Gaia (Earth) Forest Preschool

Dreamt, Designed and Developed by Nikeeta Singh and Dr Darius Singh:

A real Forest Kindy and so much more... World's first childcare centre fully inspired by the "Gaia (Earth) Education Principle" (i.e. Earth inspired building designs, environments, values, curriculum, & outcomes for children). This is truly "childcare like you've never seen before". Perfectly situated for families who live, work near, or commute through Manukau, Manurewa, Gardens, Flat Bush, Mission Heights, Ormiston, Takanini, Pukekohe, Papakura, Papatoetoe, Karaka, Drury, Waiuku and Pokeno.

Gaia (Earth) inspired Forest playground:

• boost your child's well-being with essential Vitamin 'N' (Nature).
• a genuine Forest Kindy / Bush Kindy / Nature Programme inspired by the Friluftsliv (open air) way of life in Scandinavia.
• 10,000 sqm of NZ native forest to explore and play in each day;
• beautiful and calming forest walkway as you drop off and pick up from the carpark;
• shallow streams (with eels and fish) for our teachers and your child to discover and explore new life and changing scenes each day;
• almost every NZ native species of trees is here to see, learn from, play around, and look after;
• mud slide using our harvested rainwater for your preschooler to .... well you know the rest!

Gaia (Earth) inspired Bio-phyilic Building:

• we adopted biomimicry techniques to design a building into the shape of a single leaf;
• the building itself soars off the ground on tree hut style supports, like a leaf reaching out to touch the sky or a giant waka emerging out of a sea of green;
• solar cells (i.e. first array is installed - total of 120 photovoltaics to be installed at a later stage to power nearly all of the building's needs - mimicking life-giving photosynthesis functions of a simple leaf);
• rainwater harvesting (i.e. modelling Earth's sustainability principles like a lotus leaf does) . This supplies all our non-potable water for outdoor play, gardening, mudslide, laundry, and bathrooms;
• building foundations deeply rooted like a myriad tree roots growing into the Earth itself;
• heated floors for our babies so they can sense a warmth coming from the Earth;
• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) monitors in our sleep rooms that activate smart ventilation if levels get too high;
• natural ventilation (i.e. a building that breathes on its own, and further enhanced by NZ's first UVC lamp filtered heat pumps - see below);
• your child will feel what it's like learning, playing, eating & sleeping inside a leaf (a beautiful memory for your child when he/she becomes the next guardian of our world and everyone/everything in it).