Remuera Childcare Centre, Bear Park Remuera
Bear Park Remuera preschool, catering for infant toddlers
Ages catered for:
3 months to 5 years of age.
Licence:
Licensed for 30 under twos and 40 over twos.
Facilities & Services:
Bear Park Early Childhood Centre
13 - 15 Dilworth Avenue,
Remuera
The significant features that have greatly influenced me in creating this new Centre of Learning have been:
- The significance of ‘natural’ learning spaces
- The importance of transparency & visibility
- The intensities & tones of light
- The many voices of the expressive languages
- The true essence of creating a community of learners
- And the uniqueness of being New Zealand
The idea of building a Centre with a strong sense of being eco-friendly and providing natural spaces has been important to me. Water is stored from the roof and recycled for the water feature & gardens, and for the toilets. Solid wooden furnishings are used throughout the pods and a predominance of wooden toys and natural resources has been a way to confirm this.
We also wished to make our environments more respectful to children. We have achieved this, in part, with the use of wooden flooring, low ceilings and quiet mezzanine areas and extensive use of acoustic and insulating materials.
Having the opportunity for indoor-outdoor flow, as a way to create a seamless environment for the child’s investigative learning possibilities had always been a dream of mine and to be able to see this in action is truly wonderful.
For example watching children moving from the designing of a birdbath to actually start building this out on the wooden deck and then having the possibility to easily go back inside to revisit their plans was very meaningful.
With the classroom doors folded back it is possible to create a picture frame to the outdoors spaces.
Another key aspect of the building design we wished to emphasize was the issue of transparency and visibility – the idea of making our learning experiences more visible to all and so therefore making these times more inclusive to the observer, whether that person was another child, a parent or a teacher.
Walking through the Centre we have created this transparency through the use of glass whether it be the glass walls, doors or a window in which to see one’s friends through.
Light was another key feature we wished to experiment with. We have tried to make the most of all the natural light available to us through the use of windows at various heights and angles, as well as creating different hues of artificial light throughout the building. High south facing windows provide an abundance of quality light into many of the spaces.
The use of artificial light through the provision of spot lights, up lights, standard lamps, candles and light boxes have assisted us in achieving this.
Another very important component for us is the many expressive languages that children use and develop in their everyday lives throughout these early years.
In respecting these languages, we have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to provide spaces for the performing arts as well as classroom ateliers and a central atelier.
These specialist environments are where our children can engage in the art of dance, drama, mime, music, clay, paint and much more.
We believe that through these various opportunities of expression and communication children develop a stronger sense of self worth.
To be able to fully acknowledge our parents and to build a stronger sense of community has also been an influencing factor in the overall design of the building.
We have looked at creating spaces for parents within the pods, especially for our under twos, where parents can sit, take time to dialogue with other parents as well as their child’s teachers.
Also we have created the central piazza area that is to be the place of ‘meetings’ – it is the hub of the Centre where relationships and connections within the Centre’s three protagonists can be reaffirmed and developed.
A final key component of the design of the building was to be able to strongly reflect the various raw elements that we feel make New Zealand distinct.
From the materials we have used on the outside of the building – the use of concrete, brick, green glass in the windows – through to the feature walls of river stones, glass tiles, corrugated iron or brick inside in the classroom pods we have endeavoured to portray this.
Even throughout the outdoor explorative areas we have again transferred the elements of New Zealand that we value into these spaces through the use of water, stone, plants, grass and timber.
And so finally we are open and we are pleased to have the voices of children, parents and teachers making this building come alive.
We know we will revisit the various aspects of our Centre and develop these further as we go along on our journey but for now we are here and we are exhilarated.
Remuera Childcare Centre