The pictures and text materials of the work were provided  by Taku Hibino (Japan), winner of IAI Best Human Care Award 2018, Best Environmental Friendliness Award 2015, best Human Care Award.

KNO Nursery

Location：Nagasaki, Japan

Design/Supervision   ：HIBINOSEKKEI + Youji no Shiro

Sitearea：3,169㎡

Buildingarea：642㎡

Totalfloor area：558㎡

Structure/Story  ：Wooden Structure、1 story

Completion ：2019

Photo：Toshinari Soga (studio BAUHAUS)

This isa daycare project in Nagasaki, Japan. Recently, it is a big concern that too much screentime has negative effects on children’s speech ability.

On theother hand, reading a loud with interactive communication between children andadults makes their problematic behavior and parents’ stress reduce. From this background, the ideais to naturally empower children to read more and speak more and develop a richmindset as ‘The Picture Book Forest Under a Roof’.

Severalbook corners are scattered all over the place to create the ambience of a bookforest united under a single wooden roof.

The book cabinet next to the kitchenconsists of ‘Food and Food Education’. There is a hut which is filled withpicture books. A ‘Creature Bookshelf’ was created next to the aquarium, consistingof books related to various living beings. A bookshelf below a skylight, ‘EarthBookshelf’ consists of books related to sky and weather, A picture bookshelfnear the entrance consists of books related to children and parents, alsoaccessible to parents who visit the nursery, ‘Revitalizing Bookshelf’ for thepost-sick children and class subjects bookshelf filled with teacher recommendedbooks. Children will be able to learn a lot even while scanning through thesediverse set of books in different corners of this nursery.

Moreover,the vernacular design of long eaves is adopted to protect the interiors fromsolar radiation in summers and naturally heating it in winters, not to rely onelectric devices like air conditioner too much and making the designsustainable. Also, the color palette of the exteriors and interiors is based onthe local countryside scenery, keeping it very natural and minimal, and makingchildren being attached to the local.