The education system is a large-scale manufacturing process.
Kinderfabrik is a ‘new Metabolism’ influenced by the industrial history of the site as Ammonia Works. The school is designed for children aged 4-6, ranging reception to Year 1.
The design consists of interconnected capsules and an abstractionist playground inspired by Egon Moller and Isamu Noguchi. The importance of a capsule and its required illuminance dictates its height above ground. As the day evolves, the children’s movement will gradually fill the school resembling pipes in a factory’s manufacturing process.
The capsules’ lightweight steel frame is supported by an external steel box frame following the language of the abstractionist playground. As more children attend Kinderfabrik, classroom modules are added by expanding the box frame and lifting new capsules onto the structure.
Duckweed is extracted from River Lea and synthesized through pipework entwined between the structure and architecture to provide shading in the form of large-scale chromatography artworks. The children contribute to the synthesis of duckweed by playing in the playground. The development of the Climate Crisis will cause the artwork to be greener for a greater proportion of the year. Monthly recordings of the artworks educate the children on the Climate Crisis.
