Space Playground
Partial Demolition and Addition to a Standard-Plan Elementary School
| period | 2025.03–2025.07 |
| location | 161 Seohanam-ro, Hanam-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea |
| type | Fifth-year architecture graduation project · Individual work |
| status | Design proposal · Graduation exhibition |
| recognition | Design Excellence Award, Sungkyunkwan University Graduation Exhibition |
Space Shaped by Learning, Play Shaped by Space
‘Space Playground’ is an addition proposal that partially demolishes a standard-plan elementary school and reorganizes its special classrooms and shared spaces through three-dimensional forms. It retains the general classrooms and staff spaces while proposing a different way to accommodate play and learning beyond the school's repeated rectangular classrooms.
Working at a community child center for two years led to the goal of designing spaces for children. A subsequent study examined how three-dimensional spaces could support children's exploration and play through literature and educational-space precedents, and developed the findings into principles for the graduation project.
Solid Geometry and Children’s Divergent Thinking
As part of the graduation design studio, an individual study titled “A Study on Promoting Children’s Divergent Thinking Using Solid Geometric Space — An Integrated Building Strategy for Children in the Concrete Operational Stage” was conducted.
Starting from the limitations of standardized educational spaces with fixed functions, the study examined how pure geometric volumes and the in-between spaces created by their overlaps could support children’s divergent thinking across cognitive, physical, and emotional dimensions. Based on a literature review and architectural case studies, it established three design principles: cognitive scaffolding, unfinished in-between space, and a secure base.
Spatial Principles for Cognition, Body, and Emotion
| Research perspective | Design principle | Architectural strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Cognition | Cognitive scaffolding | Use pure geometric volumes as reference points for understanding space, and create boundaries open to multiple readings through their intersection and overlap. |
| Body | Unfinished in-between space | Use the volumes as the spatial framework, and organize the voids between them as activity areas without fixed uses. |
| Emotion | Secure base | Place angular and curved forms together, and connect open prospects with small spaces where children can hide or pause. |
The proposal applied these three principles as design hypotheses, turning gaps, changes in level, stairs, and platforms between the volumes into spaces that can be occupied and traversed. Relationships between forms, rather than the forms alone, became the focus of the design.
Scope of Retention and Demolition
The proposal retains the existing school's general classrooms, teachers' offices, and administrative spaces, and places a new wing containing special classrooms and shared spaces within the partially demolished area. The new wing's three-dimensional forms contrast with the repetitive orthogonal order of the existing building, while direct connections on every floor allow both parts to operate as one school.
The new wing shares the existing evacuation stairs, and evacuation distances were considered in the floor plans. Entrances and stairs from the schoolyard, exterior spaces, and existing building were distributed across several locations so that access would not depend on a single route.
Program–Volume Relationships for Special Classrooms
The library, art studio, music studio, and science lab were selected as representative special classrooms. A maker space was added in response to the site's school garden. The overall composition considered both functional suitability and sculptural relationships.
Cube of Thought — Library
The library occupies a cube that continues the relationship with the existing school's orthogonal order. Rotating the cube away from the existing axis creates a transition between the old and new buildings, while changes in floor level form tiered seating for reading and discussion.
Cylinder of Imagination — Art Studio
The art studio's work area is enclosed by the curved surface of a cylinder and opens toward the second-floor shared platform and exhibition space. Independent classes, collective work, and exhibitions continue through a connected spatial sequence.
Cone of Expression — Music Studio
The music studio occupies a cone on the fourth floor at the end of the vertical circulation and connects to the indoor and outdoor performance stages below. The tilted cone forms the vertical center of the new wing and gives spatial form to sound and resonance.
Triangular Prism of Making — Maker Space
The maker space sits on the first floor near the school garden and schoolyard. Activities involving the exploration and processing of materials from the garden can extend beyond the interior into the outdoor spaces. The inclined faces of the triangular prism define the boundary of the maker space while contrasting with the surrounding volumes.
Sphere of Inquiry — Science Lab
The science lab and astronomical observation space occupy a sphere separated from the other special classrooms. A curved passage extends to the sphere, making the independent volume both a destination and a marker of the inquiry space.
Cuboid of Relations — Dream Hub
The Dream Hub forms the horizontal center of the new wing and crosses several special classrooms. A cuboid rotated away from the existing school axis contains a shared space where classes, exhibitions, and play intersect, while its roof becomes a shared platform on the second floor.
Curve of Connection — Corridor
The curved corridor and ramp connect the existing and new buildings, the different floors, and the special classrooms along a continuous route. Rather than treating the corridor as residual space between rooms, the proposal makes it a primary design element that passes through the inside and outside of the volumes and offers different heights and directions from which to experience the space.
1F — The Beginning of Relations
The first floor is the entrance level where the existing and new buildings meet the schoolyard and garden. The library, Dream Hub, and maker space connect reading, play, and making directly to the outdoor spaces. Multiple entrances and stairs provide access from both the existing building and the schoolyard.
2F — The Expansion of Learning
The existing corridor expands into the new wing's curved passage, connecting the art studio with the other geometric spaces. The platforms formed between the roof of the Dream Hub and the surrounding volumes remain shared spaces outside any single classroom, accommodating exhibitions and collective activities.
3F — Interweaving the Volumes
The third-floor circulation connects to the second floor along a spiral ramp. The ramp and the interior and exterior decks bridge the differences in height between the volumes and create routes from which the central space can be viewed from multiple directions.
4F — The Culmination of Expression
The fourth floor contains the Cone of Expression and its music studio. The music studio connects visually and spatially to the performance stages below, becoming the endpoint of the spatial sequence through the four floors.
Design Outcome
Three design principles were derived from literature on child development and educational-space precedents, then translated into the retention and demolition strategy, special-classroom programs, relationships between volumes, and floor-to-floor circulation of an existing school. The proposal was developed through a site plan, an isometric drawing, four floor plans, a section, and spatial images, and received the Design Excellence Award at the Sungkyunkwan University Graduation Exhibition.
Validation remained within the scope of schematic design. Evacuation distances and the use of existing evacuation stairs were considered in the floor plans, but no separate evacuation simulation was conducted. Acoustic and structural performance, as well as children's actual use of the space, remain subjects for further validation.
