Visit Cherie Hearts

It's been a while that I write blogs at here. This time we had an assignment about designing an on-site childcare facility. Yesterday, we went for a study visit to an international preschool named Cherie Hearts. There are many different young ages children in there. It has 3 levels. It was located at The Park in Bukit Jalil which is in the middle of some shops. We went there is to get more observations about spaces for childcare which can benefits our projects.

By looking outside of the building, we can see that they used many glass windows which can see through welly. When we went inside there, we saw a huge playground area in front of some white racks that the children and staff put storage or shoes inside. The playground is one of the favor of children at there and had rugs under it so children can play safely and not slip on the floor. The playground was put in front of the entrance is because they can stay there after school to wait their parents to fetch them. The reason they painted the playground yellow is because when parents bring or fetch their children, parents always wanted to come inside to take a look or stay a while with their children which can make the children cry when they want to seperate and cause a lot of trouble to other children too. Or the parents take pictures of them and sometimes they might take also other parents' children and which can maybe make that parents mad and the privacy of the children had been taken. So, they want to tell the kids that parents cannot cross this yellow lines so now we need to say goodbye. They also provide some small benches for the parents to sit in front of the yellow lines.

Besides the playground is an office which for the principle and director used. Its can clearly see outside the playground and entrance so they may know when the parents come and the children safety. More towards inside is an infant care room which 2 months old to 17 month old inside there. There are many baby cradle on the right side and a small space for the nursery to feed them and a mirror on a wall with a bar to allow the babies learn how to stand up and walk. The spaces is a bit narrow but according to the director that lead us said that they will expand them to next door so it won't be so narrow for nursery to walk. On the left side is a bathroom for babies. On the right we can see there the tub for bathing and some equipment for babies bath and the left is a small kitchen and racks to make the milks and some baby meals.

Next, we went to level 2 through the lift. The lift was cover with secure door to prevent children to get inside the lift because they know that's they way out of going down for their parents. Inside of the secure door, there is a big space with some toilets and storage inside. According to the director, this floor will become classrooms for the kids at upstairs in future expand. But now it's a temporary flexible place with a small kitchen simulation toys at the corner. At the front of the big space, there a door and we went inside we saw a bunch of 18 months year old to 2 year old children inside. It is a classroom for them to learn and play. It's wide and the furniture are round corner. The window was big and the sunlight can light through it and make the classroom more brighter and hyper.

There's also another door at the side of the big space is go to another classroom which is an open space classroom. This classroom is for 3 to 6 years old children. It had separated to 2 groups of tables with small colorful racks around it for them to learn their syllabus. At the back of it, is two toilets separated with curtains instead of partition wall so the tutor may know quickly if they have trouble inside. The toilets also a bathroom for them. The other side of the back is a small space where the staff put TV to play videos when they waiting their turns to bath. There also a costume racks at the corner for them to play while they wait or also they can choose the kitchen simulation outside which one of theirs favors. In front of the open spaces classroom, there's a door to a mirror room. It's a multi-functional room which they can practice ballet dance or sleeping area or assembly in here. There's a wall of mirror and opposite it is a wall of shelves that they places their mattress or for the highest one is for event accessories which uses once a year.

Later, when we went to level 3, the smells of food was very nice. First we saw there's some big circle and shelves with books at the corner. That is a small library for children that likes books very much. On the left side has some small eclipse tables which is for the children a place to eat their mum-mum. Behind of the tables area, there's a door which leads to the kakak's kitchen which she prepare everyday meals for the kids and beside the tables is the toilets where first they used to wash their hands but now they had expanding to a corner small basin for them. Beside the library, there's also a door which leads to another classroom for 7 to 12 years old children. This classroom is the one that will be expand to the level 2 which I told just now and this empty room will be a music room.

The floor in each levels used the materials called SPC. They also introduced vinyl but according to the director, it's better to use SPC more than the vinyl. Also, they tried to not having fabrics furniture because it may allows many bacteria comes. Now, there's isn't have enough spaces for the staff to rest so that's a reasons they expand to next door. Also, they didn't have any ill room for ill children but they will let the ill one to stay at a corner with mattress and some books. Also, if the tutor want to talk something serious to a child, they will bring them to a big empty space or the playground tunnel or the library circles to express themselves. They also tried to make the space looks small in classroom at level 2 is because they don't want the kids ran and ran away. They also put some racks in the corner so they have more storage to put. The toilets also are in kids size so the children able to used the toilets well.