Family Box, Beijing Kindergarten Building, Architect, Nursery Design China Photos

Family Box Beijing Kindergarten

Contemporary Chinese Architecture design by Crossboundaries

10 May 2010

Location: Beijing, China

Design: crossboundaries architects

Family Box Beijing nursery building

Family Box Beijing Kindergarten Design

Photographs: Chaoying Yang

Family Box, Beijing

Family Box is something between an indoor playground and a kindergarten for children up to twelve years old, but it also accommodates their parents’ needs. It hosts different kinds of activities – from swimming, playing games to various classes ranging from music, dancing, crafting to cooking. Furthermore it has a big playframe, a reading area and a generous café area. Located at the outer corner of a park it is placed in a natural environment, which enhances the visibility of the building.

Family Box, Beijing Kindergarten building interior

Despite the complex program another challenging part of this project was to deal with an existing structural system, column grid and also the building footprint.

Major design elements are shifting up and down floorplates and cut outs in the floor to allow views between the first and second floor.

Family Box, Beijing Kindergarten building

The use of independent rooms in the shape of freestanding boxes allows the activities to run parallel and it offers the most suitable environment for each. The rooms have their own program or theme, they all differ from the outside space in terms of color and furniture.

The box locations are meant to break the rigid layout of the concrete columns, which is also camouflaged with a series of arches that give a different rhythm to the environment.

indoor playground and a kindergarten for children up to twelve years old Beijing Family Box Beijing design by crossboundaries architects FBeijing indoor playground & kindergarten Family Box Beijing Family Box Beijing

Visually, the common areas are treated with low contrast finishes in order to enhance and balance the space and equipments for the children.

The glass façade is wrapping all of the functions like a skin, following the given building perimeter. It has a printed pattern, which was developed out of simple single-line drawings made by children. They were modified into a pattern, the graphic motif is reversed: the background is white-translucent and the drawing is transparent. From far away the objects on the facade are recognizable; they indicate a building function related to children, fun and recreation.

Family Box Beijing Family Box Beijing Family Box Beijing

Family Box, Beijing : Building Information

Project name: Family Box
Location: Beijing, China
Architects: crossboundaries architects
Design Team: Binke Lenhardt, Hao Dong, Feng Zheng, Giacomo Butte, Fang Wang, Shanyun Huang
Collaborating Architects & Engineers: BIAD International Studio &
BIAD TSH International Studio
Client: Children Enterprise (UK) Limited

Design period: Aug 2008 – Feb 2009
Construction period: Aug 2008 – Dec 2009 (1st phase)
Gross internal floor area: 5,625 sqm
Building footprint: 2,300 sqm
Site area: 5,000 sqm
Signage: didelidi.com
Lighting consultant: BIAD Lighting studio

Photographs: Chaoying Yang

Family Box, Beijing images / information from crossboundaries

Location: Beijing, China, eastern Asia

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