The new Sir Thomas Playford Kindergarten was designed to address specific social and cultural disadvantage through education and break inter-generational unemployment through learning. Designed to encourage participation with children and parents, the kindergarten allows parents to engage and improve social skills, thus transferring the value of learning to the home environment. A circular theme that carries through the building introduces bright splashes of colour which provide an inherent sense of playfulness to the design of the facility, making it obvious as to what it will be used for and highlighting its function to the community. Recognizing the complex and challenging community background, the kindergarten creates a culturally sensitive building design that is inclusive and welcoming to all. The building offers security, is child friendly and enables line of sight supervision for educators. The facility has an unprecedented amount of glazing both internally and externally with full width and height windows while still having spaces to display children’s work. This creates a very light and open plan environment due to the indoor and outdoor learning spaces being visually connected as well as allowing supervision of all children.

• Location Elizabeth South, South Australia
• Client Department for Education
• Completed 2015
• Budget $2.6M