DIKA Architectural Design Center: Dalezhiye Kindergarten, they make kindergarten the most desirable place!
"A map of the world without utopia is not worth a second glance, for it omits a land where humanity abides forever. When humanity descends on it, it looks into the distance and sets sail for a better land. Progress is the realization of utopia."
--Oscar Wilde (1891), 'The Soul of Man under Socialism', in Selected Essays and Poems (Penguin. London, 1954) p. 34.
The story can't begin without the word stunning.
From the smoke and dust of history to today's free soul, back to the beginning, Dale's Wild Kindergarten is also the beginning version of the depth of people's hearts. Four years ago, Wang Junbao and his team into Leshan, the first time I saw this site, love at first sight, everything so just right, they went and returned, but also became the eyes of all the bent. However, this story of one's own will has led to more people and more whimsical ideas coming into this Dale's Wild Kindergarten.
From sunrise to sunset, from spring, summer, autumn and winter at the confluence of the three rivers to the Lingyun Maitreya Buddha, which has endured thousands of years of wind and rain, the different faces of the mountains and rivers and the dialogue with the valley have made the DIKA Architecture and Design Center even more reverent to this land.
"Everyone has their own ideals and utopias, but too much real-life strife shatters those dreams."
Whether it is a "pioneer in kindergarten design" that has experienced savage growth and maturity, or a "new entrant" that is still in the groping stage, this team is a "family" that has come from "breaking the axe and sinking the boat". In the face of the tense social environment, the world is constantly iterating, people stay in the petri dish for a long time, and then, the invisible rules and regulations will put shackles on the mind, and all the thinking and feedback will be limited in it.
The world must need some people who are bent on resisting for the society with their own power, lighting up some awakenings that have long been worn out, but the road is not destined to be easy and arduous.
Drawn by the eyes that stopped by, the DIKA Architectural Design Center began to explore inward.
This remarkable building is located in Leshan, Sichuan Province and has a total floor area of 9,000 square meters. The name is inspired by the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", meaning "a place of forgotten beauty".
This structure seems to be an upward growing and spreading life form, and from the origin of the name, we can see the definition of this kindergarten in our heart.
Carrying the longing and expectation for a better life, DIKA Architecture Design Center chooses to promise the ideal place in its heart to Leshan, a city built by time.
"Imagination is the key to solving problems."
When people are puzzled, daydreaming can provide you with special answers, how to make the building more meaningful and combine with it, imagination is extremely important in the middle.
The vision of the kindergarten is unknown but full of magic and fun, DIKA Architecture Design Center chooses to use the romanticism or with Zhuangzi like sky, the form of the building will be different from the known or see some of the buildings, through the imagination to expand the cognitive boundaries of the kindergarten building.
These doubts from the unknown, these things that extend from this, are trying to make all the ideals shine into reality, to build an ideal world, so that those poems and faraway places become the present within reach.
Wang Junbao, founder of the DIKA Architectural Design Center, has said: "When the children see the building, its philosophy is not written on the wall, not instilled by the teacher, educational ideas on the hillside, outdoors, in the classroom, with a unique shape in the construction is very rare, we hope to make a unique architectural works with the local culture has something to do with the combination of the lost beautiful place in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, we hope that the children who come here We hope that all the children who come here can find their own beautiful place, and can stop for everything that is beautiful, which we think is in Leshan.
In a constant walk to remove unnecessary baggage, DIKA Architectural Design Center has chosen to try a new practice, a new possibility, which, whether it succeeds or fails, will bring more experiential contexts in the present and the future.
All acts of thought and exploration may be attempts to prove to the universe that Utopia really exists in the vastness of the stars.
From 2021 to 2023, it took three years for DIKA Architecture and Design Center to maintain its determination and true personality to explore, and to precipitate its concern for kindergartens and humanistic thoughts into its own core with the heart of a child. Whether it is in the firm gaze of the peers in some of the toughness to break the boat, or some of the sincere infiltration of the marrow and bones, have found the answer to these preparations for the waiting time, it is more like doing an experiment.
Excessive sensibility has no foundation, and excessive rationality can be extremely cold.
This world essentially consists of people and people, these three years, from the beginning of the passionate commitment, to the continuous creative effort, can not be separated from the trust and cooperation, this is a joint effort from different cultural fields to create, so that the kindergarten is no longer confined to a school-style building, the children have long ceased to be bound by the reading and writing, and more play, imaginative content and creativity.
