Block Kindergarten sits at the intersection of Hongqi Road and Zhenchuan Road in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, covering approximately 1.01 hectares with a total floor area around 9,012 square meters.
Project Name: Block Kindergarten
Studio Name: SoBA Architects
Project Location: Kunshan, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, ChinaDesign
Period: February 2021 – December 2023
Site Area: 1.01 hectares
Gross Floor Area: 9,012 m²
Design Team: Li Chuanzhang, Wu Yiqing, Liao Zhexuan, Wang Yuan, Zhong Cheng, Shen Yichen (Intern), Xiao Yunxuan (Intern)
Photography: Wen Studio
Planned as a 21-class facility, the site is surrounded by a challenging urban fabric: tall residential towers rise to the north, with more housing developments planned to the east, while municipal facilities such as a 110kV substation, a waste transfer station, and an emergency medical center occupy the southern edge. These conditions create both spatial and psychological constraints, with towering buildings enclosing the site and infrastructure introducing visual and environmental disruptions.
“Building-Block Castle”: Openness Within Enclosure
Against this backdrop, the design aims to offer children a secure and stimulating environment. Through a series of architectural and landscape transitions, the kindergarten provides a gradual introduction to the broader city while maintaining a connection to nature.
The building mass is strategically shifted northward, creating a dense landscape buffer along the southern boundary. This green edge acts as a natural screen, mitigating the impact of adjacent municipal facilities. The kindergarten adopts an enclosed layout, forming a central courtyard that becomes a continuous, safe outdoor space for children.
The architectural composition draws inspiration from block and modular logic. Volumes are stacked and shifted, producing a layered “castle-like” form that resonates with children’s experiences of play, while maintaining a coherent spatial order. Privacy and openness coexist: portions of the southern volume are offset to accommodate staircases and transparent glass sections, offering framed views of the city without compromising the security of the courtyard.
Enclosing the building does not imply complete separation from its surroundings. Certain sections of the southern mass are deliberately shifted, making room for staircases and transparent glass elements that form visual corridors extending toward the city. These design moves interrupt the façade’s continuity, yet preserve the courtyard’s privacy. From within the kindergarten, children are offered carefully framed glimpses of the urban landscape, the sky above, and nearby trees, allowing them to remain connected to the outside environment while safely immersed in their own play and learning spaces.
Color as a Language of Space
Color plays a key role in shaping the learning environment. Following Maria Montessori’s insights in The Absorbent Mind, the design uses variations in brightness and saturation as a spatial language, creating legible layers that enhance children’s sensory engagement.
The project also embraces principles of “emotional architecture,” inspired by Luis Barragán, the Mexican architect. Daylight enters through courtyards, corridors, and openings, producing atmospheres that shift throughout the day. This careful orchestration of light, color, and scale encourages perception, reflection, and memory, making the kindergarten not just a functional space, but an immersive, emotionally resonant environment.
Clear and Efficient Functional Organization
The campus is oriented north–south, with lower volumes positioned to the south and taller ones to the north. The main entrance opens from the east, with a secondary fire access to the west and a service entrance at the northeast corner. Classrooms are arranged in the southern and northern wings to maximize natural light, while service areas occupy the western volume. Administrative functions are located on upper floors, and shared facilities—such as a multipurpose hall, reading room, and music room—are placed at intersections between building volumes to encourage interaction.
Planetary Garden: A Classroom of Natural Learning
At the heart of the campus, the central courtyard forms the primary outdoor environment, featuring play areas, planting gardens, and landscaped zones. A planetary map of the solar system embedded in the central playground provides an organizing framework for different activity areas, connecting children to natural cycles and fostering curiosity.
Several spaces within the campus encourage children to engage with natural processes. A planting garden in the southeast corner allows older children to cultivate crops and observe seasonal changes, while a rain garden in the northeast collects stormwater and introduces concepts of ecological cycles. Through these features, Block Kindergarten functions as a platform for play, learning, and early environmental education, cultivating an awareness of the natural world alongside urban life.
