项目概述Description

这是一个位于墨尔本市区的新建的儿童托管中心项目。它坐落在一个充满挑战的、陡峭的基地上，建筑师将基地上原有的一座古老的小屋保留了下来，同时在基地上设计了一座令人耳目一新、眼前一亮的新建筑，值得一提的是，这座新建的体量优先考虑了孩子们的建筑空间体验。在本项目中，建筑师的首要任务是设计一系列尽可能小的开放式灵活空间，并使其与托管中心三层空间中的室外游乐空间相连。

Our new childcare project is located in an urban area of Melbourne. On a challenging, steep site, the project incorporates a retained heritage cottage and a new building that is bursting with exciting elements that prioritises a child’s experience of the built space. Our priority was to create open, minimal, flexible spaces that are well connected to the interactive outdoor play spaces spread over three levels.

▼新建的儿童托管中心外观，exterior view of the newly-built childcare center

项目详细描述Questions and Answers

位于墨尔本市内的充满童趣的托儿中心

A Playful Childcare Centre on an Urban Site in Melbourne

墨尔本这座城市对儿童托管的需求很大，然而，儿童托管这个行业并不像它表面上看起来的那样简单。通常情况下，开发商都会将一些不适于建造住宅的地块作为托儿所的基地，这也就意味着托儿所往往建于一个充满困难和挑战的地块上，在设计过程中，建筑师需要着重考虑基地的限制，以确保设计的建筑和设施能够为孩子们提供一个安全和愉快的学习环境。

这个儿童托管中心位于Bundoora地区一个陡峭的、具有挑战性的基地上，是一个典型的托儿所建筑案例。该托管中心身处于一个较大的城市发展区域内，而评估所得的数据显示，该地区对儿童托管场所的需求正在日益增长。而在本项目中，考虑到基地的陡峭程度，建筑师将儿童托管中心分成了上下两个部分。下半部分的空间包括一个历史上遗留下来的小屋以及围绕在小屋周边的一系列地面活动空间。新建的双层体量则位于场地的上半部分空间内。

在项目设计伊始，设计团队面临的第一个重点和难题便是如何找到一个最有效的方法来翻修上文提到的历史遗留下来的小屋，因为他们希望能够通过最少的干预手段，来将这座小屋转变为一个有趣的托儿所空间。因此，设计的一个出发点便是在确保小屋与外部环境的联系的前提下，尽可能地将其与功能更加齐全的新建建筑体量联系在一起。

There’s a strong demand for childcare in Melbourne though the industry can often be more difficult than it first seems. Developers are often tackling difficult sites where residential developments don’t stack up, by opting to build a childcare centre instead. This often means childcare centres are located on difficult sites with a plethora of design constraints that need to be responded to in order to ensure that the facility will foster a safe and enjoyable environment for children to learn in.

Located on a challenging, steep site, the Bundoora Childcare Centre is a typical development in this sense. The centre is within a larger urban development precinct that saw an increase in the assessed demand for childcare in the area. The steep site meant that the development had to be split over two levels. In the lower section of the property, there’s a heritage cottage surrounded by ground level outdoor play space. The new two storey building is located in the higher section of the site. One of the essential design issues faced at the beginning of the design process was finding the most effective way to refurbish the heritage cottage with minimal intervention to allow it to be re-purposed into an interesting child care space. The priority was to have the cottage relate to the outside while also linking to the new, more program intense new building.

▼基地下半部分的小屋以及围绕在小屋周边的一系列地面活动空间，活动空间与新建体量相联系，theheritage cottage surrounded by ground level outdoor play space which is connected to the new building

为此，建筑师专门聘请了一家专门从事托儿所项目设计的大型房地产信托公司来作为本项目的开发商。此外，建筑师还与运营商密切合作，确保这个托管中心能够符合其特定的设施要求。最为重要的是，开发商和运营商必须就建筑方案和由此产生的建筑成本问题达成一致，从而建立一个长期的租赁协议。通常情况下，要达到上述要求是十分具有挑战性的，尤其是对于本项目这种基地本身就很难处理的情况。在这种情况下，建筑设计技能往往是最重要的，因为建筑师必须找到一个可以尽可能多地容纳儿童的方法，从而使托管中心的效率最大化、价格最低化，同时也要保证对于需要托管的孩子们来说，进入这家中心是一个最好的选择。

For this childcare project, we were engaged by the developer who is a large property trust that specialises in childcare. We also worked closely with the operator to ensure the centre was aligned with their specific facility requirements. The architectural proposal and resulting building cost had to reflect the long-term rental agreement that the developer and operator had established. This can often prove challenging, especially on difficult sites. Architectural skill is paramount to find ways to maximise the number of children that can be accommodated, make the building as efficient and therefore as cheap as possible, while also ensuring that it’s the best design outcome for the children who are going to be attending the centre.

▼小屋周围的地面活动空间，活动空间使历史上遗留下来的小屋重新焕发生机，theground level outdoor play space surrounding the cottage, the play space gives the second life to the heritage cottage

创造引人入胜的户外游乐场

Creating engaging outdoor play spaces

一旦最多可容纳儿童的人数被确定了下来，建筑师便要开发考虑如何为所有的孩子提供充足的、完整的且多样化的室外活动场所。建筑师希望尽可能地避免将室外活动空间打造成被玻璃栏杆包围着的阳台，在这一前提下，他们设计了一系列架空的室外活动空间。因此，本项目的一个特征便是悬挑空间外围的丝网围墙。

The number of children that the development deal was based on, meant that a design issue arose around how to provide adequately sized, integrated and varied outdoor environments. Elevated outdoor play spaces were identified as a necessity though we wanted to ensure that these spaces moved away from the feel of verandahs hemmed in by high glass balustrades. A strong characteristic of the design became the tensioned mesh that runs right around the elevated outdoor areas.

▼新建体量外观局部，悬挑的活动空间由金属丝网围合，partial exterior view of the new building surrounded by tensioned mesh