Pashut Kindergarten TLV

architecture & design December 2020 Tel Aviv, Israel

“Pashut Gan” is a new Tel Aviv kindergarten for children ages 1-3 years old located in a towering building of an urban environment. It’s a location within a high-tech building that called for a design that would break the cold, structured vibe and bring warmth and fantasy to the space. As an educational institution they value sustainability, so they came to us searching for someone who could furnish their new space with recycled materials. At MOLET sustainability is our foundation, layering on inclusion, education, community and a DIY attitude, we’ve created a conscious way of furnishing the spaces around us using upcycled wooden pallets, “The Pallet Revolution”. Our holistic approach to design intends to support a caring, balanced environment for us and future generations. “Pashut Gan” presented us with the opportunity to do exactly that in such a direct way.

Through our work, countless numbers of wooden pallets have been given new life. For this particular project, the pallets were sourced from the construction site at the bottom of the very building where the kindergarten is located, which is a fitting representation of the reality we try to illuminate, that everything we need is right at our feet. With our mindful and conscious design philosophy, we explore different ways to do the best with what we have, with what the city gives us.

We used these rough materials to create a design for the kindergarten that is warm, playful, and simultaneously precise, clean, and sophisticated. Each room was given a cozy wooden house, picnic tables, and a modular didactic wall, with shelves, hooks and interactive elements. To add to the magic we designed teepees for the children to play in and transformed a few pillars into large trees. “Pashut Gan” is now a fantasy land for the children to explore, create, ignite their curiosity, and connect with their environment.

As for the environment we all inhabit, not only did we not have to cut down a single tree for this design, but we were able to save 250 wooden pallets from being thrown into a landfill or burned. Those 250 pallets are equivalent to 3,500 linear meters or 5.5 tons of wood! To source this amount of wood it would take cutting down 23 trees that are approximately 20 years old. The success of the “Pashut Gan” design project and others like it, is the fulfillment of our mission as designers, architects, and creative professionals to use our skills, imagination and collaborative approach to give new life to discarded materials, to challenge the paradigm, contribute to a circular economy, and rethink the way we relate to the spaces around us.

Project created in collaboration with designer Ayelet Ziv. Ph: Hila Ido.