YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten

In 2017 the design team was asked to design a kindergarten beside an apartment building for seniors, reflecting the client’s idea of bringing preschool education and elderly care together. The 9,275 square metre site held an original eighteenth century courtyard house, a replica courtyard built in the 1990s and a four-storey modern building.

Completed at the end of 2019, the kindergarten serves 390 children aged one and a half to six. The replica courtyard was removed and replaced with a new building that holds the historic courtyard in the palm of its hand. A floating roof joins many separate spaces into one, its red, undulating surface becoming a playground of hills and slopes among the old trees, while light-filled classrooms and play halls open beneath it.