Project Address：Gansu Provinve,China
Suitable Age：2-6 years old young children
Gaotai County First Kindergarten was established in 1956, and it has nearly 70 years of history which has laid its heavy cultural background. As the earliest provincial demonstration kindergarten in the Gaotai country, Gaotai Country First Kindergarten was favored by peer kindergartens, parents, and kids, but the leaders of the kindergarten have been thinking: Gaotai Country has a deep history heritage, and Gaotai Country First Kindergarten as one of the local benchmarking kindergartens, it should shoulder the mission of cultural inheritance, highlight the connotation of traditional Chinese Confucian culture, and expand its unique culture influence.
Overview Layout
Bond With the Lotus
The kindergarten has a deep relationship with lotus
Cultural design is not an external form of simple transplantation and slogans, but a systematic, three-dimensional, and intensional overall design.
The Cowboy design team visited the kindergarten many times, discussed it with the kindergarten leaders and teachers, and dug into its cultural connotation, and then all kinds of resources were sorted, integrated, and refined. On this basis, the designer team of Cowboy Group searched the cultural root, extracted the cultural soul, and formed the cultural consensus–taking the “lotus” as the cultural support of the new kindergarten and spiritual core of inheritance, so that the premium quality of lotus can lead children to grow up better.
“Lotus” stands for authenticity, elegance, virtuousness, and gentlemanliness in the traditional Chinese cultural implication.
The Cowboy Group design team extracted water elements, red cultural elements( Advanced Culture With Chinese Characteristic), and lotus elements from the regional characteristics and historical culture of Gaotai County for creative design, to create a lotus-themed fairy tale world for children.
Born of the Lotus
The whole kindergarten is designed with the theme of lotus
The main equipment of the kindergarten outdoor playground through taking the “lotus” as the imagery design and extracting the structure, form, and characteristics of the lotus is designed as a large iconic lotus shape that contains a bouquet of budding lotus petals so that the characteristic landmark with unique esthetic and cultural connotation can be created, which can not only meet the high-quality aesthetic standard but also meet the needs of children to drill holes and climb through the hollow-type climbing frame and drill climbing net design.
When the sunshine and air penetrate this amusement space and surround the whole landscape, the kids seem to be in a blossoming lotus. Furthermore, this amusement space can not only make kids experience strong interaction but also achieve a high degree of harmony and unity both in aesthetics and function and people and landscape.
When the sunshine and air penetrate this amusement space and surround the whole landscape, the kids seem to be in a blossoming lotus. Furthermore, this amusement space can not only make kids experience strong interaction but also achieve a high degree of harmony and unity both in aesthetics and function and people and landscape.
When children are on adventure, they pass through a thriving lotus pool, see the lotus blossom from the pine bud to the lotus head, find the elf hiding in the lotus, and invite the elves to start the adventure journey with enthusiasm. Next, children and the elves cross the Hexi Corridor, feel the red genes of inheritance in the hot land, and understand the story about the Red West Road Army. At last, children and the lotus elves all immerse themselves in the dream of interlacement between red culture and white fairy tales.
Blossoming for Lotus
From the whole kindergarten outdoor playground planning to peripheral derivative
The designer adopts the green of lotus as the kindergarten’s main color and supplements it with the blue of water. As we all know, the growth and blossoming of a lotus can not leave the nourishment of water, and the vitality of water can not lack the embellishment and feedback of a lotus. Furthermore, the lotus and water depend on each other and achieve each other, and it is just like the relationship between kindergarten and children’s mutual assistance, which conforms to the theme of “harmony and lotus.”
The Cowboy design team follows the original construction layout and is around the “Harmony·Lotus Culture” to make an overall thematic conception and design. The whole venue is paved with the pond of lotus blossoms and ripples of water waves, and the water waves are twists and turns. Besides, the center of the venue has round and square ballparks and traffic simulation lines. The curved equipment creates a smooth movement and spatial rhythm, and the spaces are extended in a minimalist soft color, where children play and grow together with the lotus flower.
The kindergarten outdoor playground is mainly divided into four functional area: lotus theme adventure playground area, the football field and the basketball court activity area, the simulated micro-terrain of the Hexi Corridor area, and the red courtyard of the Red Army knowledge popularization area.
Lotus Adventure Park
The Lotus Adventure Park sets up multi-functional gameplay: Tunnel network, telephone network, transparent walkway, drop trestle road, climbing trestle road, balance pile, balance beam, slide, hang-up ring.All these outdoor playground can exercise children’s muscles, physical strength, hand and foot coordination, sense of balance, group cooperation and courage.
The outdoor playground for children’s activities should be designed in a place with plenty of sunshine to provide conditions for the healthy growth of children and the formation of sunny and upward character.
The new design plan pays more attention to the greening design and enlarges the green area to create a green space that has flowers blossoming for three seasons and green plants for four seasons. Furthermore, the green space uses a simple and abstract geometric pattern to increase the overall visual effect on the vitality, interestingness, and playability, so that children’s curiosity and attention can be attracted, allowing children to skip in the colors, dance in the note, nourish their minds in the art world full of children’s interest and get the improvement.
Hexi Corridor Microtopographic Sensing Area
The outdoor game space of the “microgeography” is a micro ecosphere and it through flower, grass, wood,stone, sand and other natural elements lead children from a closed indoor space to nature full of vitality and with four different seasons.
Cowboy designer takes advantage of the undulating native terrain to design the little earth slope, drilling hole, watchtower, climbing net, log balance toys, and other multiple expansion projects. When children are playing, they are not only like walking in the beautiful Hexi Corridor to enjoy the endless natural scenery but also like retracing the path of the Long March to experience the indomitable strong will of the revolutionary forefathers.
Red Backyard
The new plan will transform the other side of the facade of the original teaching building into a cultural wall of the red courtyard, and the 120-meter-long red cultural corridor will tell the story of the Red Army and carry forward the red revolutionary culture. The red and green colors of the corridor symbolize the red history that a single spark can spread from fire to fire and the good wishes of mankind for Greenpeace.
IP Design
Cowboy Group not only makes an entire design for the kindergarten outdoor playground but also designs a unique IP Figure named Little Lotus who is an elf hiding in the lotus pond.
Lotus is known as the gentleman in the flower because of its characteristic that rooting in the very mud without mess and spoiled by the neat treasure without sluttery. The lively little lotus as the IP Figure will lead children to conduct a deeply immersive experience both in outdoors and classrooms.
Lotus is the kindergarten’s exclusive cultural element; the ear of wheat represents hope and wishes; the five-pointed star stands for victory. Integrating the above elements will become the particular LOGO in the kindergarten. Moreover, combined with the IP Figure, a series of surrounding products with characteristics are produced.
Teaching Building
The facade of the old teaching building has also been refreshed into Pale pinkish purple color, and has been surrounded by pieces of lotus petals wrapped in stamens, which is refreshing.
When Cowboy Group renovated the kindergarten, it directly showed and interpreted the abstract Confucian culture through the concrete image of the lotus flower. Firstly, it guides the young children to infiltrate the Confucian spirit in the environment centered on lotus. Secondly, it acquires the cultivation of Confucian quality in the course of the “Lotus” theme. Thirdly, it absorbs the essence of Confucianism in the game activities with “Lotus” as the topic, so that children can be in the process of close to, experiencing, cognition, and understanding the lotus to experience and obtain the joy and happiness from the kindergarten’s culture.
More Renderings of This Project
