Buildner has announced the winners of its second annual Kinderspace architecture competition and simultaneously launched registration for the third edition, with the deadline set for November 26, 2025. The international competition challenges architects, designers, and educators to reimagine early childhood learning environments that go beyond traditional classroom designs.
The competition invited participants to create innovative spaces that inspire discovery, foster imagination, and support both emotional and cognitive development in young children. Designers were encouraged to propose flexible, nature-connected environments for theoretical sites of their choosing, allowing them to respond to local cultures, climates, and educational values. Key design criteria emphasized the integration of natural materials, adaptive spatial strategies, abundant daylight and greenery access, and thoughtful sensory engagement approaches.
The first prize was awarded to "Nest," designed by Kenneth Anggara, Marco Kuo, and Emma Aleah Garm-Straker from the United Kingdom. Their proposal envisions a kindergarten and learning center rooted in the landscape of Gabriola Island, Canada. The design draws inspiration from the protective yet open nature of a nest, creating a gently curved building that follows natural site contours and progressively opens to the surrounding forest. Learning spaces are arranged by age groups in a linear sequence, transitioning from enclosed, nurturing areas to open, outward-looking spaces that reflect growing independence. The project incorporates Passive House principles and local material sourcing, emphasizing daylighting, thermal efficiency, and wood-based construction while integrating community resilience and ecological stewardship as foundational elements.
Longyi Zhou from the Netherlands claimed second prize with "Outside-In: ecological thinking of children, climate & architecture." This kindergarten proposal is situated at the border of city and nature in Brussels, aiming to connect children with climate and ecology through both programming and architectural design. The project embeds itself within a brownfield edge condition, transforming a low-impact site into a dynamic learning environment through flexible, climate-responsive architectural language. The design explores a corridor-less school typology to offer more transitional and adaptable spatial experiences, merging indoor-outdoor boundaries through clever seasonal and sectional strategies.
Third prize went to "Playful Past" by Zihe Chen and Thomas Doan from Australia. Their design reframes an industrial heritage site as a vibrant, child-focused campus through adaptive reuse strategies, low-carbon construction, and landscape integration. The proposal emphasizes storytelling, nature play, and historic connectivity, with a clear massing strategy derived from existing structural grids. The architectural language draws from village and cottage typologies while repurposing existing structures, retaining heritage materials, and incorporating new timber and corrugated metal volumes.
The student winner was Silvia-elena Maxim from the Faculty of Architecture and City Planning Timișoara, Romania, with "Brick Bond." This project reinterprets the collective memory of a working-class neighborhood in Timișoara through a contemporary educational and community center. The design draws on local brick construction vernacular, combining gabled forms, perforated masonry, and domestic-scaled elements to create a civic space that feels both familiar and distinct.
Margaret Graham Brandow and Abraham Cordell Silvers from Northeastern University won the sustainability prize with "Growing Confident." Located in Altadena, California, an area impacted by wildfires, their design reimagines a kindergarten as a regenerative, fire-resilient environment focused on community healing and nature connection. The project is organized around branching classroom structures that open outward into the surrounding landscape, promoting cross-age interaction and dissolving rigid academic boundaries.
The competition was evaluated by a distinguished international jury comprising accomplished architects, educators, and designers with extensive childcare environment experience. Notable jury members included Jan Clostermann of CLOU architects in Beijing, Tommaso Calistri of Killa Design in Dubai, Jake Heffington of ...and other works, Mikkel Hermann Sørensen of Christensen & Co. in Copenhagen, and Danielle Reimers of SAOTA, among others. Each juror brought unique expertise in socially connected architecture, sustainable design, educational spaces, and community-focused projects.
Buildner also highlighted several exceptional submissions, including Pierre-Charles Gauthier's "Rooted Beginnings," a flexible prefabricated kindergarten model for Québec that responds to urgent childcare facility demands through modular, site-adaptable units. Poorvi Gupta's "The Learning Courtyard" presents a kindergarten organized around a rational modular grid that promotes clarity, safety, and accessibility while fostering imaginative play. Alexander Mpaltatzis and Florian Hofmann from Germany proposed "Twisted Kinderspace," which reinterprets rigid block typology through spatial geometry rotation, creating dynamic sequences within Düsseldorf's dense urban fabric.
The competition continues Buildner's commitment to exploring innovative architectural solutions for educational environments. Registration for Kinderspace Edition 3 is now open, maintaining the competition's focus on creating spaces that better serve children's developmental needs while responding to contemporary environmental and social challenges. This ongoing initiative reflects the growing recognition among architects and educators of the critical importance of thoughtfully designed early childhood environments in supporting learning, creativity, and community connection.
