This Is A School Designed To Let Kids Be Kids
by TeachThought Staff
As an architect, Takaharu Tezuka is a bit of an education outsider.
His ideas would get him thrown him out most classrooms, ridiculed for their danger, lack of rigor and complexity, inability to reflect a set curriculum, and a lack of “practical application.” Thankfully, some people are still willing to be “ridiculous.”
In true good work form, Tezuka has married his art (architecture) with a tremendous social need (innovation in learning and learning spaces) to create something simple and stunning and moving. A school designed on the idea of movement–one designed to let kids be kids. The net result is what is, at least as a matter of animation and survey, the best kindergarten you’ve ever seen.
In his TED Talk Tezuka explains, “This kindergarten is completely open, most of the year. And there is no boundary between inside and outside. So it means basically this architecture is a roof. And also there is no boundary between classrooms. So there is no acoustic barrier at all. When you put many children in a quiet box, some of them get really nervous. But in this kindergarten, there is no reason they get nervous.
Because there is no boundary.”
“And the principal says if the boy in the corner doesn’t want to stay in the room, we let him go. He will come back eventually, because it’s a circle, it comes back.
“The traffic jam is awful in Tokyo, as you know. The driver in front, she needs to learn how to drive. Now these days, kids need a small dosage of danger. And in this kind of occasion, they learn to help each other. This is society. This is the kind of opportunity we are losing these days.
“They keep running. My point is, don’t control them. Don’t protect them too much. They need to tumble sometimes. That makes them learn how to live in this world.”
You can hear more about how Tezuka married architecture, design, and education in his talk below.
“At this school in Tokyo, five-year-olds cause traffic jams and windows are for Santa to climb into. Meet: the world’s cutest kindergarten, designed by architect Takaharu Tezuka. In this charming talk, he walks us through a design process that really lets kids be kids.”
A School Designed To Let Kids Be Kids: The Best Kindergarten You’ve Ever Seen