THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A BETTER FUTURE
Modular housing, sustainable furniture pros join forces to help kids
Bridgitte Alomes, founder of Natural Pod, has joined forces with Rory Richards, founder of NUQO Modular, to address child-care challenges across British Columbia. Their vision is to create modular, holistic and sustainable child-care environments that integrate naturally with the locations they're placed — providing children with beautiful, meaningful learning spaces. The pair is working with child-care advocates and educators to achieve this.
MAKING IT EASIER TO BUILD CHILD-CARE SPACES
Child care is a massive problem in B.C., and lack of land is not the issue, says Alomes.
If you drive around Greater Vancouver and across B.C., you'll see that there's plenty of space, she says. But knowing how to easily build child-care centres on this land is a block for many communities.
This is where Alomes and Richards come in.
They're helping communities apply for provincial funding to build these child-care centres, working with child-care educators to design the spaces that suit their community's needs, with an eye to reflect the natural beauty of the surroundings, says Alomes.
NUQO specializes in modular buildings, and Natural Pod offers sustainable furniture for learning spaces built from healthy materials.
They're hoping these child-care centres, once built, will be more than just child-care centres, they'll be community hubs that can be used for parent groups and community meetups.
CONNECTING TO THE OUTDOORS
B.C. is such a beautiful province, and it's a shame if your indoor spaces don't reflect this and aren't connected to the nature on your doorstep, says Alomes. They're focusing heavily on this with the design of the child-care spaces.
Aiming for interiors that connect strongly with the topography of the area they'll be built in, they offer calm, beautiful and mindful spaces that will have an element of looking out at nature outside.
“When a child walks into these spaces, they're to feel at home, which allows them to flourish,” she says.
BUILDING RIGHT THE FIRST TIME
Fast furniture (cheap and mass-produced) is another issue they're looking to address with these modular spaces, says Alomes. Natural Pod is all about investing in durable furniture for child-care spaces that will last.
“Fast furniture is worse than fast fashion,” she says.
Her business provided the furniture for East Vancouver's Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House more than nine years ago, and she says the furniture still looks brand new.
It costs more to buy this furniture, says Alomes, but Frog Hollow has more than 100 kids going through its centre daily.
If you take that investment and divide it by the years of use, you'll find it costs less than replacing the furniture every two to three years.
THE IMPACT OF THESE SPACES ON KIDS
Our kids spend more time in their learning environments than at home, says Alomes, so they feel passionate about making these environments positive for kids.
“Space does matter. Beauty does matter. Imagine you're in a space every day where you don't get to see nature; you don't see the natural world.”
REDESIGNING WHAT CHILD CARE LOOKS LIKE
With three kids of her own under the age of seven, Richards says she considers herself a child-care advocate.
Meeting Alomes and partnering with her to create these spaces has been so good; they are like “peanut butter and jam.”
They currently have two childcare centres underway, one in Fernie and one in West Vancouver. They're hoping both will be complete by next year.
Richards also has a special interest in helping build child-care spaces for First Nations communities.
“We (NUQO) have done housing for First Nations communities and we hope to do child care as well,” she says.