“Interaction” of children and local residence

This project was to rebuild a kindergarten in Iwaki, Fukushima. After the earthquake in 2011, many people moved in and out of the city and people’s disconnection from the local community has been a problem. Client’s wish to make the kindergarten a place where the children and local residence could interact, parent’s expectation for their children to learn social skills by communicating with children of different ages, the wish of local residence to keep the old connection, all of these became the base of this project. Therefore “Interaction” of children and local residence was our keyword as we aimed to make this kindergarten the core of the community. Playground with two levels for a narrow space, classrooms with no walls, lunchroom where all children eat together, we added many places where children of different age can spend more time together and communicate. During the construction, we held traditional events that has been decreasing these days to create an opportunity to communicate with the local residence. We also designed so the adjacent Shrine and Sando (the approach to the shrine from the gate) to be part of the kindergarten and aimed to make the place being used and loved by everyone. Recently kindergartens tend to be closed from the community but we hope that the kindergarten will be more connected with the community.