Shanxi Noodle
PROEJCT TYPE
Kindergarten Renovation
SITE
Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
CLIENT
Shanxi Montessori Education
TEAM
L&M Design Lab
POSITION & ROLE
Interior Architecture Designer
2D Diagram & Illustration;
3D Modeling & Rendering
YEAR
2021
AREA
5000 m²
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The site used to be a luxury department store building in the center of the city, serving as a significant urban symbol at the beginning of the 2000s. However, the rapid industrial iterations, urban expansion, need for department store relocation, and lack of early education facilities inevitably necessitated the renewal of this original department store building.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
The technical difficulty of transforming a department store at the bottom of a high-rise building into a kindergarten is unimaginable. High-rise buildings, department stores, and kindergartens were originally three types of buildings that followed completely different regulatory requirements. There are challenges from various aspects, such as the plan, structure, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), and fire safety. The difficulty of the design goes far beyond that. We hope it is not just a warm and clean professional Montessori kindergarten but also a distinctive kindergarten representing Shanxi.
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DESIGN CONCEPT
How to make children aged 1.5 to 6 perceive their hometown? The most likely answer is through food. Shanxi is known as the noodle capital of China. Shanxi Noodles with a flexible and chewy texture leaves an indelible mark. By creating a "Shanxi Noodle" ramp that functions as the clue that links the core spaces and turns the whole atrium into a large playground, the kindergarten preserves children’s memory of their hometown food and develops a strong bond between children and their homeland.
DESIGN SOLUTION
The department store was designed over twenty years ago, situated at the bottom of a high-rise. There are limited public spaces, such as the original circular atrium and the adjacent escalator shaft. Moreover, the original department store lacks large outdoor activity areas that can be utilized. As a result, the design opens up the entire ground floor and creates a natural environment with grass, trees, and streams inside the building. To compensate for the lack of outdoor activity space, the remaining spaces on the first and second floors were interconnected to form a sizable indoor playground after arranging classrooms in well-lighted locations.
The atrium is fully opened as a play area, providing a comfortable space for activities during the long winter days. All diagonal directions are opened on the floor plan, ensuring the entire kindergarten is transparent, avoiding blind spots in the children's field of vision while playing. The dual-sided lighting eliminates the adverse effects of converting a high-rise building into a kindergarten, allowing the entire day of kindergarten life to be bathed in sunlight.
A continuous ramp connects the high-rise building throughout each level, interweaving with the beams and columns like the Shanxi noodle in a pot. The “noodle” becomes clue that connects the core spaces and turns the whole atrium into a game space.