Learning space designs that embrace nature and creativity honored in Buildner’s Kinderspace competition results

Architectural competition platform Buildner has announced the results of the second edition of the Kinderspace competition, an ideas challenge that invited participants to rethink the design of early childhood learning spaces. Participants were tasked with designing a learning space for young users that would go beyond traditional school classroom design to embrace ideas of creativity and nature.  

“Participants were tasked with envisioning spaces that inspire discovery, foster imagination, and support the emotional and cognitive development of young children,” organisers said. “The aim was to move beyond standardized classroom design and propose innovative, flexible, and nature-connected spaces that reflect a deeper understanding of how children interact with their surroundings.”

Below, we have set out the winners of the competition; more information on this can be found on Buildner’s official website. You can compare this year’s winners from that of last year by reviewing our ongoing coverage of the series here.

1st Prize Winner

Nest by Kenneth Anggara, Marco Kuo, and Emma Aleah Garm-Straker

Jury comment: Nest proposes a kindergarten and learning center rooted in the landscape of Gabriola Island, Canada. The design draws on the metaphor of a nest—protective yet open—creating a gently curved building that follows the site’s natural contours and opens progressively to the surrounding forest. Learning spaces are arranged by age in a linear sequence, moving from enclosed and nurturing toward open, outward-looking areas, reflecting a pedagogical model of growing independence. Architecture and landscape are interwoven through open thresholds, shared gardens, and timber-framed corridors, encouraging fluid movement between interior and exterior. The project embraces Passive House principles and local material sourcing, with a strong focus on daylighting, thermal efficiency, and wood-based construction. Community resilience and ecological stewardship are framed not as added features, but as foundational to the architecture’s spatial and educational logic.

2nd Prize Winner

Outside-In: ecological thinking of children, climate & architecture by Longyi Zhou

Jury comment: Outside-In proposes a kindergarten set at the border of city and nature in Brussels, aiming to connect children with climate and ecology through both program and architecture. The design embeds itself within a brownfield edge condition, transforming a low-impact intervention site into a dynamic learning environment. Through a flexible, climate-responsive architectural language, it creates a robust but gentle response to the pedagogical and environmental context. It explores the typology of a corridor-less school to offer more transitional and adaptable spatial experiences for children, merging indoor-outdoor boundaries with clever seasonal and sectional strategies. Materials, construction logic, and program organization all support the project's ambition to reduce ecological footprint while enriching sensory and social experiences.

3rd Prize Winner

PLAYFUL PAST by Zihe Chen and Thomas Doan

Jury comment: Playful Past reframes an industrial heritage site as a vibrant, child-focused campus through strategies of adaptive reuse, low-carbon construction, and landscape integration. The design is rooted in a rich contextual narrative, emphasizing storytelling, nature play, and historic connectivity. A clear massing strategy derived from an existing structural grid allows the intervention to feel both grounded and responsive, while the architectural language draws from village and cottage typologies. The visual material communicates how the proposal repurposes existing structures, retains heritage materials, and intersperses new timber and corrugated metal volumes. Renderings are immersive and engaging, showing a variety of child-centered spatial experiences while maintaining coherence in materiality, tone, and structure. This is a thoughtful, multi-layered project that blends pedagogical intent with a strong sense of place.

Buildner Student Award

Brick Bond by Silvia-Elena Maxim

Jury comment: Brick Bond reinterprets the collective memory of a working-class neighborhood in Timișoara through a contemporary educational and community center. The architecture draws on the vernacular of local brick construction, combining gabled forms, perforated masonry, and domestic-scaled elements to create a civic space that feels familiar yet distinct. The design is structured around a linear internal “street,” linking programmatic zones such as a kindergarten, multipurpose hall, and outdoor gathering areas. Emphasis is placed on reconnecting the community through everyday rituals, storytelling, and proximity, with playful architectural gestures that evoke the memory of traditional workshops and public courtyards. Text and diagrams emphasize the cultural importance of spatial continuity, intergenerational exchange, and the reactivation of public space within a fragmented urban fabric.

Buildner Sustainability Award

Growing Confident by Margaret Graham Brandow and Abraham Cordell Silvers

Jury comment: This project reimagines a kindergarten as a regenerative, fire-resilient environment rooted in community healing and connection to nature. Situated in Altadena, California—an area impacted by wildfire—the design is organized around a series of branching classroom structures that open outward into the surrounding landscape rather than enclosing a courtyard. These structures promote interaction across age groups and dissolve rigid academic boundaries through shared sleeping porches and communal spaces. A distinct emphasis is placed on honoring regional history and landscape typologies, with the site divided into zones reflecting Californian biomes. Passive design strategies, material choices referencing Craftsman architecture, and flexible learning environments all reflect a sensitive and adaptive response to the region’s ecological and social conditions.