It Takes a Village

The Yamaikarashi Nursery School offers an education that combines the best of both worlds. On the one hand, the nursery school is a sanctuary for the children in which they find support, guidance, and structured teaching. On the other, children are encouraged to explore nature and the local community for experiential learning opportunities. The ideal school building, therefore, must reflect this pedagogical aim and promote curiosity, the love of nature, and respect for the community. Rebuilding the nursery school presented an opportunity for architects and educators to work together to integrate these educational elements.  

A Flexible and Continuous Floor Plan

The rebuilt nursery school draws inspiration from the idea of a village. Instead of one large building, it is several connected buildings, rather like a small rural settlement. There is a flexible layout where children can explore, play, and learn at their own pace. Rooms are connected by wide corridors or long verandas, and the many recesses, nooks and crannies, and openings in the partition walls give the children a sense of novelty and adventure, so no matter how well they know them there are limitless structured and unstructured possibilities for enjoying the space. The cross-sectional floor plan allows children from different classes and age groups to socialise, starting to build a community from an early age. As it is single one-storey structure, the school building is expandable should the need for more space or play areas arise.     

Community Engagement

Timber is the primary building material throughout the building. Children are familiar with wood and recognise it from surrounding buildings and the woods. It is also a sustainable material that is easy to work with, making it possible to create unity throughout the space while introducing special elements in the spatial design. In addition to the warmth wood brings, underneath the cedar floor heat exchanges and air conditioning have been installed to create underfloor air flows to keep the building comfortable no matter the season. The timber structures are also in harmony with the outdoors, so children enjoy both as they learn and play. Relocating the nursery school to this new suburban location in the Nishi ward of Niigata is intended to mitigate the graying of the nearby neighbourhood, and the village is connected with the school by a long, zigzagging covered walkway which leads from the figurative school village to the village in the real world, giving young children the confidence to go out to explore and engage with the community.