Studio AYELET FISHER designed the Early Childhood Playroom for the Arab Jewish Community Center in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The early childhood playroom, the result of a collaboration with Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality’s Urban 95 Program, is located in the Jewish Arab community center in Jaffa and covers an area of 100 square meters.

The playroom is for parents and children aged 0-5. The challenge in planning the project was to create a space for activities that would provide a response for the needs of every age. It may appear that this is a narrow age range, but at these ages there are huge differences between the physical, motor and emotional abilities of the children. From birth, abilities are gradually added in a variety of functional areas, where each infant and child and each age has a different rate of development, starting with emotional development, through development of play to development of the ability to regulate and cognitive development.

In planning The playroom, much attention was given to creating a pleasant and fun environment that encourages the experience of gameplay and imagination, that develops various motor skills and allows for multi-age interaction between different children.

The design is also based on the understanding that free play leads to realization of fulfilling the developmental needs of preschool children. Therefore, games include different types of play, different activity areas rich in sensory stimuli (a variety of textures) while maintaining flexibility in moving from area to area.

The fact that the playroom is supposed to be used by different and diverse communities also influenced the planning. It was important to create a sense of comfort and an experience of community and belonging and to respond to each of the target audiences.

Design: Studio AYELET FISHER
Photography: Orit Arnon