uneven geometry elevates the kengo Kuma day care center in Japan

Kengo Kuma builds ‘Murasaki Penguin Totsuka’ day care center

Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA) recently completed ‘Murasaki Penguin Totsuka’, a day care center with performing arts and multimedia space for the local community Yokohama city. Located on a narrow and narrow plot, covered by huge residential buildings, the project reveals an uneven volume, as if it essentially derives from its irregular topography.

The architects compare the structure to ‘Froebelblocks’, an old-school children’s toy with educational purposes.‘To blend into the irregular site surrounded by retaining walls, we designed a building shaped like Froebel blocks, Frank Lloyd Wright’s favorite childhood toy, thrown on the slope creating sharp geometries and broken volumes. ‘ all images ©︎Keishin Horikoshi/SS

sharp cover with a cozy interior

Informed by the site’s distinctive terrain, the project’s silhouette stands proudly with its angular form. Unlike the tough and elaborate shell, the interior of the project introduces a neat and warm place made entirely of wood. The steep exterior offers unique spatial experiences for children, creating interesting niches and a staggered ceiling that offers the view to explore. The architects at Kengo Kuma and their partners played smoothly with voids and solids, disrupting the dominant wooden form with glass cut-outs in triangular formations, allowing plenty of daylight to pour over the interior. With this unfair scheme, the architects an attempt to create visual communication throughout the building, while fostering a sense of discovery and creativity at the same time.

For the design team, the project acts as a meeting point that brings together young and old, encouraging a desire for interaction and entertainment. ‘In the complex terrain of Totsuka-Ku, Yokohama City, between a mountain and a residential area, we built a facility to accept the local community.’