenery. Therefore, we reinterpret the housing estates and plan a nursery as a hub of local communities.
For example, the exterior has different kinds of levels and give variety in order to avoid the long and thin exterior which is a characteristic of housing estates but gives a ticky-tacky impression. We planned a balcony at the periphery of the building which is also a characteristic of a housing estate, where there are undulation, climbing equipment, slope, bench, and a monkey bar. They make children take an exercise playing. In addition, the children’s activities are sent out to the neighborhood in the process. Also, in this area, by allowing a light injury and failure, children will build a further sense of advancement and challenge.
Making more contacts among people, we planned people’s eyes can be spread to any directions. For example, the kitchen and dining room is open to the street or outside of the building. They are also connected to the outside corridor and play terrace so that neighbors can take care of children’s activities and for teachers, it became easier to notice what is happened outside. In every nursery room, there are large windows at the side of the play terrace and the corridor so that it prompts different ages of children to communicate and feel their presence each other. As a result, younger children yearn for older children and them eager to grow up. On the other hand, older children will get a kindness by taking care of younger children.
Recently, most of the nurseries shut doors to outside in an aspect of the security. But in this nursery, by opening doors to outside, the human security is being built. Accordingly, warmer communities are being created in the local society as well as in the nursery. Now this terrace is the place to communicate with those who live near here. If this good interchanges continued and grew up touching warm communities, children’s communication ability could be built. Consequently, they must be ones to make a good future in this society.
