Magén Arquitectos   Spain   The new Kindergarten and Elementary School is located in the Parque Venecia residential area, southeast of Zaragoza. The different types of buildings around it – a police station and a grocery store –, the absence of urban references, and the periphe

Gonzalo Mardones    Chile   A set of basic volumes that are easily recognizable to the children is oriented towards an arcaded courtyard in order to guarantee a learning environment free of external distractions. The exposed structure and the insigne pine wood finishes have the

Régis Roudil    France   Commissioned by the Présidence de la République, this daycare for 24 children is located at the heart of the Palais de l’Alma in Paris, within the monumental complex. Built with timber and rammed earth, it stands in the garden behind the 19th-century

Dorte Mandrup   Sweden   With its angular forms clad in Robinia wood, the new kindergarten of a small coastal village evokes the image of traditional fishermen houses in the historical province of Scania. Located between the beach and the village, the new center for early ed

MGM Arquitectos Sara de Giles José Morales Rocío Casado   Spain   Located within the complex of the Colegio Bienaventurada Virgen María de las Irlandesas – designed in 1964 by the Sevillian brothers Fernando and Joaquín Barquín y Barón –, the project foresaw the construction of a kindergarten, as well as solving

El Equipo Mazzanti   Colombia   The Atlántico Department, north of Colombia, with its vast prairies, big rivers, and variable climate, is also an area historically affected by poverty. The lack of public infrastructures – and the poor maintenance of the existing – moreover makes th

El Equipo Mazzanti   Colombia   The commission contemplated the construction of a kindergarten inspired in the Reggio Emilia pedagogical philosophy and method, starting out from the idea that architecture can create alternative learning methods based on experience. The building con

Equipo Sarrablo   Spain   The three terraced levels have a porch and a courtyard. The main elevation is a ceramic fabric reinforced with steel that makes it adaptable to three different functions: latticework, ventilated facade, and plinth with concrete panels...

Sarquella + Torres Arquitectes   Thailand   A modular structure that draws inspiration from traditional constructions in the Thai countryside harbors a preschool which the community at large participated in raising. Crowned with solar chimneys to guarantee natural ventilation and ensure a high

Tezuka Architects   Japan   The building’s design adapts to the needs of children: the sloping ellipse prompts them to run in endless circles; the rubber roof prevents injuries, and the underfloor heating using warm air prevents burns that could occur with conventional systems.

COBE Architects   Denmark   Designed to take in 750 children in the heart of Copenhagen, the school is envisioned as a city in itself, with its own neighborhoods, squares, parks, houses, and public buildings. Involving a combination of types and solutions, diverse and fun, the

MAD Architects   China   A chromatic roof is the highlight in the conversion of a traditional siheyuan courtyard into a preschool center that is remarkable, too, in its openness to daylight and vegetation. The principal strategy of the project involved wrapping the preexisti

Tracks Architectes   France   The Paris firm Tracks Architectes, headed by Moïse Boucherie y Jérémy Griffon, designed this kindergarten as an orderly succession of timber constructions with gabled forms, reinterpreting the simple geometry of local architecture in Perthes-en-Gatin

COBE Architects   Denmark   The building presents a series of spaces of different sizes and functions that together bring up the idea of a village community formed by combinations of small dwellings.

Carlos Jiménez   United States   The Cummins Engine Company, enlightened patron of the small town of Columbus, decided in 1997 to provide its employees and general public a child caring facility. The one level 22,000 square foot building occupies a corner site in the midst of the Cu

Vo Trong Nghia Architects   Vietnam   Vietnam is historically an agricultural country, but accelerated economic changes in the last decades are sending young people out of the countryside and into the cities, which have become increasingly polluted ecosystems. To address the situation th

Ecosistema urbano   Netherlands   Ten European teams were invited by the Visual Arts Center in Dordrecht – in collaboration with the Amsterdam team Carve –, to present their design proposals for creative and inventive play objects for children of different ages, with the purpose of c

Pereda Pérez Arquitectos   Spain   The value of the place was the determining factor when designing this elementary school. The plot became available after reorganizing the site, located on the edge of a peripheral neighborhood of Pamplona. Its almost triangular geometry is composed o

Feld72   Italy   In an idyllic environment such as that of the small town of Terento, in an alpine valley of the southern Tyrol region, it looks like all architectural works must respect their traditional context and choose vernacular, silent solutions. In this case,

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter - RRA   Norway   The increasing importance given to children’s education is evidenced in the case of this building by the fact that local authorities seeked a contemporary expression for the new kindergarten, and chose as site for its construction a small urban park

Archivision Hirotani Studio   Japan   The city of Nagahama is located in Honshu, the largest island in Japan, some 500 kilometers from Tokyo and next to Biwa Lake. The Leimondo Nursery is in a typical Japanese suburban area taken up by small wood houses and surrounded by a picturesque mo

El Equipo Mazzanti   Colombia   The project is part of the education program supported by the municipality of Santa Marta with the Fundación Carulla – an institution created in 1961 to promote the integral development of children. The program works to improve the conditions of chil

Atelier Deshaus    China   This kindergarten is located on the outskirts of Shanghai, in the district of Jiading. It is divided into two longitudinal and zigzagging blocks separated by a narrow space that serves as access and also acts as a place in which to develop activities

Along with museums, opera houses, and national assemblies, a specifically modern type of architecture that developed in the course of the 19th century was the center for teaching and learning. First were the universities, which were updated to serve

Clara Eslava   Como muestra Bertrand Tavernier en la película Ça commence aujourd’hui, la escuela ya no es sólo el lugar para la alfabetización sino para la formación del niño en el sentido más amplio y para la interacción social; interacción demandada por los camb

Francesco Tonucci   Actualmente nadie duda de que el periodo más importante de la vida de cualquier hombre o mujer son sus primeros días, sus primeros meses y sus primeros años. Antes de entrar en un aula escolar a los seis años, el niño ha de­sarrollado la mayor parte

Mark Dudek   La historia de la educación infantil (escolar y preescolar) es larga y compleja. Hasta hoy los más importantes pedagogos continúan el debate sobre la originalidad y primacía de sus respectivas doctrinas. Si se consideran las ideas radicales como el f

Luis Fernández-Galiano   If our society must regenerate itself, it should start with childhood. The demoralization caused by the corruption of elites, the degradation of masses and the global collapse of good government – what they now call governance – can only be tackled f