You Are Going to Want to Send Your Kids to This Kindergarten
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At this school in Tokyo, trees are meant to be climbed, children are encouraged to run wild, and classrooms aren't rooms at all.
Developed by Takaharu Tezuka, this circular building is more than just a kindergarten, which has often been mistaken stateside as a form of extended day care where kids are instructed to stay seated and save creative exploration for recess. In this TEDxKyoto Talk, however, the architect explained his design process and how this unique building encourages kids to be kids.
"I think architecture is capable of changing this world — and people's lives," he said. "And this is one of the attempts to change the lives of children."
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The building is a giant ring.
The architect described it as "endless circulation" on top of the roof: "If you are a parent, you know that kids love to keep making circles."
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It's where they have assemblies.
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The roof was made as low as possible.
"We wanted to see children on top of the roof, not only underneath the roof," Tezuka said. "And if the roof is too high, you see only the ceiling."
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That way, there's also multilevel interaction.
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They get in more exercise than you can imagine.
In a span of 20 minutes, one boy covered 3.7 miles of ground on the roof. But that's not the exception, Tezuka said. The children in this kindergarten average 2.5 miles a day. "And these children have the highest athletic abilities among many kindergartens. The principal says, 'I don't train them. We leave them on top of the roof. . . . They keep running."
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There are no boundaries between classrooms.
"There is no acoustic barrier at all," Tezuka said. "When you put many children in a quiet box, some of them get really nervous. But in this kindergarten, there is no reason they get nervous. Because there is no boundary. And the principal says if the boy in the corner doesn't want to stay in the room, we let him go. . . . Here, they leave and come back. It's a natural process."
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There aren't even boundaries between the inside and outside.
"This kindergarten is completely open, most of the year," he said. "You should know that you are waterproof. You never melt in rain. So, children are supposed to be outside. So that is how we should treat them."
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Being loud is essential.
"We consider noise very important," the architect said. "And in this kindergarten, these children show amazing concentration in class. They need noise. You are not supposed to be in silence."
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Communal "wells" are perfect places for socializing.
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They're encouraged to take risks.
"Don't control them; don't protect them too much," he said. "They need to tumble sometimes. They need to get some injury. And that makes them learn how to live in this world."
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The school's other facilities are also made for tiny humans.
The annex building right next to the oval-shaped kindergarten is 16 feet tall with seven floors.
Find out more.
Watch Tezuka's TED Talk to find out more.