Hanoi Kindergarten for 600 Children Wraps a Courtyard in Color

A kindergarten for roughly 600 children sits on a 5,302-square-meter site in one of Hanoi's older, densest neighborhoods — and its classrooms form a protective ring around a single central playground. That's the core move of Nghia Do Kindergarten, designed by Sunjin Vietnam Joint Venture Company in the Cau Giay district. Twenty classrooms face inward, and the building block buffers the school from the noise, dust, and traffic of the surrounding alleys.

The courtyard isn't a leftover space. It's the organizing principle. Classroom blocks, the building envelope, and planted greenery all arrange themselves around that shared outdoor room, making it the school's center of gravity in a district where open space is scarce.

Why elliptical classrooms?

The architecture grows from a basic classroom module into a series of elliptical volumes set around a triangular courtyard. The shape isn't cosmetic. Curved geometry eliminates blind corners, so teachers can see across the playground without obstruction. The orientation and spacing of the volumes also support natural cross-ventilation — a practical answer to Hanoi's climate.

Inside, each elliptical classroom offers flexible interiors for different teaching arrangements. Every module functions independently. And each one has two doors: an adult-sized entrance and a smaller door scaled to children, designed so students can enter and exit on their own — a detail that signals a space prioritizing their needs.

Curved corridors continue the logic. As children move through the school, the views shift gradually rather than cutting abruptly, turning an ordinary walk between classrooms into a sequence of changing perspectives.

What do the multicolored louvers do?

A multicolored louver system wraps the corridors. It does three jobs at once:

• reduces solar radiation
• cuts outside noise
• still allows generous glazing for daylight

The louvers also give the school its most photogenic moment: as the sun moves through the day, they cast shifting patterns of color and shadow across the corridor floors. Shade becomes part of the daily routine.

A roof that doubles as a playground

The roof extends the school's green space with planted areas and a winding play zone. In a neighborhood where ground-level land is tight, the design effectively stacks the playground: courtyard below, garden and play route above.

Taken together, the courtyard, curved volumes, shaded corridors, and planted roof form a school organized around outdoor space, daylight, ventilation, and visual connection — a model that shows how dense urban plots in Hanoi can still deliver generous, safe environments for young children.

Project information

• Name: Nghia Do Kindergarten
• Architect: Sunjin Vietnam Joint Venture Company
• Location: Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam