clashing colors and playful landscapes complete teamLab architects' nursery in japan

in the japanese city of nagareyama, teamLab architects has completed ‘kidslabo minami-nagareyama nursery’, a vibrant, u-shaped building that’s designed to prepare children for the future. through a number of architectural strategies, the design team hopes to create an environment where young kids can gain early experience and useful soft skills for living and working in an information society.

images © vincent hecht | @vincenthecht.photography

‘in an information society, the way we work continues to change dramatically,  says teamLab architects. ‘rather than continuing to work in the same job or occupation from the time you start until retirement, as was the case before the information society, there is now a need to change your job function and collaborate with people from different fields (to co-create) in order to realize something. in such an age, we believe that we need places that affirm diversity starting in early childhood, places where children can experience spending time with a diverse array of people.’

teamLab architects shaped the nursery into a self-contained polygon with no fixed center in an effort to create a scattered but shared space where children can enjoy various activities together. indoor rooms array around two outdoor areas on the first and second floor. these spaces, which open out to a generous front garden, provide a great place for kids to play and interact. they are also visually and physically connected in a deliberate design strategy; glass doors allow kids inside to see who’s playing in the sandpit, the netted floors let someone on the second floor wave to someone below, and children in the main garden can feel like they’re in the same, shared space as their friends.

as well as creating shared spaces without boundaries, a key element of the nursery design was to provide a landscape where the children can play and explore using their bodies. uneven ground, netted surfaces and sand pits all intend to teach the children spatial awareness by using their mind and body together. ‘cities are full of flat planes because of the development of roads to be conducive to wheels. but by increasing the number of three-dimensional spaces in the everyday life of a nursery school, we hope that children can develop the spatial awareness skills needed in an information society, which cannot be easily obtained in the city,’  explains teamLab architects.

following the goal of affirming diversity, the architects applied clashing colors to the nursery in the hopes of creating a space that makes children feel like it’s ok to be different. a red roof clashes with blue façades and pops of vibrant color can be seen throughout the interior.

with all this color, not to mention the protruding windows on the elevations, the nursery makes quite a statement in the new residential area it’s located in. to try to blend it in, the architects adopted a hip roof design, and the scale of the windows was designed to align with those in surrounding buildings. ‘we designed the hip roof as a collection of multiple roofs rather than a single one in order to express the idea of multiple people consulting with one another and thinking together, rather than a single person thinking alone. the structure is designed to echo people discussing together in a circle around the inner garden,’  says teamLab architects.

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project info:

name: kidslabo minami-nagareyama nursery

location: 18 ki, nagareyama, chiba, japan

client: kidslabo inc.

architect: teamLab architects

site area: 634.54 sqm (6830.13 sqft)

building area: 348.43 sqm (3750.47 sqft)

gross floor area: 497.39 sqm (5353.86 sqft)

structure: wooden structure

photography: © vincent hecht