Some things, it just has to wait.
Well, for three years, it really waited, coming here and feeling a little closer to the ultimate dream, overflowing the screen with happiness. The smiles and curiosity on the children's faces further convinced the DIKA Architectural Design Center that the emotions contained in these stories are common to all people.
"To be a designer, the most important thing is the love inside, you can hardly guarantee that this kindergarten will not appear the next Einstein, the next Mozart, the next Steve Jobs ...... 10,000 children should have 10,000 different possibilities, not 10,000 people have one person to become a success, is a good education , so to be a kindergarten, you must give good ideas and worldviews in the building."
Eyes high in the sky near a thousand mountains, the body of a total of clouds in a ravine, the Peachland is not outside the world, the road to the other side of the shore, on this shore, where all are redefined, but also in a trip to the ultimate wild and romantic buried in the ambush. Dale's Wild Kindergarten is like a free-growing building, like a bird building its own nest on this main body.
So the story was repeated and the DIKA Architectural Design Center chose to replace the various chapters of the kindergarten session with the words dreaming, lost, searching, and perceiving ...... beautifully allegorical and lighthearted.
They use a series of complete, complementary and coherent scenes to make every piece of life and children put together completely and connected. Also in the appearance of innovation made more natural thinking, undulating mountain-shaped creation is inspired by the local natural environment, into which it is like drilling into a small cave. The breeze, the raindrops, the tree shadows, the butterflies, the cicadas, the stones ...... all become authors. I don't know when, but every gust of wind that blows through here leaves a whisper inside one's heart.
Put aside your prejudices and realize: life in kindergarten can be so free and wonderful.
"Exploration without boundaries can maximize the effect of "education", the kindergarten is not a machine, nor is it a box, in Dale's Wilderness Kindergarten, architecture, nature, heaven and earth, and human beings can coexist and have a harmonious relationship."
In Dalezhiye Kindergarten, the design of each floor focuses on the harmonious symbiosis with nature, and through the clever layout and windows, natural light is allowed to pass through every corner of the building as if the sunshine is sprinkled on the mountains. The different surprises encountered every day may be the best gift given by nature to children.
Perhaps it's because life here is so poetic that the moment you step onto campus, the instantaneous change of light and shadow is like stepping into a dream.
The Dika Architectural Design Center wants children to enjoy every minute of nature, the kiss of the sun, and the refreshing habitat of plants for hair in the Dalezhiye's Wild Nursery.
They use a new visual design language to explore the connection between their own situation and the world, constructing more possibilities for educational architectural narratives and imaginaries, so that more children can be healed and find self-referential childhood in kindergartens. The interior space breaks the traditional spatial thinking, with more natural, more artistic, softer and warmer design, so that children from childhood to have a more profound feeling and experience of beauty, so as to enhance the cognition, and become a part of life.
Wang Junbao tries to look at the kindergarten with the eyes of a child, saying, "It is hard for himself to treat the kindergarten as an ordinary house, because any building carries a spirit, and within that spirit are contained geometry and mathematics, ideals and the gestures that it should have in itself. Only then does the cold house come alive."
The Dika Architectural Design Center puts aside all narrow-mindedness and prejudice for the most ideal kindergarten in its heart, tries to find the most primitive instinctive power from sight, hearing, smell, and touch, and goes for a narrow view of the world, hoping to accommodate all the beautiful things, and to bring more inspiration and possibilities to the children's future growth.
Dalezhiye Kindergarten belongs not only to China, but also to the world and to time. It is a long scroll in Chinese landscape painting, continuous, but also weathered for thousands of years of red rock caves, natural and powerful, natural and heavenly, buildings and places there is no normality, God can be similar to the shape of the form can not be bound to the shape of the shape of the God can be different, in the Dalezhiye Kindergarten, all things flourish, each with their own spirituality, lies in the wild, but also lies in the joy.
With every appearance, the Dika Architectural Design Center amazes the world, refreshes the stereotypical impression of kindergartens, and makes kindergartens the public's desire. The emergence of "Dalezhiye Kindergarten" is not only a strong desire for new students, but also a new chapter in the career of kindergarten design by injecting blood into the world's vibrant flow.
Will this exploration with an unknown ending be the end of the road for DIKA Architecture and Design Centre? What kind of adventures will start after "Dalezhiye Kindergarten"? The answer to all these questions may be revealed in the near future.
