DAY ONE PRESCHOOL

初日幼兒園

Every child is a little artist. Day One Preschool is located on the edge of the lush Tainan city, near the Hushan Forest, where the business-like nature replaces the urban, compact pace. U-Zi Design was commissioned by the owner to design and plan the whole kindergarten, with the idea of "getting rid of the standardized school image" as the starting point. In contrast to the traditional colorful and bright architectural space, the main color is pure white, with some wooden materials decorating the door frame and other details, so that this large volume gently blends into the surrounding environment, allowing the rich nature to stimulate children's curiosity, and through exploration, observation, and discovery to learn and develop creativity without any limits.

For U-Zi, the kindergarten is the first building that a child will encounter after leaving home. To make the growing space different and unique, they opened up one half of the site to outdoor greenery and built the remaining half of the building to form a U-shape around the grass. With the nature-based curriculum instead of a purely digital screen, children can soak up the sunlight, run and play freely on the vast green space, and learn about plants, ecology, and the environment while they go through their first stage of growth and learning. 

Day One Preschool is a single-story building. In the overall planning, the challenge faced by designers Chang Li-Chun and Hsueh Shun-hung was "how to present the design in the simplest way”. Therefore, through the geometric stacking technique, the interaction between the volumes is derived by means of voids, suspensions and dislocations, and the simple elements are changed to highlight the design characteristics, making the kindergarten resemble a modern art museum and removing the influence of too much color. A white environment to assist the growth of young artists is the educational policy that owners who value artistic creation expect to accompany the growth of their children. The 931-square-meter interior includes six classrooms, staff offices, multipurpose space, storage, kitchen, and restrooms. A wide and comfortable corridor runs through the main axis of the building, connecting various spaces.

As there are windows on every facade of the building, from the exterior wall to the interior partition wall, there are large clear glass windows everywhere to guide the greenery from the outside to the inside, making the corridor a second level of the building. At the same time, it plays the role of linking the space and connecting the windows, with the shadows of the trees and the daylight, the children will grow up happily in an environment full of life. In terms of privacy and security, the building wall facing the road of the kindergarten is made of small windows. It is not easy to see through the interior of the school from the outside, and the multi-functional space near the staff office allows parents and children waiting for pick-up and drop-off to move around freely, protecting teachers and students from daily activities, and creating an appropriate level of privacy for the open and spacious school.

U-Zi Design admits that at the beginning, there was some concern that the design of the building would be too abrupt and unacceptable to local parents. However, with the owner's educational concept and the design that goes beyond the established impression, nature and the building are perfectly integrated, attracting many young artists to come and decorate the pure volume of the building with their creativity. 

每個孩子都是小小藝術家。「初日幼兒園」坐落在鬱蔥蓊蔚的台南市區邊陲，鄰近虎山林場，充滿生意的原始大自然取代了城市緊湊的步調。嶼日設計接受業主委託，負責設計規劃整體幼兒園，以「擺脫像是學校那樣制式的存在」為出發點，一反傳統色彩豐富、鮮豔的建築空間，改以純白為主色調，配合部分木頭材質點綴在門框等細節，使此一偌大量體輕柔地融入周遭環境，讓豐饒大自然激發孩子的好奇心，並藉由探索、觀察、發現進而學習，萌發不受框架限制的創造力。

對嶼日設計而言，幼兒園是孩子第一個離家之後所接觸到的建築，為使成長空間能夠不同於以往，他們將基地的二分之一開放給戶外綠意，剩餘的二分之一砌起建築，包圍著草地形成U字型，在以大自然教學課程取代純數位螢幕的授課方式下，孩子們可以在廣闊綠地上浸潤陽光、自由奔跑、嬉戲，且在認識植物、生態、環境的同時，走過人生第一階段的成長與學習。

初日幼兒園為單層建築，在整體規劃中，設計師張理淳和薛舜鴻所面對的挑戰是：「如何用最簡單的方式，呈現設計感。」，因而透過幾何堆疊手法，以挑空、懸浮和錯位方式衍生量體之間的互動，以簡單元素進行變化進而突顯設計特色，讓幼兒園仿若現代美術館，去除過多顏色影響，以白色的環境輔助小小藝術家們成長，是重視藝術創作的業主期許陪伴孩子成長的教育方針。室內面積共931平方公尺，涵蓋六間教室、教職員辦公室、多功能空間、儲藏室、廚房及廁所等機能，一道寬而舒適的走廊貫穿建築主軸，連結著各式空間。

由於建築的每一道立面都有開窗，從外牆到室內隔間牆，每處有偌大清透玻璃窗由外而內地引導綠意，使彼道走廊成為建築的第二道層次，同時扮演著串連空間，以及銜接窗景的角色，樹影婆娑，日光斜映，孩子們將在充滿生命的環境中，快樂地長大。而在隱私安全方面，幼兒園面對道路的建築圍牆以小面積開窗，外部不易看穿園區內部，配合鄰近教職員辦公室的多功能空間，利於等待接送的家長小孩自由活動，保護師生日常，為開闊寬廣的園區創造適度隱蔽性。

嶼日設計坦言，一開始有些許擔心建築設計過於突兀，不被當地家長接受，然隨著業主的教育理念和跳脫既定印象的設計，大自然與建築完美地融為一體，吸引了許多小藝術家前來，揮灑創意點綴著這座純粹的建築量體。

_

U-Zi Design│嶼日設計

www.uzidesigntw.com