Centre in Beijing

Location Beijng, China

Client / operator Beijing NuanQin

Architects waa (we architech anonymous) CN – 100020 Beijing www.w-a-a.cn

Author waa (we architech anonymous)

Photos Tian Fangfang

SENSORY LEARNING

PLAYSCAPE AT CHILDREN’S COMMUNITY CENTRE IN BEIJING

The playscape is a refurbishment inside an existing industrial complex in the north of Beijing. The team at waa has turned a 1970’s warehouse complex for grain storage together with a transport facility into a vibrant place for play and discovery. The client is a healthcare provider specialized in monitoring and fostering children’s motor development at all ages.

Crucial to a child’s development nowadays in a Chinese city is a functioning neighbourhood. The experience of street play can distract the children’s attention from gizmos and screen time. Drawing inspiration from popular culture of the past and abstracting important identities for the new neighbourhood’s character, the playscape features: Hide and seek (group interaction): Free-will is vital to engage a child’s imagination and encourage this interaction within a group.

Adventure playground (risk): Balance is invisible until we lose it. Children decide what level of risk they feel comfortable to experience.

Nook and cranny (body proportion): Spaces are designed for children with nooks to explore and gain a grasp of ergonomics.

Maze (discovery): Places out of sight need to be explored to reveal themselves. The most efficient or direct route is not always the most enjoyable.

Fantasy (imagination): The landscape is abstracted by removing iconography and allows flexibility in thought-based scenarios. The playscape is a place to promote learning while allowing narrative creation for children to dream and develop senses relating to equilibrium (balance) and proprioception (awareness). Balance is taken for granted until it is challenged.

Programme The building complex is formed by a cluster of existing warehouses encircling a courtyard. A street disconnects the south building which is re-connected by an aerial bridge to link the

roof terraces. Access is also provided by a private route to an adjoining kindergarten and an option to enter the adjacent public park.

The existing cluster provides for three internal play spaces. Playspace 1 is a single-level low-pitched 6-m volume, dedicated to toddlers as a crawlspace with hanging fabrics. Features also include a soft space topography supplemented with a restaurant and library. Playspace 2 is divided vertically into three levels. A tiered environment for ages over 4 including a subterranean interactive environment, a steep climbing topography, with a suspended tensile net all connected with slides. Additional directed learning can be found on levels 2 and 3 with a total of six multifunctional classrooms. A single slide leads vertically 7 m from the classroom to level 1. All buildings have a looped roof terrace including a terraced bar from where parents can easily watch their children play.

Concept results in three main parts Pipe: Focuses on smaller nooks to test proprioception (body awareness). The armatures are arranged as a series of connecting bridges and staircases. Five diameter scales can be observed; 2.3 m (walkways), 1.7 m (staircases), 1.3 m (safety balustrade), 0.8 m (slides) and 0.4 m (external lighting).

Roof: Presents a high point to overview the stage set and its possibilities and and offers children the chance to embrace unorthodox routes. A full loop can be made and children can move from the terrace and descend under the mound through slides which vary in height from 7 m to 4.3 m. The network offers alternative directions, sometimes the secondshortest route is more fun.

Mound: Enhances development in senses relating to equilibrium (balance) and freedom of decision making. The mounds allow children to explore and decide how much risk they want to take - by overcoming a variety of inclines at speed. An additional area of covered play was created by harnessing area under the topography. Access can be gained through a number of cuts or slides from the terrace level.

Children are often passive in decision-making scenarios. Play is often the only period under their own control. The design focus was to address the missing elements of inner-city dwelling, distorting scales and manipulating movement sequences to build a tool for sensory learning. Where the iconography of the project relates to the activity and embracing a degree of risk, children are invited to imagine and feel what they see as the limits to their own adventure.