X+Living drew inspiration from clouds in the sky to see the ZiLing Changxing Kindergarten to its completion in Huzhou, China.

Changxing ZILING Kindergarten is positioned as a full-time private kindergarten under Yopdo Zi Ling Education Group. Zi Ling Education upholds the idea of returning education to its essence, and strives to build a platform for children to grow up naturally, independently and freely. In this project, the brand put forward the vision of “moving the universe into kindergarten”. Based on that, the designer interpreted with the concept of “Knowing by Seeing”, which depicts the brand story with the visual language, atmosphere shaping and spatial experience, and presented the brand’s idea of cultivation and development.

A Museum in Clouds
Museum, as an architectural symbol, first jumps into the designer’s mind, but the designer needs to consider how to make perfect grafting with the preschool education space. By extracting the divinity from the architectural forms of museum and utilizing the similar structure, the designer is able to arouse the first visitors’ emotion, and thus the sanctity of education is obviously unveiled. In order to provide children with a dreamy space, under the objective condition that the architectural structure could not be changed, the designer independently transformed the facade, ceiling and interior floor, making the space modeling shapes like soft and puffy clouds. In the white and dreamy clouds, a school full of love and freedom is gently wrapped. It is a “museum” dedicated by the designer to children.

At the entrance lobby on the first floor, the concept of “Knowing by Seeing” starts from the macroscopic universe and leads children to appreciate the mystery of astronomy. A ‘galaxy’ light stripe surrounding six starlike and artistic sphere lamps is designed in an effort to let children stand at the origin of the birth of everything, understand the vastness of the universe and awaken the original curiosity of exploring new knowledge. The white wall also provides convenience for the school to display and publicize.

Under such a design strategy, the strong educational significance of the museum is extracted, which is in line with the nature of the kindergarten. Classrooms have become venues like art galleries, cultural centers, science and technology museums, etc, inspiring the cognitive understanding of different disciplines. Through the dynamic design, children could explore from one hall of knowledge to another.

A Free and Growing Field of Knowledge
Preschool education is the first important lesson for children in their life, during which children begin to interact and socialize, touch and perceive the world with their bodies at will. They experience love in interaction, and develop a way of thinking that will affect their whole life. Therefore, such a space should be full of exploration and positive guidance, free and borderless so that children could fulfill their growth transition through different stages and cultivate independent thinking.

The designer makes great use of smiling curves in line with actual conditions and outlines the soft shape of clouds in the space, while at the same time, also draws inspirations from architect Antoni Gaudí with fine depiction of the details to render a ceremonial grand feeling as the trigger for children’s imagination.

The auditorium is also full of fairy-tale vibe. The spherical ceiling and the white background foil the solemn environment. Lighting up the background lights, the seats with gradient colors render beautiful glows, making the whole space looks gently beautiful. Children seem to be wrapped in the blooming flowers, like smart and adorable butterflies.

The designer’s less intervention of design technique is like building a dream, which makes the real world and children’s imagination universe merging together and affecting each other. New boundaries are created, and thus, the space turns into a free field for constant ideological progress.

Entertaining method of Heuristic aesthetics
As an activity and living space, the general classroom is of highest usage frequency and high spatial density in the whole kindergarten. The designer adorns the whole white classroom with gentle macaroon colors, and only decorate the ceiling with artistic lamps so as to avoid grabbing too much attention. The sleeping area is located at the side of the classroom, and the partition screen in the form of jigsaw puzzle interestingly echoes the theme of inspiring children to learn independently. At the same time, it can also be used as a whiteboard for writing and painting, which meets the needs of teachers. In order to cultivate good hygiene habits, the classroom also designed washing pools and other equipment of children size, so that they can learn to grow independently in the real simulated environment.

Design: X+Living
Design Team: Li Xiang, Fan Chen, Chen Xue, Lin Maiqi, Su Ting, Zhou Haohua, Ren Yujin, Hou Yanjun. Jing Wanling, Xie Yu, Li Yaping, Tang Xing, Wang Liyao, Fu Jiawen, Zheng Shuwen, Xiao Yuting
Photography: Jieyi Architecture Photography