Kensington International Kindergarten operates with the goal to help its students grow to become beautiful budding spirits. Through ‘Play-based learning’ approach, children are given opportunity to develop according their own age while being able to preserve their unique individuality and improve their life skills. The concept later ramifies into ‘Kensington Learning Space’, the extra-curricular learning hub for children from 6 months old to 11 years old that IF takes responsibility designing interior space and graphic design of the project.

Architecture, Construction & Design Awards 2020
First Award |  Signages Design (Built)

©Ketsiree Wongwan

IF picks up on different methods of ‘play’ as main design concept by combining various types of play from 1) an open-ended play with predetermined rules. 2) play with different possibilities under preset instructions 3) open-ended play with unlimited method that allows children to freely exercise their creativity.

The spaces are designed to be architecture within architecture. IF integrates 3 types of play through different architectural elements, from spatial characteristics, functionalities, furniture, to the decorative details. Everything is ealized to create type of environment that will complement and resonate with children’s learning experiences while still being able to fulfill certain specific functional requirements including safety and physically proportional to the height of main users as children of different age groups.

©Ketsiree Wongwan

Play-Based Learning’ is translated into every part of functional program. At reception area, visitors can sense philosophy the organization upholds through a series of vertical laths used as flip board partition made up of a bunch of small triangular units. These units can be moved, adjusted and changed into different messages or images to correspond with school’s current activities and occasions or whatever information KSL wishes to communicate with its users.

Each classroom is designed with flexibility being the priority. The design gets rid of any limitation that can obstruct children’s learning experiences, making the space a safe ground where children can play, explore, and learn different things from their very own intuition, creativity and nature. One of the highlights is the design of the transitional space, which links corridor to classrooms. IF creates a pocket space at the front of each classroom, with each room equipped with a blackboard, a pocket for a shoe cabinet properly installed to prevent unpleasant sight of unorganized shoes.

©Ketsiree Wongwan

Special studios for cooking and classes are designed to have a learning environment that encourages students’ actual practice. Cooking studio simulates a restaurant kitchen allowing children to experience the use of real ingredients, standard cooking equipment and other details of the room designed for learning purposes. Entire surface of art studio is covered with canvases for children to freely learn to scribble, draw and paint using their imagination.

There is semi-outdoor swimming pool that incorporates visual and physical presence of lines as elemental component. It ends up accentuating spatial characteristic of the pool’s fan-shaped form to be even more perceptible. The design creates a mood with a physical detail that takes inspiration from water ripples. The space is gauged inward to eliminate sharp corners to further facilitate the flow of surfaces and textures of the space.