Bahriye Ucok Nursery

Description

Located in Kadikoy district of Istanbul, this kindergarten finds itself a cosy place among the developing metropolis. In cities like Istanbul, fuelled by ever-growing development it is becoming harder to find suitable places for kids to develop their own identities. The project, located in the center of Istanbul among large buildings and construction, aims to create a backdrop of an architecture that fuels the imagination of kids who will be occupying and using the building every day. Space and time is different for kids, their reality engages beyond the realities of space and time of the present. Painting, running, playing; whatever their intuition tells them to do is what drives their daily routine. This is a life different than the rigid, programmed life of an adult. The challenge of the project was to conceive an architecture that could accommodate the different nature of the childhood. Kids perceive the world through senses; all the stimulants around them from the early age impacts their mental development. Architecture, in the same way has a profound impact on the mind through the images it embeds at an early age. When kids perceive the world through senses, an architecture that uses a language that is familiar to the kids through forms, light and material and scale becomes a powerful teaching tool. It was our intention from the beginning to create an architecture that communicates with the kids in a way that kids would feel comfortable with, and also create a working programmatic model which would ensure the smooth running of the kindergarten.To tackle this challenge, we devised an idea that fuses ‘game’ with ‘form’. Starting from the metaphor of a ‘primitive hut’ shaped by the game of origami we devised a formal language. ‘Primitive hut’ is something that is engraved in the child’s mind; the first thing a child would draw when asked to draw a house is a roof and walls. It was very important, therefore, to keep this image of primitive hut intact, as it was a familiar image that invoked a space of belonging and shelter. (Description provided by the architects)