it takes a village to educate a child:
BAU602 Suzhou Sci-tech City Xizhu Kindergarten

differentiated repetition
The result is a village of classrooms – small-scale “house”-like buildings repeated over the site to create a rich figure-ground of building fabric and courtyards that keep alive the memory of the disappearing villages.
Koolhaas has critiqued the placelessness of Dutch Structuralism, suggesting that it not only makes every building look the same but that all spaces within and without a single building remain non-differentiated, and consequently lose the ability to make place.
This project uses a series of design strategies to counter this critique: Firstly, a variety of open spaces – small courtyards (some enclosed, some open) that are linked to a single larger outdoor play space. Secondly, a variety of colours differentiating locations from the edge of the project to the centre. And finally, a series of specific local “house” details to create variety – all allowing the children and the staff to differentiate one “house” from the next and therefore clearly locate themselves within the project.

Place making
It has been argued that place is space with memory attached. In order for memory to be attached articulation and difference need to exist. All of this project’s strategies (clear articulation, a variety of open spaces, an edge-to-centre colour spectrum; and specific “house” details) results in a project full of memorable places for children, teachers, and staff.