Kids run on the roof and climb trees at 'the world's best kindergarten'

San Francisco, California may have Brightworks School— the fire-filled experiment zone where kids sometimes learn the hard way — but Tachikawa, Japan has Fuji Kindergarten.

The giant open-air building, built in 2007 as a complete circle, encourages kids to run around on a rooftop boardwalk, climb nearby trees, fall down, and move freely between rooms once they dust themselves off.

For architect Takaharu Tezuka, that's about as close to perfection as you could get.

Last year, Tezuka took to the TEDx stage to talk about how Fuji Kindergarten was initially designed. TED later called Fuji "the world's best kindergarten."

Source: TED

The school takes up more than 28,000 square feet of space, nearly all of which allows kids to run around (both outside and indoors). Unchained from a table or desk, Tezuka says kids end up covering 2.5 miles over a normal day.

The roof was built to give teachers enough headroom underneath, but low enough so the adults could see kids running around up top. "If the roof is too high, you see only the ceiling," Tezuka said.