Project name:
Cerritos College Child Development Center
Client:
Cerritos College
Project Description:
The Child Development Center which includes an outdoor playground was designed to physically capture, encompass, and express the environmental fabric for learning. This place provides space for three programs: a children’s program that serves 125 children from ages 2 to 5 years of age; an outdoor classroom demonstration project; and a laboratory for teacher preparation, where teachers learn through internships, observations and hands-on learning experiences.
The outdoor space is a result of the collaboration amongst the Center’s teachers, the children, and the architecture team. Design inspiration came from the Reggio Emilia approach, “which values the child as strong, capable and resilient; rich with wonder and knowledge.” After intensive dialogue amongst the design team and the client, a pedagogy concept was created, which speaks to the client’s value of respecting the rights of children by enriching the identity of their space.
The outdoor space brings intention and focus to the school’s values as it is designed to embrace what children and teachers see as important aspects of their lives and weave them together as a community. The identity of the outdoor scene resulted as an ensemble of spaces designed to offer different possibilities to children, teachers, and students based on the context of the local environment.