Bundoora Childcare Centre:
An exciting space for play
and exploration
WORDS Paul GardinerLocated on a challenging, steep site, Bundoora Childcare Centre
incorporates a retained heritage cottage and a new building with
exciting elements that prioritise a child’s experience of the built space.
A ChiLDCARe CentRe
in uRBAn MeLBOuRneThere’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.
One of the essential issues 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 childcare space.
The priority was to have the cottage relate to
the outside while also linking to the new, more
program-intense new building.
For this project, Gardiner Architects was
engaged by the developer who is a large
property trust that specialises in childcare.
The architectural proposal and resulting
building costs 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 skillis 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.CReAting engAging
OutDOOR pLAy SpACeSThe number of children that the development
deal was based on meant 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 it was important 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. The
design is first and foremost about the children
and mesh is a more tactile, interesting and
engaging surface. It also allows the children to
be safe while prioritising more connection to
the elements and surrounding views.
It was important to provide spaces that were
adaptable, so they can be changed to house a
range of different activities while also responding
to the variation in seasonal and day-to-dayweather conditions. The mesh creates a blending
of playground and building. It becomes a moving
and changing facet of the building experienced
not only from within but from beyond. The mesh
also allows for interaction between the raised
outdoor spaces and the ground level outdoor
space surrounding the cottage.the AeSthetiCInternal spaces were designed to be flexible
rather than too contrived or rectilinear. This
allowed the operator and their staff to change
the internal environment to suit different play
activities expanding the possibilities of how the
one room can be utilised and in turn extending
the lifespan of the built space.
The palette of the project prioritised longevity
and flexibility. Colour was used in a restrained
way, most often to act as a visual identifier.
The doors to activity rooms are painted a deep
blue while strong toned tiles distinguish the
kitchen as well as the children’s bathrooms.
The rest of the colour can be infused into the
spaces through the play equipment and art
made by the children.
Architecture doesn’t have to compete
with the range of elements and activities
within a children’s learning space. It can
instead set the backdrop for the people whoarchitecture & desiGn /pROjeCtS/ jul-seP 201945ADQ3_044_047_Childcare_V2.indd 45 26/7/19 5:16 pm