CHILDREN'S UNIVERSITY

Children universities are an important program for young children. It helps them develop skills that are useful both for their academic education and their life in general. My school focuses on children aged 6-12 and on teaching them the importance of playing and discovering nature. Since nowadays most children are surrounded by artificial and digital environments.
 
My aim is to push the students to not only experience nature, but also to analyze and study it. The program of the school focuses on exploring, understanding and interpreting the surrounding nature. This interpretation can be done through many medium and technics. They can use artistic, digital or scientific methods. Additionally, many workshops are open to educate on subjects such as upcycling, recycling among others.
 
The spaces in the building aim to satisfy these needs. First, the grounds are covered with a forest. Certain parts of this forest include an enclosed area for animals that the students can interact with. As the university mostly functions after normal school hours, this part of the building is crucial to the phycological health of the children. With the addition of the tree houses and other structures on the other side of the woods helps promote playing in nature. All of this is meant to encourage the students to play outdoors.
 
Inside the building we find an indoor forest on the second floor. As the plants and animals outside are limited by the climate, the glass house allows for the children to experience new and exotic plants and animals that are not commonly found in the area. Another green structure in the building in the vertical garden. As normal agriculture uses a lot of land and resources, it is important for the youth to explore new ways to grow vegetables. This helps the children become less intimidated by the concept of growing their own food and drives them to perhaps try a smaller example in their homes.
 
The building has two main public spaces. In the entrance we find a sitting area that is combined with a café. If you walk past this area, you can find the exhibition hall. This hall is verry useful in order to create a sense of pride in the students as well as showcasing the work done in the school. Connected directly is the conference hall, it can house around 100 people and can be used either exclusively by the students, or on occasion opened to outsiders.
 
The student area is divided to two floors, the first is a more relaxed environment. It includes the vertical garden, a relaxation space, an open class room for workshops and a VR-cave. The second floor contains the classrooms and the computer labs as well as a library. There are many open study areas in order to help the children learn to study together and collaborate with one another. The VR- cave is an interesting installation, it can be used by both teachers and students in order to discover galleries and spaces that they can’t physically access as well as experience their own work and designs.