Shucun Kindergarten / Architectural Design Research Institute of SCUT

Text description provided by the architects. Shucun Kindergarten is located in Shaba Town, Yangxi County, in the western part of Guangdong Province. It is a seaside village kindergarten near the scenic Moon Bay. The site area is 4,567 square meters, and the total construction area is 4,405 square meters. The facility includes 12 rooms for children’s daily activities, as well as rooms for music and physical activities, art, science, and reading. Additionally, there are outdoor and semi-outdoor areas for children’s activities.

The project aims to reduce the educational gap between rural and urban areas in Yangxi County, promote the development of rural preschool education, and create a model rural kindergarten .” With technical support from the design team of the South China University of Technology Architectural Design Institute, a low-energy, high-quality kindergarten with coastal cultural characteristics was built on a limited site and budget. This design won the 2023 IDA International Design Award Silver Prize in the Education category.

The site is located in the central area of a typical rural village in western Guangdong, surrounded by self-built village houses divided by secondary and minor roads. The entrance to the site is set back 17 meters from the intersection of two main village roads, facilitating the flow of pedestrians and vehicles, reducing safety risks for children, and providing a comfortable waiting area for parents and villagers.

The design concept revolves around “simplicity, purity, and integration with nature.” The main building comprises several modular square volumes that appear to grow from the site, with elevated corridors defining the site boundaries. This design naturally integrates with the surrounding village houses, which predominantly feature box-like forms. The entire building is primarily white, creating a harmonious and natural educational environment against the backdrop of Moon Bay’s blue sky and white clouds.

To fully showcase the local coastal culture, the design draws inspiration from marine elements such as ripples and biological curves. The second-floor corridor incorporates curved shapes, creating an embracing gesture within the site. The primary teaching spaces reflect the typical texture of rural architecture, designed as modular boxes arranged in a fishbone pattern, connected by corridors, and adapted to the site’s layout.

The design cleverly extracts elements from “wind, sails, and waves,” unifying pure volumes with a clean, modern aesthetic. The curved gables simulate the state of sea breezes, with clean lines creating a flowing visual effect, enhancing the building’s dynamism and lightness.

Large glass windows in the children’s rooms bring in abundant natural light, offering expansive views, connecting indoor and outdoor spaces, and enhancing spatial transparency. The rational layout of windows and openings ensures good indoor air circulation, providing a healthy learning environment.

Yangxi County experiences hot, rainy summers and frequent typhoons. To address these conditions, the design features elevated corridors that enhance the connectivity between functional modules, providing sheltered ground-level spaces and second-floor activity platforms with views. This design ensures continuous activities for children and creates natural ventilation corridors, improving the local microclimate.

The internal space layout is flexible and can be adjusted according to different teaching activities, meeting the diverse needs of the kindergarten. Open activity areas are set up to encourage children to play and explore freely, stimulating their creativity and imagination.

The building uses mature and reliable frame structures and locally available building materials, reducing construction costs and difficulty. The design prioritizes passive energy-saving technologies, such as predominantly solid east-west gables, south-facing eaves to reduce sun exposure, elevated corridors providing a windproof, rainproof, and ventilated environment, retaining and utilizing existing vegetation, and creating a comfortable, safe, and environmentally friendly learning and activity space.