Cool spaces for children… Leimond

Cool spaces for children… Leimond-Shonaka Nursery School in Japan

ByDecoPequeson03 . 11 . 2014

From the moment we are born, everything we sense, see and feel influences our world’s point of view. From childhood, we learn concepts and new ways to understand life, not only through words, but also with everything implicit in what they teach us, in scenes and gestures of people around us. We gradually build our own reality according to the atmosphere in which we live, habits, art expressions, the worthy oral tradition of our grandparents and parents…even the clothes’ colours or the way we hug tell us something about life and ourselves…

Every single new experience in a child’s life marks his personality and his way to deal with future. Do you think is possible that the architecture around us influences our character?  Have you seen those wonderful projects of architecture and interior-design for kids? Today we are talking about Leimond-Shonaka Nursery School, in Ashai, in Japan.

We often accept space division with walls, forming cubicles in every size. They are isolated and limited spaces to which we can access just through doors or windows that must be opened or closed. What would happen if our space perception changed? If rooms could be joined -in spite of their different colours, lights and atmospheres– without using any door? All these concepts have been redefined in that Japanese school. This nursery has been designed by the Archivision Hirotani Architecture Studio.

At this school, children from 0 to 5 play and learn daily in a different architectural space. The main purpose is transmitting the connection between different spaces. Using a set of vertical screens, arcades, glass walls, open arcs and skylights children move between different activities and that allows them  getting an opener and  more spontaneous space perception.

This school’s decoration is inspired in children’s books with 3D illustrations. It has superimposed several elements in open planes, playing with light and colour without separate ones from the others. They are assembled in a different way to get a harmony and spaciousness feeling. In some zones, ceilings and walls lengthen themselves, creating a tunnel joined by different-sized arcs which connect different zones. Children play, run, paint, go to the toilet and have lunch at this amazing architecture work.

Could this space influence children’s way to perceive a world as a connectivity-open space without barriers?