Yuyu-no-mori Nursery School and Day Nursery

Narratives

Design for child-centred nursing

This facility is the first combined Nursery school / Day nursery in Yokohama City, giving a national attention as one of the 36 model combined schools for infants in Japan. The school is different from other previous schools for infants, which is child-centred facility regardless of conditions of parents’ working. The school environments are unique on three design concepts; to enable 1) child-centred nursery, 2) teachers’ warm engagement with kids and 3) promotion of children’s development - circular play system’.

1. School environment enabling child-centred nursery
Core of the school’s policy is child-centred nursery. To realise it, the designers tried to create environments stimulating children’s emotions and promoting their activities at various spaces.

2. Bases of teachers and nurses with emphasis on engagement with infants
In the space planning, the top priority went for relationship between teachers/nurses and infants. At this school, offices of teachers/nurses, called ‘nurse stations’ are located at core spaces where teachers/nurses can look around children’s activities from there and children can easily approach to teachers/nurses.

3. Diverse environments according to children’s stage of development - circular play system -
As a facility children stay for long hours providing diverse environments according to children’s stage of development is thought to be important. For children’s life, circulation is essential. The structure of the facility design is based on ‘Circular play system’ which promotes children’s diverse play.

[Facility planning]
- Sit planning
The school is located at a quiet residential area.
The building is close to north-west road and there is a carriage porch and front yard between the building and road. Day nursery school grounds on the south and Nursery school grounds on the west.
On the first floor, there is a day nursery for 0-2 years old children so that they can go outside easily. There is also after school club room and lunch room next to kitchen. There is a vaulted large space in the center as a communal area for both schools.
On the second floor, there is a nursery school for 3-5 years old children and they can enter classroom from the balcony.
In the school grounds, there is a corridor-type wooden play structure and children can play around in the whole site including the building.

[Diverse environments]
- Play as their day life
For children, play is their life and they develop bases as a human through play such as intelligence, sentiment and sociability. Therefore, we thought play environment is place the school realize child-centered nursing, which develop their creativity, imagination, feeling of wonders and more communications.

- Big net play feature as a play promotion equipment
There is a device provided in the central space so that children wish to play actively, which is a big net play feature to connect the 2nd floor and the above catwalk. Children go up and down, play like a swing and lay down as a hammock, and it has become ‘the center of play’ which promote to generate various play with free thinking.

School for children, adults and local community

The school is a child-centred facility beyond framework of past nursery school and day nursery.

1) School design in consideration with children’s play and activities
As a space children spend their daily life for long hours, this is a design of school building and grounds in consideration with children’s play and activities, rather than facility design we can manage children easily. The design is done by the expert of children’s environment design in Japan. We think the place like children wish to come tomorrow again or they do not want to go home would be the environment we should aim for as a place children spend.

2) Open ‘nurse station’ to children and adults
The place like teachers’ office where adults individually have a big hand with children in a laid-back mode would be a happy and comfortable space for them. And also, the school children spend for long hours involve many adults including parents. Therefore, we shifted a past conception of one office for one facility to two offices like ‘nurse station’ so that many children and adults can easily relate. We aim for nursing which is people-friendly, particularly, children can feel adults by their side.

3) Comfortable place for children to stay for long hours
It is essential to provide places where children can make diverse choices as much as possible in the facility children stay for long hours. Both places they can run around and they can relax when they feel tired are important to have. It is also significant to have short cuts and play structures children only get through, and places for quiet play like play house. Conditions of comfortable facilities are; to be able to make themselves at home and to secure spaces for not interrupting the other children.
The opportunities of contact with nearby natural environments are also important. In the school grounds there are many plants such as fruit trees, trees with flowers, tree with leaves of various colours, shapes and seasonal changes and also insects and wild birds, which children are happy to contact with.

4) Space parents can relax and communicate
For children to grow up healthily, not just thinking about children’s life but also it is essential to consider interrelationship among adults surrounding children. Children’s friendship can affect parents’ relationship and parents’ friendship can extend the sphere of children’s habitation. Front garden at the entrance area and space under the main staircase is, as there is a bench, are conversation spaces. Also, a meeting room in the basement which is wide enough for various activities has an direct exit to the outside.

5) School design which is open to public
It is important to consider security but since children also grow up at home and the local, it is not enough to take strategies for prevention from suspicious individuals just in the school. Through school’s opening to public, we rise up awareness of bringing up children with everybody including the local community.