Metropolis Digital Optimism Talks logo

Join us every second Tuesday of the month for a dose of optimism with thought-provoking guests who are revolutionizing their fields. Innovators will lead virtual workshops for an hour of discovery, inspiration, and community. Led by editor in chief, Avinash Rajagopal, these workshops will be guided by our audience, where questions are not only welcome but encouraged.

Register Now
natural habitat cold spring home exterior

Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

Read more
Aerial view of a modern building by Hubo Studio with a rooftop garden, multiple levels, curved walls, and green areas, surrounded by residential structures and pathways.
© Elsa Young courtesy Hubo Studio

August 20, 2026

A South African Kindergarten Lets Children Wander

Johannesburg-based Hubo Studio imagines the Redhill Early Learning Centre as a “mini city” that promotes discovery, movement, and independence. 

By: Kate Mazade

In South Africa’s Redhill Early Learning Centre, tactility is the teacher. Local education-centered practice Hubo Studio drew on the Reggio Emilia approach—an Italian educational philosophy that encourages children to learn through their environment—to shape the kindergarten in Sandton, north of Johannesburg.   

“The design is inspired by the idea of osmosis: a gentle flow between inside and outside, child and community, learning and play,” Hubo Studio founder and lead designer Asher Marcus says of the space, which opened in 2024. “We imagined the school as a mini city where every space supports movement, encounter, independence, and belonging.”

Children are playing and drawing in a brightly lit classroom by Hubo Studio decorated with art and books, featuring various seating areas and educational displays.
The studio describes the school as a “sensory appropriate village” that supports learning through every design detail. Indoor and outdoor play spaces were designed with a pediatric physiotherapist and “play experts” and are meant to stimulate exploration and support gross motor skills. The four vertical ateliers support the school’s 370 children, with students moving up to higher floors as they advance through school. © Elsa Young courtesy Hubo Studio

Children descend through slate-clad thresholds surrounded by a wilderness of outdoor play spaces and into a world partially submerged in the landscape. Inside the gray plaster walls—troweled to look like corrugated cardboard and punctuated by arched windows—students find places to learn beyond the traditional desk: along staircases, tucked into nooks, and gathered in clusters. 

For the 27,986-square-foot scheme, the team created four vertical ateliers that spring through the roof and embody the idea of the school as a miniature city—a child-scale village in Johannesburg’s busy urban environment, Marcus explains. Each atelier combines specialist learning, circulation, display, gathering, and community life—creating a network of shared spaces with plug-and-play opportunities, rather than a series of separate rooms. 

Hubo Studio: Children play and interact on white steps and balconies inside a colorful, modern building with large round windows and mosaic wall art.
Hubo Studio’s design for Redhill Early Learning Centre in South Africa is rooted in the child- centered Reggio Emilia approach, a pedagogical philosophy that builds on exploration, discovery, and social interaction. Eschewing traditional classroom design, the firm planned the school without corridors. Instead, the rooms flow into one another and are clustered around four vertical atelier spaces located around a central piazza. © Elsa Young courtesy Hubo Studio

“The organization is driven by the need to make the school work harder, spatially and educationally,” Marcus says. “This allowed the project to become more efficient without feeling smaller.”

While the vertical-learning model for children ages three to seven was the project’s biggest challenge, Marcus says it also revealed the power of trust as a design principle. The network of spaces was carefully managed to accommodate the needs, rhythms, and degrees of independence of different ages, but it allows children to explore in a safe environment where teachers have visibility, structure, and support. 

The ateliers and classrooms are centered around a double-height atrium, known as The Piazza, that serves as the school’s heart. Textured, peach-toned plaster; striated bamboo; and a pastel mosaic by local artist Usha Seejarim climb up the curving walls to a glass ceiling where retractable awnings with Serge Ferrari material provide both solar and acoustic control. 

Hubo Studio: A woman and two children walk on a stone path toward a modern building with geometric shapes and yellow railings, under a bridge.
© Elsa Young courtesy Hubo Studio

Every sensory detail becomes an active part of the learning environment. 

“The project treats light as a material, shaping mood, orientation, and atmosphere throughout the day,” Marcus says. “Sound play, acoustic control, tactile surfaces, and landscape connections all help make the building feel alive, responsive, and deeply connected to childhood.”

Would you like to comment on this article? Send your thoughts to: [email protected]

Latest