Collingham Nursery

Collingham Gardens Nursery is a community nursery near Kings Cross, London, run by an independent charity and part-funded by Camden Council. Full-time daycare is provided for two to five year olds with an emphasis on outdoor play in the nursery's beautiful garden setting. A programme of managed risk-taking and problem-solving in the garden, rather than formal teaching, is aimed at nurturing children's personal and social development and creating a love of learning and exploration.

David Kohn Architects were invited to participate in a design competition to replace the nursery’s inadequate portacabin accommodation. Our shortlisted scheme proposed a new organisation for the garden that provided a range of experiences from the safe and familiar territory of the nursery terrace to the depths of a ‘scary’ garden. The new school building was conceived as a pergola that greeted children and parents and the entrance to the site and delivered them to the school rooms and then on into the garden. The nursery interior was structured around a stacked vierendeel truss that created a high-level adventurous playspace for the children.