Kids Rail Baegyangsa Station Community Children’s Center

Light of Growth, Maru of Togetherness — An Open Center, Expanding Relationships

A single-storey timber-hybrid children’s center organized around a light-filled communal hall, the “Onmaru.”

The Kids Rail Community Children’s Center at Baegyangsa Station is conceived as a communal place that nurtures children’s relationships, growth and learning. Set on the west side of a generous site, the center is wrapped by low walls and planting. This gives children a protected yet open outdoor yard where they can play freely.

At the heart of the plan is the Onmaru, a shared living room and the center’s social core. It is more than a functional common area: it is a safe platform where children of different ages share their everyday lives. Group study rooms, a counseling room, an office and a kitchen surround it, forming an intermediate zone where learning, rest and interaction overlap.

The Onmaru rises above the surrounding rooms. Daylight enters through the gaps of a 1,200 × 1,200 mm timber waffle ceiling and spreads evenly across the adjacent spaces. Children can naturally sense one another’s presence, which creates a calm, secure environment for healthy growth and daily exchange. Above a concrete base, the building is built of CLT walls and an LVL waffle structure, offering a warm, natural setting to spend the day in.