Our brief was to design a low cost building to accommodate three functions:

a. Kindergarten for 100 children aged from 6 months to 5 years old.
b. Family Centre, providing medical, counselling, adult education, meeting room and other community facilities.
c. Headquarters for the Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association, the client.

We chose to express the main functions as three single storey pavilions. The Kindergarten and Family Centre pavilions connected by a combined entry lobby. The pavilions are arranged to create outdoor play areas, an entry court facing the street, and a quiet garden court north of the Family Centre, appropriate for its counselling and medical services. The different age group areas in the Kindergarten are a series of interconnected “cull de sacs” removing the need for corridors and allowing children to move between different age group areas while easily supervised by staff.

The pavilions are stretched east to west. “People” spaces arranged along the north side with the “service” spaces generally along the south side. Wide eaves to the north and the narrow depth of the pavilions give good passive solar heating and cooling. The pavilions are expressed as simple sculptural volumes that “reach for the sun”.

All the sustainable features have been expressed in the architecture to allow them to become part of the educational process.

Awards and Publications:

International APR Institutional Building Design Awards – Finalist