Banana Kindergarten

Our project is based on three keywords: playing, educating, and discovering. Banana Kindergarten reflects the idea of a continuous exchange experience, which marks the rhythm of the spaces, from closed ones to open ones. The first contain the main activities of the centre management (office, kitchen, hall), the second carry out the educational activities: living inside (existing classroom, hall) and outside (new patios, garden, playground). The structure ensures the greatest possible flexibility, adapting closed spaces to the different daily activities, in order to accommodate as many children as possible. For this reason, we designed a system of patios that provided a covered connection between the buildings and the exterior playground, through a framework of movable blithe panels. A social strategy completes the design process, suggesting an activities’ programme for the children’s daily care. Furthermore, the centre will be a self-sustaining system that transforms a simple hedge in an opportunity to develop a sensitive and educational approach with the nature (vegetables garden), embodied in the Bolivian larger consumed fruit: the banana. Bunch of bananas represent the idea of kindergarten’s group, integrated in the community local soul, one and five thousand.