Children's Forest Nursery School

Description:
‘Children’s Forest’ is a nursery school to hold children between the age of 0 to 5, planned on a forest hill at the foot of Mount Fuji. On our first visit, the site was filled with Hinoki trees with dappled sunlight penetrating scarcely through the branches casted plentiful light bubbles overlapping each other on the ground, from which we got inspired to design a sunlit place softly floating in the woods. Its topographical feature - the undulating slope and the hill rising up to 3-4 meters to the west of the site - was another important element to retain, as we believed such environmental aspects are significant for the children to experience as part of the education.   The rooms for each age group and other programs such as temporary care or teachers’ lounge are made as separate cubical units sitting on varying ground level and angles, oriented to frame its own view of natural scenes around - wide grass field spread out in front of the rooms of 2-5 year-olds for direct and easy access whenever children want to run around, along with the 8-meters-tall symbolic tree to sit under and the hill to climb with a small tunnel to crawl into; forest and woods embracing rooms that needs a rather calm atmosphere; sky changing its color over the trees always visible from the open courtyard beside the hall, etc.   These volumes are interconnected inward by ramps and in-between spaces, creating interior landscape where children can play, crawl or climb in a more comfortable and safer condition even in bad weather. A multipurpose hall capable of holding up to 150 people is located in the center surrounded by the room units that everyone can easily get together for a daily playtime or events. Despite the large covering over the hall, the skylights on the eaves and the gaps appearing between the roof and box units allow natural light and glimpses of greenery stream into the interior space and connect people inside visually and physically to the environment.   The open courtyard, furnished with a wooden deck, is accessible from the hall providing a safe playground especially for the youngest members not yet ready to run around in a larger lawn. On the other side of the hall, older and more active children would enjoy climbing the bouldering, up where it connects to the back yard on a higher ground level, embraced by the forest.   The design strategy employing multiple interconnected volumes is structurally valid as well, as the framework is planned based on the size of each cubical unit, comparably smaller and feasible, which eventually forges the overall structure in much larger scale. Once completed, the volumes surrounding the hall stand stable enough to bear the ceiling structure stretching over the hall, minimizing the number of columns in this central space. Each volume is topped with ruled surface out of straight beams, forming a slight slope to compose the undulating movement of the roof as a whole.   Integrated with its rich natural context, we wish this garden of children provides a warm and healthy environment for the little ones to grow up with some good memories from the forest.

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