Description

The principles behind this kindergarten in an impoverished community in West London are firstly to shape an environment which is in tune with children’s natural rhythms of play, and secondly to deliver an ambitious project on a very tight budget.

The most characteristic pattern in children’s play is the free flow, from activity to activity, transforming as it goes. Through observational research the designers have been struck by the levels of inventiveness children bring to this play, using the environment of the kindergarten, both inside and outside, as a touchstone for their developing relationship with the wider world. In keeping with this pattern, each child can develop his or her personal routes through the play spaces, indeed through the wider environment of walkable journeys to and from the kindergarten. Movement through the various spaces rather than confining children within a single room is one of the key design parameters.

A further dimension of this play was the concept of complexity. For most children a complex scene invites curiosity and awareness much more readily than a simple, easily read architectural scene. Equally a playroom with corners and hidden places will hold more fascination for the young child than a straightforward and easily passable one, while too much complexity will leave children bewildered and lost. At Cherry Lane this means complexity in plan and in section; corridors are winding rather than straight, room features such as ceilings and fenestration are variegated, the building’s structure is evident rather than hidden away.

Within the framework of this spatial complexity, it is important to provide quiet spaces within which individuals or small groups of children can play undisturbed. Hence the spaces are choreographed by a number of specific child-orientated features, such as a child height door, the stage area (with a theatrical curtain and city mural as the backdrop), the wet play spaces all of which enable the children to relate better to their environment. Use of natural materials with views out to the green surroundings promote connectivity to the natural world and of course the direct access to the external play spaces encourages free flow between the inside and the outside wherever possible.

The material qualities of this building are soft rather than hard, extending to the very shape of the building itself. Warm yielding materials such as cedar cladding and soft, mellow fabrics for the seating, drapes and wall hangings were used. Rooms are never square, the main nursery is oval, the entrance and circulation curves and twists its way between the two main built elements, meeting rooms are either circular or triangular in shape. Fluidity, spatial complexity and a green naturalistic tempo make this a building of immense pleasure, an authentic learning environment.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.