Designs for children

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares129 Views

      in Rooms

      Danielle Brustman decorates children's centre in Melbourne with pastel hues and rainbow murals

      by

      Designer Danielle Brustman used pastel colours, marmoleum flooring and playful hand-painted murals to create the interior of the Brighton Street Early Learning Centre in a brutalist building in Melbourne.Each playroom in the concrete building, which was converted by Perkins Architects into a childcare centre, was allocated its own motif, which includes a river, meadow, star, sun and cloud. Brustman used these themes to come up with a narrative, treatment and palette for each space.
      “The brief and scope for this project was so exciting as the clients were after something bold and unique,” Brustman told Dezeen.
      “I regularly use colour in my interior design work but it’s not often I get the opportunity to be as bold with colours specification.”

      Top image: a rainbow mural decorates a wall. Above: the designer used 47 different colours within the centre

      She used 47 colours in total for the early learning centre, which is located in Richmond, Melbourne, adapting them based on the themes of each room and pushing the colour palette to its limits.
      “I wanted it to be complex and colourful whilst still adhering to a level of sophistication, gentleness and balance,” she said.

      Geometric designs decorate the walls
      Brustman also added several wall murals, hand-painted by Ben Maitland, to the design, which she hopes will be a source of inspiration and creativity for the children.
      The graphic murals feature star bursts, boats made from circles and triangles, rainbows and trees, among other designs.
      The rooms also have a seasonal feel. “The forest and river rooms have an autumnal feel to them, while the sun and cloud rooms have a more summery palette and atmosphere,” Brustman explained.

      Playful motifs decorate the walls
      Within the centre, the ground floor rooms relate conceptually to the earth, while the top floor rooms relate to the sky.
      Some of the original concrete structure of the building was deliberately left exposed when the space was repurposed to become a children’s centre, and has been complemented with natural, durable materials and decorative textiles that soften the space.

      The floors are made from marmoleum
      Marmoleum, which is made of 70 per cent natural fibre and 40 per cent recycled materials, is used on floors throughout the centre.
      Brustman’s studio also designed a number of customised rugs for the rooms, including patterned Tretford rugs made from goat hair.

      Coloured pendants were created by a local designer
      The reception area and stairwell were decorated with coloured pendants made from toughened glass, traditionally used for manufacturing laboratory beakers, by local lighting designer Copper ID.
      All playrooms have floating acoustic ceilings to tamper noise, as well as child-friendly soft wool and vinyl furnishings.

      The studio designed customised rugs for the early learning centre
      Keeping some of the concrete structure visible has created a contrast to the softer interior details, according to Brustman.
      “There’s something lovely and unexpected about the intersection between these original raw building materials and the softer, more colourful material surfaces,” she said.
      Brustman’s background is in set design, and the Brighton Street Early Learning Centre design offered an opportunity to create more dramatic designs than some of her regular interior work.

      Murals add colour and whimsy to the space
      “There is such freedom when you are aiming to please and tend to the imagination of a young child,” she said. “I think my design work is compatible with childcare design in that it’s playful and a little fantastical.”
      “My approach to this project has been different in that the same limitations are not placed on the design in terms of what is considered to be a current or tasteful palette,” she added.

      Even the functional spaces have colourful interiors
      Other colourful interior designs for children include Integrated Field’s design for a hospital in Thailand that features slides and a pool, and Atelier Scale’s playground with bright-yellow details in China.
      Photography is by Sean Fennessey.
      Project credits:
      Interior design: Danielle BrustmanArchitecture: Perkins ArchitectsBuilder: I BUILD MMurals: Painted by Ben Maitland

      Read more: More

    • 151 Shares159 Views

      Integrated Field decorates children's hospital in Thailand with slides and a pool

      by

      Design studio Integrated Field has created colourful arched interiors filled with animals and clouds to provide an enjoyable experience for children at a hospital in Samut Sakhon, Thailand.Playful touches in EKH Children’s Hospital include a bright yellow slide that spirals through the reception and animal shapes above hospital beds and light-up constellations that act as night lights.

