Energy of the space

 

Here is one object that I am proposing you.
Fuji Kindergarten // Tokyo // Japan // Tezuka Architects

The request for Tezuka architects was to make a Roof House for 500 kindergarten pupils. It is conceived as a single village.

Before architects started their work they realised that the energy in that space is so good and strong that the best thing would probably be to reconstruct it, to try and leave some things as they are. And they were not the only ones thinking so. Eventually, scared of big chandges, directors said: “Kids here are really good in putting buckets under the leaks in the roof..”.Projecting through the roof deck are three preserved zelkova trees 25m in height. The thing that makes the most impact in this project is this roof – one big playground used all year long. The energy of this roof is so good that when you go up there you just don’t wish to go down for ages, no mater your age you just want to stay and play as a kid. On the day the building was handed over, four hundred and fifty kindergarten pupils sat on the eaves. A thousand pairs of socks danced on the eaves. All the people involved couldn’t stop their tears of gratitude.

One of the goals was to make a building withouth dead ends and with good social relations and with no hidden places. Teachers and pupils in closed spaces don’t know what is occurring in the adjacent spaces. There are no walls in this kindergarten. There are just piles of paulownia wood blocks to indicate the area of each class. The rooms are only divided by casually stacked-up furniture, like building blocks. Scheme is the “end of an era.” The end of an era is a treasure house of “joys” that have now been abandoned. Modern conveniences have deprived children of sensation. They don’t know that when it rains, the soil gets wet. They don’t know that if a person is hit, they get injured. They don’t know the reason why a light bulb glows.  “What we want to teach through this building is common sense.” Common sense comprises those values of human society that are unchanging, even across eras.

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/japan/fuji_kindergarten.htm

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/japan/roof_house.htm

Jelena Stepanovic, student from University of Limerick.