The Shift in Childcare Today

In our practice, we’ve seen the effect of density see difficult sites cleverly utilised to allow for the demand of childcare facilities to be provided to inner urban communities. While having insurmountable effects on housing, with a surge in apartment living, density and urban growth has also affected educational facilities. Another great influence on childcare today is the increased demand due to both parents being in the work force. The increased time spent in childcare, has led it to take on a new role of not only minding a child but also fostering healthy development and growth in the first years of life. Parents now more than ever expect more from the childcare centre they choose. The design of a childcare centre should provide interactive and interesting spaces where children’s growth is encouraged.

Within a single generation, we’ve seen a shift from generational childcare where grandparents commonly assisted with the care of children during working hours, to delayed retirement age and increased distances from extended family restricting this as a possibility. There is of course a range of services within the pre-school education system, though kinder and childcare programs in most private facilities have developed and merged. There is still a wide range of operators from providing a simpler, more basic level of care to those who are committed to a holistic education system or pedagogy that prioritises early childhood development.

Childcare projects on restricted inner urban sites

In our view, a childcare facility should fundamentally have a strong connection to outside, be a flexible space that encourages child development and be enjoyable to work in. Traditionally, up until fairly recently, a childcare centre would be located within a growth area, on a generous, open site. This allowed for the building to be single storey with plenty of space. Even though these buildings were often basic and lets say, lacked imagination, they always had a great connection to big outdoor play spaces which, no matter the quality of the facility provided areas to play and run freely with great connection to natural elements like trees, dirt, sand and water. The simple ingredients for a fun lunch break.

This traditional arrangement sees all children on one level with a range of internal spaces for quieter, more cognitive activities, and the whole playground experience just outside. Working on inner urban childcare projects, we've found that most often this program can’t be housed on the infill sites that childcare developments stack up for. The outcome is likely to be a multi-level childcare centre that operationally does have its difficulties. These sites put pressure on required ratios of indoor and outdoor child numbers. Invariably, the outdoor space can be limited and lead to the incorporation of elevated outdoor play areas. While the children are still playing outside, they’re up in the air so the connection to natural elements is a different experience.

A recent project of ours, the Bundoora Childcare Centre, was located on the last piece of land in a mixed retail and residential development. The development created a new town centre and with that came the demand for childcare. The site is landlocked by roads, is considerably sloped and half of the site is taken up by a protected heritage cottage. The site was too small for a single level building to house the number of children needed to allow for the development to be profitable. There wasn’t any other option but to provide a two-storey facility.

Meeting the demand of childcare in metropolitan areas

Another movement in the childcare sector is providing centres within high-rise buildings. Office towers are increasingly looking at providing childcare facilities as a service to their occupants. In this situation, where a childcare centre encompasses a level of an office building, there is no real outdoor space. There's the challenge and necessary discussion about what outdoor space really means and how simulated outdoor space can provide an adequate experience comparable to connecting to the natural world. Even though the spaces are undercover, they can still be exposed to wind, the sun, the seasons and the changes throughout a day. The play space can incorporate different topography, challenging climbing activities and areas a child can get a bit wet and dirty playing with sand and mud. It is possible to provide a rich and versatile play space though it has it’s challenges and executed poorly, can look sterile and artificial.

Utilising existing building stock as a sustainable approach to childcare developments

Another movement we’ve seen within the childcare industry is a shift in incorporating old building stock into new childcare facilities. We’ve worked on projects that see commercial and warehouse spaces, old offices and heritage houses all utilised as usable pre-existing built space in areas that have a demand for childcare with limited empty sites. Implementing adaptive reuse is a sustainable approach that we strongly support.

Taking an old house and making it into a childcare centre can be a simple process. At the Bundoora Childcare Centre, we opened up the internal spaces of the heritage cottage by removing internal walls, creating activity rooms for the older aged children. The integrity of the rooms and heritage features such as door arches and fireplaces were retained which overall provided the facility with a more domestic feel. The facility incorporates interconnected spaces that work well for the age group. As seen at the Bundoora Childcare Centre, projects can also incorporate an additional new building where the dichotomy between the domestic style architecture and the new architecture has to be navigated.

It’s important to appreciate that a cookie cutter approach can’t always be applied to the new type of sites used for childcare centres. With site challenges, comes new design parameters. What worked before may not be applicable and an open-minded approach to optimising early child learning has to be applied.

You can read more about the Bundoora Childcare Centre here.

You can also have a read of our flexible approach to childcare design here.