Town & Country, MO
Raintree School is a private kindergarten and preschool & Missouri’s FIRST FOREST SCHOOL. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, a Forest School committed to helping children gain academic breadth while maintaining their love of learning through project-based explorations. DG2 Design designed Raintree’s masterplan, NATURAL PLAYGROUND, FOREST and cafeteria garden.
For many schools, a “school playground” no longer fits the bill — the swings with rules about direction and the slides you’ve been instructed to not climb up. “School playgrounds”, after all, mimic nature’s playground, but rather poorly. Why use monkey bars when real branches are full of crags and moss and texture? Why use stairs when boulders will get you there? Why have a plastic playground molded to look like nature when Missouri is full of woodland and prairie? DG2 Design collaborated with HKW Architects to ensure the building and playground had a seamless design.
DG2 partnered with Raintree for a second time when the school built an addition. DG2 helped Raintree and HKW Architects add this addition into the hillside, giving access to the lower woodland.