It can be easy for a designer to get carried away as the flowing rivers of imagination and creativity run free. It is all too easy to leap over a simple solution in place of something far more complicated. There can be a notion that the added complication will somehow add to the overall outcome. Let’s face it, it rarely does.

Jure Kotnik, Architect & Designer

When architect Jure Kotnik got the brief to add an extension to Kindergarten Kekec, a typical 80’s style kindergarten in Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) he could have taken the design in any number of ways.

Inside the Extension by Jure Kotnik (photo by Miran Kambic)

The genius of his design is that he thought of the end user – the children. Whilst the inside remains very neutral and calm, he has seen that whole space as a child would – through small eyes the world is a curious and exciting place that needs to be explored. His solution is as brilliant as it is simple.

Plain Wood Facade (photo by Miran Kambic)

The Transformation (photo by Miran Kambic)

Technicolour (photo by Miran Kambic)

 On three walls he has run wooden slats. The practical side of the design is that they can be moved to provide shade. But for a young mind they are a mind-blowing tactile and colour experience. The children can literally customise their whole space!

Playing and Experimenting with Colour (photo by Miran Kambic)

 “Actually, all education is self-education.  A teacher is only a guide, to point out the way, and no school, no matter how excellent, can give you education. What you receive is like the outlines in a child’s coloring book. You must fill in the colors yourself.”  ~Louis L’Amour (American author)

A Candybox of Colour (photo by Miran Kambik)

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