How are children learning from outside the classroom? Architect Kee Jing Zhi explores the evolving design of early learning spaces. Writer: Justin Zhuang
The ribbon trail in the Radin Mas Childcare Centre breaks the distinction between outdoor and indoor learning spaces and creates a natural sanctuary for children to wander and play. Photography by Darren Soh. Image credit: Freight Architects Over the years, the firm has designed five childcare centres of varying sizes and scope. One of its founders, Jing Zhi, delves into some of the interesting childcare centres they have worked on and how early learning spaces have evolved from void decks to “picnic” classes.
How did the three of you come together to start your firm? Jing Zhi: All three of us have been connected through our universities and work. When we came together, we realise we share a common passion and way of working. We love the process of giving definition to space and meaning through placemaking. We also enjoy collaborating with each other and with many different stakeholders and seeing how users benefit from the spaces we design.
The three co-founders of Freight Architects, from left, Kee Jing Zhi together with Chen Kian Khiong and Tan Kian Teck. Image credit: Freight Architects How did you get involved in designing childcare centres? Jing Zhi: We initially started by designing childcare centres in void decks for various operators. But over time, because of changes in public housing design, there were not many rectilinear void decks with large floor plates to house childcare centres. For more efficient resource planning, the Early Childhood Development Agency started creating larger learning centres to consolidate its resources, spreading these centres across a few point blocks. We were fortunate to be involved in this early wave. One of our first childcare centres in this wave was a two-storey lightweight structure we designed in 2016 for a childcare centre on top of a multi-storey carpark at Edgefield Plains in Punggol.
Any unusual childcare centres that you have worked on?
Jing Zhi: The Sengkang Riverside Childcare Centre that we worked on in 2018 was unusual. A fenceless childcare centre integrated in a public park, it was a chance to develop a new typology for learning. The public could roam in the vicinity of the facility, while the operator could develop a more outdoor-centric curriculum. They have classes in the indoor atrium park as well as “picnic” classes in the park and community garden. The project was a mindset shift not just for us but also the operators and the various agencies involved. Everyone has become more confident in exploring new typologies and sites for childcare centre designs. How has the design of childcare spaces evolved? Jing Zhi: Traditionally, childcare centres are located at void decks in the heartlands. Most activities are confined indoors and they have limited time outdoors at the local playground. With the shift in early learning from curriculum-based to “learning from play”, we start to imagine new spaces and ways for children to learn outdoors. While classrooms remain for traditional learning, there is more emphasis to bring children out of them too. We explored this new typology with the PAP Community Foundation in their childcare centre in Radin Mas. It is an adaptive re-use of a former secondary school building into a childcare centre. We worked closely with the pedagogy team to create spaces to match the revamped curriculum that emphasises on outdoor play and learning. They identified many activity areas that can be outdoors and reworked their curriculum for this. Our strategy was to string these pockets of spaces together to form a big biophilic playscape and we used an orange ribbon linkway to connect them with the main classroom building.
Left: Sengkang Riverside Children Centre classroom. Right: Sengkang Riverside Childcare Centre. Image credits: Freight Architects
What other kinds projects would you like to pursue more of? Jing Zhi: We are very interested in designing for the public realm, particularly social spaces such as community centres, integrated clubs and hospitality projects. We are also keen to collaborate with government agencies and research firms to create new types of social spaces that cater to the new economy. For instance, the gig economy has changed how businesses and non-governmental organisations operate and relate to spaces. Big spaces for congregation may now be broken down and linked in a network of inter-dependent spaces. This is especially relevant after the Covid-19 pandemic when social distancing has become a new normal. How do you see the role of architects evolving? Jing Zhi: Architecture is a mixture of technical knowledge, site work experiences, artistic inspirations as well as sociological understanding. It is becoming too complex to be mastered by one person or even a team. Projects are also no longer just a singular entity, but often described as nodes in an urban network. Our roles and knowledge will have to expand outside of architecture. Architects need to understand even more about finance, economics, sciences, cultures, technologies, artificial intelligence, lifestyles, contexts and more. We will need to learn how to collaborate with different disciplines, and not be limited by just architecture knowledge of buildability and construction.
Top image: Radin Mas Childcare Centre. Image credits: Freight Architects