      A yellow slide spirals through the entrance
      EKH Children’s Hospital has been shortlisted for leisure and wellness interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

      Integrated Field wanted the young visitors to the medical facility to be put at ease in what can be a scary and unfamiliar place.

      Waiting rooms have play areas and soft benches
      The designers put fun elements, such as clouds above an indoor swimming pool and soft play areas in the waiting rooms, to help distract children who could be nervous or feeling unwell.
      “Imagine being a kid dreading going into the hospital, the slide will definitely make you stop crying,” said the studio.
      “The waiting area of each clinic is designed into a playground, which becomes something of a burden for the parents when having to convince the kids to leave the hospital.”

      Slides make hospital visits so fun sometimes children don’t want to leave
      An indoor swimming pool adds to the fun, with arched windows that form circular reflections in the water and white clouds decorating the walls against a sky-blue backdrop.
      In the pharmacy, the play area is designed so that parents can easily keep an eye on their charges when they’re waiting at the counter.

      The rooms are themed around animals such as rabbits
      Arches above doorways and alcoves and rounded seating areas were all designed with a child’s perspective in mind, and these architectural elements were scaled to their height.
      Rooms are painted in soft pastel tones, including pink, blue and yellow.

      Ater Architects creates friendly interior for a children’s clinic in Kyiv

      “The pastel colour tone encourages the children’s use of imagination,” Integrated Field told Dezeen.
      “As a kid, we all create our own imaginary world when we are experiencing a space for the first time,” it added. “Each specific colour refers to a specific animal representing each zone, such as sky blue for whales.”

      Ceiling decorations double as nightlights
      Rooms for overnight stays are given animal themes to make them more appealing – Whale, Turtle, Lion and Rabbit Constellation.
      The animal’s outline is picked out on the ceiling so that it is visible during the day. At night, soft lightbulbs and glow in the dark strips pick out a constellation of stars that acts as a comforting nightlight.

      Arches feature in the hospital’s bathrooms
      Lighting in all of the hospital rooms and corridors is also designed to be soft, rather than the harsh fluorescent lights usually found in hospital settings.
      In the hospital bathrooms, the girls’ toilets are tiled pink and the boys’ yellow. Sinks and urinals are set into arched alcoves, with half of the facilities placed at a child’s height for easy access.

      The facade is also decorated with animals
      On the exterior facade, pastel-coloured metal screens have perforations that form the shape of animals.
      “As adults, we find ourselves amazed if not a bit jealous by the mesmerising variety and development of children’s toys or even snacks these days,” said the studio.
      “EKH Children Hospital will change everyone’s perception about what the space of a children’s hospital can be.”
      Integrated Field was founded in 2011 and is based in Bangkok.
      Other colourful children’s hospitals include a hospital in Brisbane with a colourful facade and a layout inspired by trees, and a brightly coloured children’s outpatient clinic in Kyiv that is also designed to be deliberately un-threatening.
      Photography is by Ketsiree Wongwan.
      Project credits:
      Owner: Ekachai HospitalInterior architect: Integrated FieldArchitect: S:CSBLandscape architect: S:CSBLighting designer: Nopporn SakulwigitsinthuEnvironmental graphics: Integrated FieldStructural engineer: S:CSBElectrical engineer: S:CSBSanitary engineer: S:CSBMain contractor: Adisorn ConstructionInterior contractor: Open Interior, PansinSignage contractor: D.R. Advertising

      Read more: More

    • 163 Shares119 Views

      in Rooms

      Red foam blocks turn cramped church room into a play space for kids

      by

      PRTZN Architecture has used upholstered foam blocks to transform a tiny room in a Hungarian church into a children’s playroom. Commissioned by Sacred Heart Jesuit Church in Budapest, the room is used as a space for children to play during holy mass services. Measuring just 12 square metres, the narrow space is filled wall-to-wall with […] More