Takaharu Tezuka

Fuji Kindergarten in Japan, designed by architect Takaharu Tezuka, emphasizing the idea that children don’t need to be forced to learn but they naturally cannot stop. The kindergarten is an open-air kindergarten, designed to encourage and facilitate social interaction between students as well as discovery-style learning. Students are encouraged to design their own learning environment through the use of crates to separate classrooms, trees are left to grow within the structure of the kindergarten that students are able to climb, and additional structures within the kindergarten allow for exploration for students to delve into and discover in a collaborative manner.

Takaharu Tezuka (手塚 貴晴 , Tezuka Takaharu, born 23 February 1964) is a Japanese architect. In 1994, he and his wife Yui Tezuka founded the Tokyo-based firm Tezuka Architects. Projects by Tezuka Architects include the Roof House, Echigo-Matsunoyama Museum of Natural Science, Fuji Kindergarten and Woods of Net. Their recent awards include Japan Institute of Architects Prize (2009), Association for Children's Environment Design Award (2011) and OECD/CELE 4th Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities (2011).

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1964, Takaharu Tezuka studied architecture at Musashi Institute of Technology and at the University of Pennsylvania. He then went to London where spent four years with the Richard Rogers Partnership. In 1994, together with his wife, Yui Tezuka, he established Tezuka Architects in Tokyo. The couple's work emphasizes human activity and connectivity as can be seen in their schools, office buildings and hospitals.