Probably the most famous architectural bureau from China today is once again breaking stereotypes, expanding the geography of its projects more and more and continues to amaze with a non-standard approach to solving seemingly banal tasks. Attempts to create a truly homely atmosphere in kindergarten have become almost a common place, and the level of “homeness” is almost the main criterion for assessing the quality of an educational institution. Ma Yansong and his colleagues took the problem literally and created a project under the somewhat naive name Clover House, which can be translated as "Clover House".
Since there is very little free land in Japan, the owners of a private kindergarten, Kentaro and Tamaki Nara, who decided to somehow develop their business, had to sacrifice their own home. As a result, from the serial two-storey building, with an area of about 105 m2, only wooden structures with a characteristic gable-shaped ceiling will be left and covered with a sculptural "shell". The area of the building, which will already be 3-storey, will thus increase to almost 300 m2. During the day it will be a full-fledged kindergarten with versatile play and study spaces between the old core and the new "skin", and in the evening it will be a real, cozy home for the owner's family and teachers.
A complex, sculptural "box" with geometric slits-windows (the original gable structure in it, though remotely, but still guessed) is all covered with white bituminous tiles. The mysterious slit-like entrance from the corner, as conceived by the architects, should evoke associations with a fantastic cave or castle, which appeared from nowhere among the rice fields surrounding the area.
The first MAD Architects project in Japan is planned to be implemented in record time: the kindergarten should open its doors by the end of this year. Surprisingly, there is no riot of colors, obligatory for "children's" architecture, neither in the interior, nor, even more so, in the external solution. The playful character is created and transmitted exclusively by spatial techniques. True, children will be able to paint tiles, white as sheets of paper, so that the building will change, preserving the memory of the little students.
