Children's Worldsby Jan Zimmermann | 30.07.2015

Cassata Primary School

Planet Kids is a pre-school chain in the South Indian metropolis of Bangalore, with the motto: “Make your child's first school his favourite place with Planet Kids.” To meet this motto, Cadence Architects consequently designed the Cassata Primary School with the question in mind: how would children design their own primary school? The result shows that the architects are well connected to their own inner child.

Alphabet Soup

The elevation of the building is strongly reminiscent of a desktop computer, its monitor showing projecting letters. It might be possible that, in a few thousand years, archaeologists will rack their brains about the meaning of these letters cast in stone. In vain though, since they don't make any literal sense. Nevertheless, the choice of letters is not arbitrary. Only those letters were chosen that enclose an area and so are suitable for being used as windows: a, b, d, e, o, p. But the question why gs and qs were not taken into account still remains the subject of further research.

Imaginative Worlds for Children

The four-storied building contains a complex set of rooms, including classrooms, library, multi-purpose space, activity rooms, and various play areas. Every program requirement is met with a distinct, imaginatively designed world for children. For example, more than half of the ground floor houses two playrooms, with a slide, jungle gym and a kind of grotto, besides puzzle floors and a ball pool. The actual classrooms, situated on the second and third floor, seem to occupy only half of the school. In the basement, there is a large lecture room with a stage and screen. Everything is connected by a green staircase and a void reaching from the ground floor to the roof.

Watching and Hiding

The school is also characterized by a great “transparency”. I already mentioned the letter façade with its numerous round windows. The latter provide for a pleasant lighting both in the daytime on the inside and at night from the outside when interior lighting is on. Further “insights” are provided by the doors, all of which are equipped with peep holes enabling the children to spy into the next room. So it is only fair that there are little nooks and corners everywhere for hiding.

An Alternative to Hogwarts

It is not hard to imagine the motto of Planet Kids coming true in the Cassata Primary School. In the interior, the school offers the pupils a lot of opportunities to occupy themselves and to be inspired. The building also appears from the outside as if it was actually designed by kids. A school a child would wish for. So if somebody did not make it to Hogwarts or would rather prefer India anyway, the Cassata Primary School would be an excellent choice.