Korean architecture studio JYA-RCHITECTS has designed a childcare center with pitched roofs and colourful units in Cheongsong-Gun, South Korea. 

Called Cheongsong Childcare Center, the architects wanted to create diverse experiences for children and tried to develop the concept of community child center.

By creating a home-like space, the design contains various spaces where their physical and mental development are evolved and different experiences can happen. The 140-square-metre project comprises different volumes attached each other and shrinks starting from larger scale to micro scale. 

"We hope that a childcare center is more than just a space for children—a place for activities and participation of members of the district," said JYA-RCHITECTS. 

"A childcare center is a space for alienated “children” of a “district.” It is the only space for play and care in a community where the children can go after school."

"Therefore, it deserves more attention from local residents and should offer better quality of services than other facilities in a district. However, currently, the center does not have a close relationship with the community," the architects added.

As the architects ask: "What is the community child center? Which children from our district go there? And what do they do there? Most of the community members are not aware about the center."

According to the architects, childcare centers do not have enough space quality to provide sufficient stimuli and diverse experiences to children. Most local childcare centers provide physical space only, limiting most activities and plays in the space to be two-dimensional. 

Accordingly, the studio proposed a childcare center as important infrastructure of the district, with more points of contact with the local community while creating a safer and healthier environment for children. 

First, the childcare center should not be a boring place. Children receive stimuli from various experiences, which lead to their physical and mental development. Diverse spaces are needed to facilitate such experiences; in such spaces, children can build new relationships, feel happy, and grow healthy. In a stagnant rural village with decreasing population, children are like treasures—laughing, running, and playing, thereby becoming the energy of the people around them and the vitality of the community.

Second, there are various types of members in a district, such as multicultural families and the elderly. In a district without sufficient cultural and social space, the center will become a base for the people to gather, produce, share, learn, and connect. During the process, the people of the community will naturally meet the children from the center and get acquainted with them.

This will be the beginning of communication between the local community and childcare center. The studio would like to spatially emphasize the following two points. 

First, they wished that the children viewed the space three-dimensionally through the experiences within the center, with different heights and levels, and the vertical mutual exchanges within the center. This was because they wished to provide diverse spatial stimuli to children familiar with two-dimensional flat spaces, such as schools.

Second, they provided the active connection with external spaces. The studio wished that the children would freely go in and outside space while playing. 

During the process, it was expected that the children directly feel the changes in weather and season, and the diverse happened between inside and outside. The architects believe that such stimuli and senses are the most fundamental values for a childcare center as a space for children.

1st floor plan

2nd floor plan

3rd floor plan

Section-A

Section-B

Section-C

Elevation-A

Elevation-B

Elevation-C

Elevation-D

Project facts

Project name: Cheongsong Childcare Center

Architects: JYA-RCHITECTS

Location: Cheongsong-Gun, South Korea

Size: 140m2

Year: 2019

Architect In Charge: Won Youmin, Jo Janghee

Design Team: An Changwon

All images © JYA-RCHITECTS

> via JYA-RCHITECTS