Family Box / Crossboundaries

Architects: Crossboundaries
Area: 2,300 m²
Year: 2011
Photographs: Chaoying Yang
City: Beijing
Country: China

Family Box youth center designed by Crossboundaries in Beijing, China has improved the local area by providing an indoor playground and kindergarten for children up to twelve years old and their parents. Completed in 2011, this multifunctional facility offers activities including swimming, games, music, dance, crafts, cooking classes, a play area, a reading area, and a café.

Family Box serves as both an indoor playground and a kindergarten for children up to twelve years old while accommodating their parents’ needs. The center hosts various activities, from swimming and games to classes in music, dance, crafts, and cooking. Additionally, it features a large play area, a reading area, and a spacious café. Positioned at the edge of a park, the building benefits from its natural surroundings, enhancing its visibility.

The architects considered the differences in size and height between adults and children, as well as their varying perspectives when designing Family Box. The design includes two types of spaces: child-scale and adult-scale, aiming to find a balance between the needs of both groups.

One significant challenge was adapting to the existing structural system, column grid, and building footprint, which were originally intended for a different purpose and designed by another institute. The rigid concrete structure was modified by shifting floor plates up and down and creating cutouts in the floors to provide views between levels.

The use of independent rooms in the shape of free-standing boxes allows multiple activities to run simultaneously, offering suitable environments for each. Each room, with its own program or theme, differs in color and furniture from the exterior space, allowing children to focus on their activities while maintaining a connection with the outside through small window openings.

The placement of the boxes disrupts the rigid layout of the concrete columns, which is further softened by a series of arches that introduce a different rhythm to the environment. Common areas feature low-contrast finishes to enhance and balance the space and equipment for children.

A glass façade envelops the building’s functions, following the perimeter and showcasing a printed pattern derived from children’s simple single-line drawings. These drawings were converted into a pattern of two different-sized squares with a white-translucent background and transparent drawings. From a distance, the objects on the façade are recognizable, indicating the building’s child-related functions of fun and recreation.