CapitaLand co-develops kindergarten with local community in Vietnam

CAPITALAND on Wednesday said it is engaging the local community through participatory design to co-develop a kindergarten, CapitaLand Le Xa Hope Kindergarten, in Vietnam.

CapitaLand Le Xa Hope Kindergarten is the 28th school in the network of CapitaLand Hope Schools in China and Vietnam, and the third in Vietnam. It is supported by CapitaLand's philanthropic arm, CapitaLand Hope Foundation (CHF), which contributed over S$215,000 to the construction and enhancement of the school with international non-government organisation, World Vision, and the Tien Lu District1 government.

With CHF's support, the two-storey kindergarten now has 10 classrooms, a teachers' room, a meeting room and toilets, and the children will also get to enjoy a new playscape, courtyard, sensory wall and murals. Since phase one of the school was completed in late 2017, student enrolment rate at the kindergarten has increased 10 per cent to 73 per cent.

With the aim to create a more inclusive school environment, CapitaLand's product and development specialists joined faculty, researchers and students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Vietnam's National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE), to research the educational needs of Le Xa commune, the local climate and culture, for the school's second phase of development.

These research findings were applied in the participatory design workshop organised by CapitaLand with SUTD and NUCE in January 2018. At the workshop, new ideas were generated together with the local community, students' parents and teachers. After multiple iterations, the design prototypes were finally co-created. CapitaLand also brought together about 80 staff volunteers from markets such as China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in early May to volunteer at the kindergarten.

Vietnam is CapitaLand's third-largest market for CapitaLand in South-east Asia after Singapore and Malaysia, with S$1 billion worth of gross assets under management in Vietnam as at end-March 2018. CapitaLand has 12 residential developments, one integrated development and 21 Ascott serviced residences with around 4,700 units, across seven cities in Vietnam.