A whimsical new Japanese kindergarten built on the bones of a former two-story home in Okazaki, Japan, the Clover House by Chinese firm MAD Architects has views of paddy fields and mountains—and an exterior slide that lets kids escape through a second-floor window to a playground below.

Fuji Koji
The modern structure was designed to help siblings Kentaro and Tamaki Nara, who formerly ran the kindergarten out of an old family home, expand the school while maintaining a homey (in the streamlined Japanese sense of the word) feel.

MAD Architects

Fuji Koji
“It was important to create a kindergarten that felt like a home, and give the kids the best possible house to grow up in, one that promotes their learning and creativity,” MAD Architects founder and principal partner Ma Yansong said in a project description.

Dan Honda
To keep construction costs down, MAD decided to repurpose the bones of the existing 1,130-square-foot wooden prefab house, which they incorporated into the new design. “The original wooden structure is present throughout the main learning area as a symbolic memory of Clover House’s history,” the architects said.

Fuji Koji

Fuji Koji
They chose a mishmash of window geometries that allow the natural light to create “ever-changing shadows” to encourage imagination, with a layout that focus on creating a variety of spaces for different activities. “We have designed the building from a child’s point of view,” said Ma.

Fuji Koji
Using the house’s pitched roof structure as a point of departure allowed the architects to create “dynamic interior spaces,” while they described the soft, organic form of the house as reminiscent of a magical cave or a pop-up fort.

Rasmus Daniel Taun
“We wanted to create a playful piece of architecture that would stay in the memory of the [kids] when they have grown up,” Ma said.

Fuji Koji