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Crossboundaries

Family Box Beijing

Foto: YANG Chao Ying
Foto: YANG Chao Ying
Ort
Beijing Chaoyangqu Wangjing
Gebäudekategorie
Bildung und Forschung
Bauvorhaben
Neubau
Jahr der Fertigstellung
2011
Material Fassade
Glas
Family Box is something between an indoor playground and a kindergarten for children up to twelve years old, but it also accomodates their parents’ needs. It hosts different kinds of activities - from swimming, playing games to various classes ranging from music, dancing, crafting to cooking. Furthermore it has a big playframe, a reading area and a generous café area. Located at the outer corner of a park it is placed in a natural environment, which enhances the visibility of the building.

The different size and height between adult and child and their different angle of view was the starting point for considering Family Box should be made by two types of spaces: a kids-scale space and an adult-scale space.
How to find an inspiring balance between them? How to combine the different needs?

Despite the complex program another challenging part of this project was to deal with an existing structural system, column grid and also the building footprint - due to a different original function of the building and the involvement of another design institute in an earlier project stage.
The rigid concrete structure of the building did not seem the most suitable for the design purpose, which was counterbalanced in different ways. Since the two upper floors where not yet constructed, floor plates were shifted up and down and cut outs in the floor allowed views between the two floors.

The use of independent rooms in the shape of freestanding boxes allows the activities to run parallel and it offers the most suitable environment for each. The rooms have their own program or theme, they all differ from the outside space in terms of color and furniture. They have their own story and inside life and allow the children to concentrate on the program offered. At the same time, small square window openings allows maintaining contact with the outside, and parents can have a peep inside to see what is going on.

The box locations are meant to break the rigid layout of the concrete columns, which is also camouflaged with a series of arches that give a different rhythm to the environment.  
Visually, the common areas are treated with low contrast finishes in order to enhance and balance the space and equipments for the children.

The glass façade is wrapping all of the functions like a skin, following the given building perimeter. It has a printed pattern, which was developed out of simple single-line drawings made by children. They were modified into a pattern consisting of two different sized squares, the graphic motif is reversed: the background is white-translucent and the drawing is transparent. From far away the objects on the facade are recognizable; they indicate a building function related to children, fun and recreation.

Location Beijing, China
Client Children Enterprise (UK) Limited
Site area 38000 sqm
Building Footprint 2300 sqm
Gross floor area 5625 sqm
Completion 1st phase December 2009, 2nd phase December 2011
Architect Crossboundaries, Beijing
Partners-in-charge Binke Lenhardt, DONG Hao
Team Feng Zheng, Fang Wang, Giacomo Butte, Shanyun Huang
Collaborating Architects & Engineers BIAD International Studio & BIAD TSH International Studio
Photo credits YANG Chao Ying