Description

The use of applied colour in architecture is treated with caution by many architects particularly when used on the external façades of new buildings. It can so easily feel inappropriate if too exuberant or if it is used in the wrong place, especially when the existing context is important, for example in a sensitive urban situation. Many architects believe that colour should derive from the materials available in the construction of the building. But what happens if there is very little colour in the materials? For example in the construction of this large new kindergarten, part of Satit Bilingual School at Rangsit University, where budgetary constraints required a construction system of exposed concrete finishes and semi-industrial steel cladding panels; this promised to be a potentially dull low key building, more factory than play palace. Therefore the designers made a key decision to use strong colours on the façades, which are intended to reflect the pleasurable nature of attending daycare, and encourage children to accept that this is a building for play and creativity rather than tending to dwell on the more negative aspects of extended periods apart from their parents; in this respect it is a welcome distraction. However, and perhaps more importantly, the colours are used to counter the prevailing climatic conditions, where the high humidity of a tropical climate can often promote listlessness amongst staff and children. Here colour is used to counter this negative energy by stimulating the senses, with warm to hot paired colours, which may seem inappropriate in a western climate, but here are surprisingly successful. Satit Bilingual School Kindergarten becomes a highly contextual building if viewed in these terms.

Located in Patumthani province a northern suburban area of Bangkok, Thailand, this two-storey building contains 12 activity-based classrooms and 8 shared children’s washrooms and wet play spaces. Prior to attending school at the age of 3, children will be cared for in a home setting. Here they are organized in three age ranges, 3 years old, 4 years old and 5 years old, before they go to elementary school aged 6. Each two-storey block containing the activity areas is articulated as a distinctive area which has its own roof detached from the main roofscape which from certain angles expresses itself as self-contained little two storey houses. Inside there are broad internal circulation areas which are top lit and appear like mini atrium spaces, with voids and openings to provide views down and across, aiding supervision of children as they move from one area to the next and promoting in the children their own sense of understanding of the structure’s complex three dimensional form. Surprisingly the interior is largely devoid of colour, creating a relaxed restrained atmosphere in contrast to the vibrancy of the exterior facades. Instead there is a cool modern space with smooth open staircases flowing between ground and first floor. The only colour is an olive green, which is used to highlight the walls of the play chamber, an indoor playground on two levels.

The concept of an indoor playground was partly a security issue and partly a factor of the climate. It is often simply too wet or too hot for children to spend extended periods outdoors. The alternative is this cool internal space, which is circular in shape and wrapped by a long gentle ramp. This is in reality an internal running track which links the dual level play areas together. The effect of movement and dynamism is a counter to the more static and enclosed activity areas; children can circulate along a dramatically tapering, internal atrium, run up to the first floor and access their playground on the upper level, meeting new friends from older groups in the spirit of exploration!

This is a deliberate attempt to build a more physical environment for children. The very spaces outside activity areas which are usually characterized as none child spaces merely functional corridors or staircases, here become safe activity zones in their own right. It is a radical play place, transformed by this positive view of children’s movement patterns at this critical time of growth and development.

According to the designers, the approach is scientifically related to the movement patterns of young children and is intended to stimulate brain development through critical cognition, in a way that would only perhaps be possible for pre-literate children to enjoy freely and uninhibited. It is perhaps more simply described as an architecture which expresses the freedom of childhood creativity through the use of colour and the adoption of irregular curved and rectangular geometric forms all mixed together. Of particular note is the so called playground chamber, an internalized world of controlled environment yet providing exciting physical activities, a form which is generated by the rotation of the plan at one of its ends, exploiting the eccentric shape of the site. Clad in shiny metallic panels, from the outside, this element of the architecture appears to be lifting off into orbit, an image that adds to the gleeful dynamic of the whole.

This is not an easy building for trained conservative architects to appreciate. Rather it is a combination of practical child orientated architectural moves, mixed with a rich array of often-whimsical gestures, which nevertheless hold together surprisingly well. It is radical in its use of colour, attracting children like bears to a honey pot. Sitting in the dull suburban landscape, reflected light shines out from its colourful surfaces like a beacon of light and colour. Inside the spaces are more conservative, with controlled even lighting and a more simple surface treatment to provide a more sustainable environment for the long hours children spend there. It is an exciting experiment in a particular child orientated approach to design for children.

---

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