Playing is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Keeping that in mind, 42 mm Architecture has unveiled three types of rooms — for toddlers, kids in the age group of 5-7 and the ones in the age group of 13-19 — with each kind celebrating the free-spiritedness of children.
“While the colour palette of each room is neutral, each one is different from the other and clearly proclaims, ‘break away from the volumetric constraints,” says its Founder Rudraksh Charan.
In the activity room for toddlers, the medium of learning is walls. The frosty white cupboards are blank canvases for kids to explore their imagination skills. “We make an effort to place the furniture in such a manner that it creates maximum space for kids to move around. So, we have kept a small bed in the room for day naps. Further, as toddlers are prone to falling down, we have used vinyl flooring to ensure that they don’t get hurt,” adds Charan, informing that the rooms for kids above this age group have laminated floors and the ones for teenagers have stone flooring in neutral hues. “The rooms have been designed to foster the inquisitive minds of children by offering them enough surface to use as canvas. Since kids have their own interpretation of objects, their rooms should act as an instrument that can amplify their creative energy,” he says.
All these rooms are the result of a joint effort of a team of architects. Explaining the unusual name of the organisation, Charan says, “42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, calculated by a supercomputer named ‘deep thought’ over a period of 7.5 million years as described in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. And mm stands for the unit of measurement millimetres.”
Significantly, the colour palette of these rooms has moved beyond blues and pinks to neutral colours on the walls and bright shades on the furniture and storage spaces. Geometric shapes as wall décor and furniture are the highlights of the room for children of 5-7 age group. “The ethos of the room is created to give them a better understanding of shapes, colours and patterns. But the teenager’s room has been designed in a rustic look, with different textures and materials bound together in neutral hues to suit their needs,” he adds. The major components of a room are corners to play, study and sleep. “Furniture like floating bed and storage cabinets in geometric shapes have been used both as a piece of art and basic storage elements. Earlier the kids’ rooms used to be more about the furniture but now the focus is on creating a décor,” says Charan.
Blurring the boundaries between different activities, these rooms have been designed with an idea to make the transition from study to play and vice versa seamless. And, the interesting thing is these spaces can be modified to accommodate the changing needs of children.