A world first in pre-school facilities, the ELV delivers a multicultural, flexible environment with capacity for 2,100 children from nursery to kindergarten age, as well as 400 support staff. The Early Learning Village, which opened its doors to young pupils in September 2017, represents an extraordinary milestone in the delivery of international pre-school education. This remarkable, ground-breaking school was designed by leading architectural studio Bogle Architects for the global schools operator Cognita. The Early Learning Village accommodates two of Cognita’s schools in Singapore: The Stamford American International School and The Australian International School. The initial objectives of the scheme came about from a change in the predicted ‘age group’ requirement for the school. What had initially been understood to be a need for a junior school in 2012, the changing profile of the market by 2014 required over 2,000 early years aged children. From the outset the Client also requested that this facility should be a model for future schools of this nature, in that it would provide facilities rarely seen in pre-school buildings: a swimming pool, a flexible multi-purpose hall, specialist subject classes and most importantly an abundance of external play space. The brief was to ensure that every classroom had its own dedicated external play areas which would differ in use dependant on the age of the children.