CHILDSCAPE

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

• Kay Redfield Jamison

The development of electronic machinery has caused children to stay at home for longer hours. More and more time is spent inside than outside, staring at a digital screen than running about playing with sports with friends. This outdoor activity that is becoming more and more sparse is the exact thing that children need today. Running around and doing various activities outside gives children a sense of physical and psychological protection, and in turn stimulates creative thinking as well. It helps to reduce negative emotions such as anxiety and improves concentration, which can also stimulate creative thinking. Our project provides a ‘safe’ space where children can run around and play.

The site is located in Marseille, a port city located on the South of France, and is home to many beautiful natural environments, such as the Mediterranean Sea and mountain ranges including national parks Sainte-Baume and Mont Saint Victoire.

Despite these natural spectacles, the fact that it is dangerous for children to run around and play outside is a critical defect. The mass immigration of foreign workers in the beginning of the 19th century and the many financial crises and restructuring of large industrial groups in the 1970s lead to mass unemployment for the natives, which in turn lead to racial hostility against the foreigners. This collision between the respective cultures has become an increasingly serious issue to the point where shooting and drug dealing cases have become less and less shocking. In addition, an increasing number of crime cases have been against children, increasing the need for safety. Crime data shows that Marseille is has one of the highest crime rates in the whole of Europe, and the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille, where our site is located, is one of the most dangerous districts in the city. This makes protecting the children from the outside a critical issue.

The aim of our project is to create a ‘fortress’ and simultaneously a ‘playground’ for the children. The principal of brutalism is well and alive in the area, with most people considering the Unite d’Habitation by Le Corbusier the grandmother of brutalist architecture. Like the predecessors, the simplicity of using material in its purest form is reflected in the project. The façade has vertical and horizontal elements that create an image of a stronghold, where children can be protected from the outside hostility. This makes to life the seemingly impossible ‘brutalist kindergarten’ oxymoron.

In contrast to the outside, the inside is a much cozier space. Every child has experiences of creating their own fortress by hanging a blanket from a few chairs, where you read books or play games with their friends, using it as their hideout… thus creating their own ‘landscape’.

‘Landscape’, the concept of our project, has multiple meanings. Marseille is famous for the Mediterranean Sea and its seaports, but towards the inlands you can find various mountain terrains and cliffs. The ‘landscape’ of the project, which seems like a sinkhole, is in fact the shape of a mountain terrain turned upside-down. It also is a metaphor of children growing up in this kindergarten and creating their own ‘landscape’ of life.

Our project, which seems to be a physically imposing structure because of the rigid elements, houses a flowing curvature which creates various cave-like and valley-like spaces where children can run around and hide away. The children’s exploration of these various spaces can nurture creativity. Also, a large open area is located above the landscape where various outdoor activities can occur.

The spaces are designed according to the vertical columns to emphasize the curvature inside the project. This leads to a symmetrical floor plan, where additional change of the size of rooms and the roundness of the walls were used to break the symmetry and create spaces of various characteristics.

The first thing users encounter as they enter the building are find shoe cabinets and cloth hangers. The open space past the entrance in the center of the first floor has interesting characteristics due to the landscape reaching all the way down to the first floor. The connecting part of the landscape and the first floor crates an additional place for children to sit. The tables are slightly lower than a child’s point of view to help adults monitor their activity and rescue them to safety in a risky situation. Past the entrance there are 4 classrooms, each equipped with toilets. The canteen is on the left side, and the teacher’s office is on the right side of the building. The media room can hold various playful activities such as reading books and various toys.

The landscape occupies a much larger area on the second floor compared to the first and creates more variety of spaces where children can run and, in some cases, crawl around. The floor is divided into areas of bookshelves, tables, and slides. It is unique in that the space is not divided rigidly by inside wall partitions, but rather is divided softly by the landscape. The landscape is not only unique because of the division, but more so the connection between the inside and outside space. The 3 pathways lead to the rooftop garden, and each have unique shapes and sizes and seem like a cave as seen from the outside. This variety of space can create unique view from each point, stimulating a child’s curiosity.

This mountain-like characteristic of the curvature is noticeable in the section. The change of height in the outdoor garden creates potential for various spaces. Children can play games, simple sports, and sit down and relax in the rooftop garden. The sunken area can be a small performing stage, and the staircase can be the audience seats.

The expectation of this project is that it will not only serve as a kindergarten for young children, but also be utilized as a space for the local community in the future. It can also be host for events and self-governing councils for locals.