Family Box Qingdao

Qingdao, China

Photo © XIA Zhi

Architects: Crossboundaries

Location: Shandong Lu, Shinan District, Qingdao, China
Year: 2015
Client: Children Enterprise (UK) Ltd., 家盒子文化有限公司
Team: Binke Lenhardt, DONG Hao, Tracey Loontjens, Cynthia Cui, GAO Yang

Smart volumes and smart spaces are filled with a variety of elements to engage children to play and learn.Scaled for children to climb, crawl and walk, allowing independent exploration or together with an adult.

MAKING A SMART DIFFERENCE, EFFICIENT SPACES AND VOLUMES

Early childhood education in China is rapidly developing. Situated in a shopping mall, Family Box welcomes the public with a library, shop and try-out classes for potential customers before directing its members to the children’s swimming pool, classrooms, open play areas and cafe.

Yellow, blue and green represent the city of Qingdao. Each color is indicating a special design feature. Recognizable for children, active floors are in yellow, multi-functional smart spaces in blue and walls are transformed into green smart volumes. This allows for maximization of the amount of program in the available space.

Breaking from traditional educational layouts, the smart volumes are filled with a variety of elements to engage children with playing and learning. Containing slides, climbing zones, soft-upholstered seating and other elements.

While closed, rooms and play areas function independently. For group activities they then can open up with movable walls. The setup is integrating with the library for large group storytelling, or converting into a stage where an audience can watch a small performance from the stepped seats.