Everyone knows how important creativity is when it comes to encouraging kids’ imaginations to grow. For this reason, schools can be tricky to design. Because they often need to meet their municipality’s educational facility standards, schools can sometimes feel outdated and squash some of the freedoms that are beneficial to children as they grow and learn about the world around them. It then becomes the challenge of architects and designers to create inspiring places for children to inhabit while they are at school ? places that produce passionate, confident kids and lasting memories of the educational experience itself.

One such school that’s been recognized for its amazing contributions to society is a kindergarten in Tokyo, Japan, by Tezuka Architects. Although the pre-school was completed a decade ago, it was only recently awarded the prestigious Moriyama RAIC International Prize, which has been given to a ?an architect, team of architects, or architect-led collaboration, based anywhere in the world, in recognition of a single work of architecture that is judged to be transformative within its societal context and expressive of the humanistic values of justice, respect, equality, and inclusiveness” every year since its inception in 2014.
The Fuji Kindergarten is not only a stunning piece of architecture, but it’s also one that allows its users to completely engage with it. Shaped like an oval ring, the central concept of the school is it...