Project: Innovative Childcare House
Client: BOI Design Foundation
Concept: 2025
Completed: 2026
Typology: Education
Size: 75,000 sq.ft/ 6,968 sq.m
Status: IDEA | COMPLETED
Location: Shikumen, Shanghai, China
Client: BOI Design Foundation
Concept: 2025
Completed: 2026
Typology: Education
Size: 75,000 sq.ft/ 6,968 sq.m
Status: IDEA | COMPLETED
Location: Shikumen, Shanghai, China
The Innovative Childcare House in Shikumen, Shanghai, is conceived as a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Chinese siheyuan — a spatial form that has historically nurtured family life, intergenerational relationships, and collective memory. The circular courtyard configuration transforms the idea of enclosure into a landscape of openness, curiosity, and movement for children. Instead of designing a conventional childcare building defined by rigid classrooms and corridors, the project gives form to a living educational village where architecture becomes part of childhood development itself. The flowing timber structure, inspired by the progressive language of Chinese traditional and modern architecture, creates soft transitions between indoor and outdoor environments, learning and play, quietness and social interaction. The central courtyard acts as the emotional heart of the project: a protected world where children can safely explore nature, sunlight, air, water, and human connection. By integrating the building with surrounding Shikumen and siheyuan neighborhoods, the design respects Shanghai’s historical urban culture while introducing a future-oriented educational environment rooted in warmth, openness, and community life.
位于上海石库门街区的“创新托儿之家”，被构想为对传统中式“四合院”的一种当代演绎——这种空间形态在历史上曾孕育了丰富的家庭生活、代际关系及集体记忆。其环形的庭院布局，将传统的“围合”概念转化为一片充满开放感、好奇心与动态活力的儿童景观。该项目并未采用那种由刻板教室与狭长走廊界定的传统托育建筑模式，而是塑造了一个充满生机的“教育村落”，使建筑本身成为儿童成长历程中不可分割的一部分。受中国传统与现代建筑中那种进取、流动的语言启发，建筑内部蜿蜒流畅的木结构设计，在室内与室外、学习与游乐、宁静与社交之间营造出柔和自然的过渡。中央庭院构成了整个项目的“情感核心”：这是一个受到精心守护的微观世界，孩子们可在此安全地探索自然、阳光、空气、水流，并建立人与人之间的联结。通过将建筑巧妙地融入周边的石库门及四合院街区环境之中，该设计在致敬上海深厚的历史城市文化的同时，亦引入了一种面向未来、且深深植根于温暖、开放与社区生活之中的新型教育环境。
This project gives form to the future by pursuing an architecture that grows together with people and the environment instead of existing as an isolated object. The building is imagined as part of a connected network of courtyards and communal spaces woven into the historical urban fabric, allowing children to experience architecture as an extension of everyday life and culture. Timber construction and sustainable systems are not treated merely as technical solutions, but as expressions of care, responsibility, and emotional well-being. Natural ventilation, filtered daylight, rainwater integration, shaded courtyards, ecological landscapes, and low-carbon materials create an atmosphere that supports healthier development for children while reducing environmental impact. The curved geometry softens the institutional feeling often associated with educational facilities and instead introduces a sense of comfort, safety, and imagination. In the future, this form can evolve as a prototype for urban childcare environments where density and humanity coexist — where cities become more breathable, social, and child-centered rather than dominated by efficiency alone. The project therefore becomes not only a building, but also a framework for how future communities may live, learn, and care for one another.
该项目致力于构建一种与人及环境共生共长的建筑形态，而非将其打造为孤立的实体，以此构想未来。建筑被设想为由庭院与公共空间构成的互联网络的一部分，并有机融入历史悠久的城市肌理之中，让孩子们能将建筑体验视为日常生活与文化的延伸。木结构与可持续系统不仅是技术层面的解决方案，更体现了关怀、责任与情感福祉。自然通风、过滤后的自然光、雨水利用、绿荫庭院、生态景观及低碳材料共同营造出一种环境，既促进了儿童的健康成长，又降低了对环境的影响。柔和的曲线造型消解了教育设施常有的刻板机构感，转而营造出舒适、安全且充满想象力的氛围。展望未来，这种形态有望成为城市托育环境的典范，实现高密度与人文关怀的共存——让城市变得更具呼吸感、社交活力与以儿童为本的特质，而非仅仅由效率主导。因此，该项目不仅是一座建筑，更构建了一个关于未来社区如何生活、学习及互相关怀的框架。
I believe this form is meaningful to pursue because architecture has the responsibility to shape better qualities of life for future generations. Children experience the world through emotion, movement, touch, scale, and memory, and this project seeks to create spaces that nurture those experiences with dignity and joy. The circular courtyard symbolizes continuity, unity, protection, and growth — values that are deeply connected to both traditional Chinese culture and the collective future of urban living. In a rapidly modernizing society where many cities are losing human intimacy and environmental sensitivity, this childcare house proposes a different direction: one where sustainability is emotional as well as technical, and where cultural heritage is transformed rather than erased. The project believes that architecture should not only provide shelter, but also cultivate empathy, creativity, social belonging, and harmony between humans and nature. By combining the communal spirit of the siheyuan with innovative sustainable design, the building becomes a form of hope — a place where children can grow with freedom, where communities can reconnect through shared space, and where architecture can once again become a meaningful formgiver for society and the future.
我认为探索这种建筑形式意义深远，因为建筑肩负着为子孙后代塑造更优质生活的责任。儿童通过情感、动作、触觉、尺度感和记忆来感知世界；本项目旨在营造能够以尊严与喜悦滋养这些体验的空间。圆形庭院象征着延续、团结、庇护与成长——这些价值观既深深植根于中国传统文化，也与城市生活的共同未来息息相关。在社会飞速现代化、许多城市逐渐丧失人际亲密感与环境感知力的当下，这座托育中心提出了一种不同的发展方向：一种兼顾情感与技术层面的可持续性，以及一种对文化遗产进行转化而非抹除的路径。本项目坚信，建筑不仅应提供庇护之所，更应培育同理心、创造力、社会归属感以及人与自然之间的和谐关系。通过将四合院的社群精神与创新的可持续设计相结合，这座建筑化身为一种希望的象征——在这里，儿童可以自由成长，社区成员能通过共享空间重建联结，而建筑也能再次成为塑造社会与未来的有力载体。
