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Architects: Think Logic Design
- Area: 16700 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Qingshan Wu, Tao Wang
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Lead Architect: Tao Wang
Text description provided by the architects. This case is YUXI NO. 1 KINDERGARTEN GUISHAN BRANCH (hereinafter referred to as Guishan Kindergarten). Its predecessor was the Youth Sports College of Yuxi City, Yunnan Province (hereinafter referred to as the Junior Sports School) with a history of 45 years. As one of the important livelihood projects for Yuxi City to welcome the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party and to respond to the "14th Five-Year Plan" urban renewal strategy, it eliminates large demolition and construction, releases children's characteristics, and penetrates ecological nature in the renovation and reconstruction, and interprets the new significance of public kindergartens in the practice of urban idle educational assets reuse.
Sports&Ecological city | Project location. The project is located in Hongta District, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province. The four seasons in Yuxi City are like spring and the scenery is beautiful. It has the most beautiful "Skyland" Fuxian Lake, "World Terraced Fields" Nanuo Terraced Fields, and "Animal Kingdom" Ailao Mountain, and other ecological scenery. At the same time, Yuxi City also has the titles of "National Swimming Hometown" and "National Softball Hometown", and is a contact point city for the national sports industry. On August 8, 2022, the 16th Yunnan Games will be held here. At the end of 2020, after the Shao Sports School was relocated to the new area, this area will need to reuse its assets to build the first public kindergarten demonstration park in Yuxi City, which is school-enterprise cooperation and group-run school.
Reuse of Urban Idle Educational Assets | Renewal Strategies. Time is tight, tasks are heavy, and budgets are small. Based on the policy basis for the renovation of urban idle assets, and by weighing the pros and cons of the demolition and retention of the original school buildings, the design adopts the update strategy of "overall preservation and upgrading and partial demolition and new construction" - the original swimming pool, martial arts hall and table tennis hall is retained, repaired, and renovated. Upgrade the functional classroom for children; demolish the badminton hall as a parking area; demolish the original tennis court, and integrate the newly built preschool teaching building into the whole layout. The newly-built preschool teaching building has three floors. The semi-enclosed shape is combined with soft arcs. The main tone of pure white and log color is in harmony with the green ecological environment. The semi-enclosed space of the building opens to the activity courtyard, and the inner and outer spaces visually penetrate each other.
Converting the original runway into an air runway | Design highlights. The biggest update highlight of the park is the translation of the original runway into an air corridor - "moving the runway on the ground into the air". The large lawn of the Minor Sports School is preserved, and the raised corridor connects the building and the site. The sky corridor is not only an activity space but also a game sightseeing space, giving the building a richer functional platform and forming a flexible and three-dimensional living and learning environment.
The sky corridor extends all the way to the teaching building. The original intention of widening part of the corridor is to make it easier for children to walk, and now it has become a dining area for children. Children dine outside, with colorful rain boots placed on the edge of the platform, forming a vivid and infectious image. On a sunny day, light pours in from the gaps and openings between the grilles, and the scattered light and shadow change every moment. Overlapping, the children are immersed in warm light and shadow.
Hidden and broad regional characteristics | Garden characteristics. The park is located in a densely populated residential and cultural area in the city center, close to the Yuxi Museum and Nie'er City Park, with a strong cultural atmosphere. In order to integrate the regional characteristics, we built the garden into a hidden building. The teaching building facing the city interface is hidden behind the shade of the trees on the street, and a section of the corridor facing the street is connected with the building to form the main entrance of the garden. The moderate retreat of the entrance interface forms a wide pick-up plaza, which solves the problem of crowd congestion when picking up and dropping off in the morning and evening. After entering the park, the oversized atrium that catches your eye is the "green hall" of the garden, with lawns, big trees, green islands, sandstones, slides... It gives people a feeling of being suddenly enlightened.
Restore the most primitive picture of kindergarten | Design concept. The design abandons drastic creation and tries to minimize the intervention. With the concept of "restore the most primitive picture of the kindergarten", it uses a large area of green space, the most ecological environment, and simple and unadorned materials to return to the origin of nature and life. An ecological green space is spread out, echoing the Nie'er City Park not far to the east, opening a green "ventilation hole" in the dense urban texture and liberating the high-density pressure in the city center. The most primitive kindergarten in the ideal is displayed in front of you, with a large lawn, a small hillside, and several big trees. Children run and play freely around the big trees.
The atrium "Green Island" is a leisure space under the forest created by the landscape micro-topography combined with a tree. The terrain design combined with children's drilling holes and runways enriches the use of space. There are pools and sand pools in the inner courtyard. Playing with sand is the nature of children. No child can resist the temptation to build the world with sand. The woods on the west side will grow along with the growth of the garden, and the trees that accompany the children grow up, and will eventually become lush and leafy, becoming a fond memory of childhood.
Multi-dimensional sports space creates healthy physique for children | Stereoscopic streamline. In the context of the country's vigorous promotion of "integration of sports and education", the construction of large-scale sports spaces in kindergartens has become a trend. Guishan Garden has a 5,000-square-meter children's outdoor sports field and a 250-meter-long air runway. There are two stairs and a slide from the gallery and the building, which can quickly lead to the outdoor activity area and push the children to complete the cycle of continuous pursuit and vertical movement. The space is connected in series up and down, and the inside and outside of the building are interconnected. A multi-dimensional, three-dimensional, and infinite loop environment naturally causes children to "run", which greatly increases their physical activity and creates a healthy body for the children.
Bright and Soft Room | Cozy Interior. The interior of the kindergarten is also bright and open in response to the outdoor environment. Each activity classroom is composed of three parts, the activity room, the lounge, and the kindergarten toilet. Large-area windows bring sunlight directly into the interior, filling the room with sunlight. Windows are opened on both sides to ensure daily ventilation. The round wooden arches are full and friendly in shape, and the circular exploration window openings on the wall make the space soft and interesting. The furniture is mainly in wood and white tones, and soft materials such as carpets, curtains, and wall decorations are added to create a comfortable and warm teaching environment similar to "home" for children.
Postscript. On September 6, 2021, the first school Guishan Garden officially opened. Children roam freely in an ecologically natural, warm, and comfortable environment with complete facilities and childlike fun. The garden is full of dynamism in the balance of old and new, and full of vitality in the changes of retraction and release. Faced with the practice of most kindergartens being separated from the surrounding environment, highlighting novel shapes and focusing on human intervention, Guishan Garden expresses an attitude of infinite freedom and endless nature: not maverick, not exaggerated and weird, integrated into the city and into the environment, rich on the inside but calm on the outside. It is a part of the city, a part of nature, and the most ideal and original picture that a kindergarten should have. When night falls, the soft lights in the garden come on, showing a softer and quieter temperament, silently guarding the city, caring for the children's laughter and innocent innocence.
