Queenston Childcare
- City: Coquitlam
- Status: Design Development
- Category: Commercial
The Challenge
To design a multi sensory environment, rigorously catered to the child’s experience: where architecture plays a role in connecting children with nature, strengthening their relationship with the environment and enhancing the learning and development process.
About this Project
As the community of Northeast Coquitlam grows, the demand for childcare that is local and easily accessible has quickly outpaced existing seats. The project proposes a 94 seat facility as a part of a wider phased project complete with townhome development. The program integrates childcare, preschool and afterschool care providing a seamless continuity of service for local families.
The design for the childcare facility takes inspiration from the lush forest that surrounds the Burke Mountain community. Establishing a relationship with nature is important for children from a young age and this is key to the design concept of the childcare facility. The experience of nature and being in a forest is translated through
design by the use of materiality, space, and light. Wood is used as the primary exterior material: framed and showcased alongside fiber cement panels and accented with natural stone. The use of wood, muted grey with the textural qualities of stone allows a sophisticated, natural palette with a variety of scales and textures. The design aims
to maximize the warmth and biophillic benefits of wood.
Wood battens are used on the exterior where privacy or shading is necessary but light is also needed. The battens continue indoors reinforcing a continuum of exterior and interior spaces. The verticality of the battens references the slender trunks of trees and stand as dynamic elements in space: their distance and relationship always seems to change as you walk around them. Careful attention is paid to the natural daylighting of spaces and creating various shadow play, mimicing the ever changing quality of light found in a forest.
The “Forest Preschool” recognizes that access to nature and healthy spaces is crucial to the wellbeing and development of children in their formative years.