Global design firm MAD Architects took the notion that learning starts at home firmly to heart for its recently completed project Clover House, a kindergarten by day and private residence by night in Okazaki, Japan.

The Beijing-based company, known for innovative futuristic designs, was commissioned by the owner of a local kindergarten to transform his two-story family house into a fully developed educational institution. The aim was to create a space where the students could feel as comfortable as they do in their own homes, allowing them to grow and learn in a nurturing setting. “Clover House differentiates itself from traditional kindergartens by embracing its role as a shelter,” the firm says on its website. “The homelike environment supports Clover House’s open teaching methodology, through which the children can build emotional bonds and trust among one another.”

A look inside shows the original wood-framed skeleton of the two-story home.

The studio incorporated the existing 1,100-square-foot structure into the new design, wrapping it within a larger three-story skin that, the firm says, covers it “like a piece of cloth.” The original wood-framed skeleton is visible throughout the interiors, its pitched roof serving as a focal point and producing additional spaces for classroom activities and exploration. Nearly every component of the new building was designed with a child’s point of view in mind, from the luminous, whimsical soft-edged form—which, MAD notes, evokes “a mystical cave and a pop-up fort”—to the numerous skylights and windows in simple geometric shapes. “Sunlight sifts through the windows to create ever-changing shadows,” the firm points out, “chasing the students’ curiosity and innocent imaginations.”

A view from the nearby rice fields.

Adding to the sense of playfulness are a slide that descends from the rear of the structure to an outdoor play area and the building’s façade, clad in paperlike sheets of asphalt shingles that students can use as canvases to draw on, “extending their memories of Clover House,” says the firm.