The kindergarten that creates children’s prodigious senses

Kanazawa Megumi Kindergarten has a 30-year history as the kindergarten attached to Kanazawa Baptist Church of the Japan Baptist Convention. In 2002, it became an independent educational corporation due to its antiquated facilities and lack of functionality as a place to provide the level of childcare demanded today. A decision was then taken to build a new kindergarten, while also keeping the existing church and vicarage within the project area.

The facility’s independence as an educational corporation is expressed through its siting across the garden, opposite the church, while at the same time enhancing visibility of the church bell tower from the road. It was a challenging task to fit a child care space for up to 85 pupils and a more than 400-square-meter garden onto a 1,222.22-square- meter site, to also include the church and vicarage (an area of 291.78 square meters). There was the option of a three-story building, but we proceeded with the two-story plan so as not to make the building too prominent within the scene of the residential area.

We therefore designed a floor and flow plan where a single room could be used flexibly depending on the child care programs and times of use, rather than as a fixed space with a single function.

The chapel, assembly room, and kitchen were also integrated to work alongside the functions of the kindergarten. Each room in the kindergarten was designed to seamlessly connect with the others to create a large space without clearly defined boundaries, rather than being surrounded by uniform walls and ceilings. In their free time, children can freely run around from room to room, using the entire kindergarten as a large playground. Regarding the quality of the space, its form, daylight, height of the ceiling, materials, and smell are diverse, with every room being different. We designed it so that children would be able to experience the space using their senses, and so that appropriate actions could be naturally generated according to the situation, while they choose or discover their favorite scenes using either their own thoughts or through involvement with their teachers and other pupils. The diverse quality of the spaces makes it possible to select a location according to the purpose, thus making it beneficial for childcare. Additionally, since the space does not feature any of the usual character designs that children like, they are not treated as children, and people from any generation are able to experience a sense of comfort, openness, freedom, and pleasantness.

The one-story building was built using wood, while the two-story building has fireproof specifications with a combination of RC (reinforced concrete) and steel construction. The form of the components including the beams, columns, and walls exposed inside the building, is designed to trace the shape of the building’s structure. Besides, structural ingenuity was applied so that even the section of steel structure requiring fireproof covering could be fitted within the dimensions close to the scale of the wooden structure. Regarding the heating system, low-temperature floor heating and circulation are provided, so even Hokuriku’s long winter can be spent comfortably with low running costs (roughly 20,000 yen for heating oil per month in the winter). Moreover, the teachers, church members, and architect all worked together on finding ways to reduce the building cost, working themselves on as many tasks as possible, including painting the floor and installing the lighting, furniture, and gates.

These achievements were made possible through mutual understanding and commitment between the head teacher, members of staff, builder, and architect. The new kindergarten building requires teachers to provide child care in a meaningful way and to exercise ingenuity in using the building flexibly. In the year since the building’s completion, children have been able to achieve a good balance between intensity and energy release. On the first day of application for entry to the kindergarten, they received 38 applications for a maximum of 25 spaces. This is considered a good sign since parents see it to be a lively kindergarten. A good mutual relationship seems to be growing as the new building serves to stimulate the child care, while the child care itself brings out even more of the building’s potential.