A Hong Kong School Inspires Kids through Creative Interiors

Innovative educator Lisa Nielsen writes on her blog that boring schools might just be the reason why there are bored “difficult” kids. She says that educational centers for young kids should find a way to stimulate their students and not “fix” the kids themselves.

In Hong Kong, institutions are taking the initiative to provide this kind of learning environments.

One of these would be the Spring Learning Center in Wan Chai designed by Joey Ho Design. The design was developed by looking through a child’s perspective instead of understanding what adults expect from their kids.

The result is a creative environment that encourages parents to stay and be involved with the learning process that their kids undertake. “This was a good chance for us to try to make use of a design to achieve that (cross-generational engagement),” said Joey Ho Tzung-tsien, the firm’s creative director.

All of the spaces in the centre are designed so that kids and adults can share spaces equally. Parents can sit in cocoon-style pods while waiting for their children and access the internet and then a set of small pods accommodate kids who want to read.
Parents can also watch their kids in the classroom. A kitchen was also placed within the center with a kids’ version where they can learn how to cook using miniature sets of equipment “I learned that to do a kid’s space we have to be imaginative and not focus on designing something we think is cute. Kids can imagine a lot of things, we just have to let them.”

In December 2013, the school won an International Interior Design Association award. Just last week, the school also became a recipient for the Gold and the Judge’s Choice in the spatial category of the Hong Kong Designers Association’s Global Design Awards.