This kindergarten was created by Suga Architects Workplace to make the most of a hemmed-in city plot and features a rooftop vegetable backyard, a courtyard playground and a double-height playroom .
Located on the corner of a city block in Kobe, south-west Japan, the Takeno Nursery spans the complete length and width of its 417-square-metre web site, making it possible for enough area for a massive private courtyard at the building’s centre.
Despite this, local company Suga Architects Office did not want to the structure to overwhelm the neighbourhood, so the developing height was capped at two storeys and the exterior was “softened” with a timber cladding.
“Simply because a nursery college is a public building, it is essential to be mindful of the environmental impact to the neighbourhood,” explained project architect Shintaro Fukuhara.
To further break down the mass of the creating, sections of the proposed volume were minimize away.
Associated story: Hakemiya Nursery School is made to remind kids of their properties
This developed sheltered spaces for finding out and perform on the ground floor, as nicely as a massive roof terrace with a vegetable garden running along a single side.
“It is a courtyard-shaped program, so lighting can get properly from the outdoors area to the building’s centre,” said Fukuhara.
“From the street side, the scale feels like that of a one-storey home.”
Narrow lengths of taken care of red cedar run vertically around the external walls, while the vast majority of surfaces about the courtyard are covered with galvalume cladding – a sort of aluminium and zinc alloy.
The nursery entrance sits inside of a tiny recess in the centre of the curved facade. It prospects via a small lobby into the courtyard, which functions an artificial grass surface and playground tools.
Activity rooms and a staff workplace sit on opposite sides of the lobby. The double-height playroom is located just beyond the office with a mezzanine balcony over, and there is also a perform area and sand pit sheltered beneath the overhanging roof.
“Children run around in the backyard inexhaustibility barefoot,” mentioned Fukuhara. “The pilotis can make the playground shaded, defending kindergarteners from significant sunlight in the summer time time. In addition, it is achievable to perform even on a rainy day.”
There are two sets of staircases leading up to the 1st floor, generating a looping route between two extra exercise rooms, a kitchen, and the rooftop garden.
“There is not a dead end and the corridor spreading out permanently is a way of journey for children,” added Fukuhara. “And because young children on the rooftop garden can look down to the road, the environment of the garden reaches outside.”
Photography is by Yoshiharu Matsumura.
Undertaking credits:
Consumer: Kenichi Ohama, chairman of social welfare corporate Youkoukai
Layout: Tadashi Suga Architects Workplace – Tadashi Suga, Shintaro Fukuhara
Construction: Yoshikawa-gumi – Kenichi Ishikawa, Syougo Hira
Ground floor program 
First floor program 
Roof prepare 
Cross sections 
Long sections
