House of Wonder Childcare, Cambridge
By Smith Architects
House of Wonder in Cambridge, New Zealand, has been designed as a series of ‘houses’ that are connected through gardens and walkways to create a community-focused village. Catering for 90 children, aged 0-6, the centre is a warm and welcoming environment that provides children with state-of-the-art facilities, bright open plan classrooms, and spacious outdoor play areas.
Fitting in with its countryside setting, the arrangement of classrooms has been broken down into smaller barn-like forms that are arranged around natural outdoor playscapes and covered timber walkways. Traditional gabled roof forms are given a modern feel with vertical corrugate and timber cladding, with planting and tall pine trees providing a lush, green backdrop.
A central philosophy for House of Wonder is that the child's environment is the third teacher. A connection to nature and the outdoors is vital, and indoor-outdoor flow is seamless with large sliding doors and covered timber canopies that create all-weather outdoor play spaces.
The centre also incorporates the Reggio Emilia philosophy in its curriculum, so designated art studios are included to provide a space for smaller groups of children to work on art projects and explore creative play.
Client: House of Wonder
Location: Cambridge, New Zealand
Construction cost: To be confirmed
Area: 630m²
Programme: Completed 2020
Professionals used in
House of Wonder Childcare, Cambridge
More projects from
Smith Architects
About the
Professional
Smith Architects is an award-winning international architectural practice creating beautiful human spaces that are unique, innovative and sustainable through creativity, refinement, and care.
Phil and Tiffany Smith established the practice in 2007. We have spent more than two decades striving to understand what makes some buildings more attractive than others, in the anticipation that it can help us design better buildings.
Recent advances in neuroscience and psychology have enabled scientists to unlock some of the reasons why we find certain works of art, objects and environments more attractive than others, and at the heart of it is simple Darwinian theory: if we find something attractive we will be more likely to choose that thing over another – be it a painting, a piece of music, a landscape or even a building.
At Smith Architects, we use these learning to inform our designs, striving to create beauty in everything we do, in the belief that beautiful spaces create better environments for human beings or ‘beautiful human spaces’.
We carefully integrates architectural, landscape, interior and furniture design skills to ensure projects achieve an holistic integrity that meets our client’s needs. At the core of our design rigour, we believe that modern, sustainable, research-based design delivers a successful project with innovative solutions that work for our clients.
Our Auckland, New Plymouth, and Arrowtown offices design and deliver projects ranging from refurbishments to new-builds; from domestic scale to urban master plans; from conception to completion. Our experience covers a broad range of typologies – masterplans, mixed-use schemes, residential; offices; cultural; educational; healthcare and childcare.
We work with a diverse client base, including developers, private, government and charities and have experience of working with multiple stakeholders on challenging sites around the world.
We are a member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC), Site Safe New Zealand, and the Sustainability Business Network.
- ArchiPro Member since2014
- Associations
- Follow
- Locations
- More information