Spaces for Children
Spaces and Places for Education _ Martha Thorne
There’s no such thing as a “neutral” environment: your built environment is either helping you, or it’s hurting you. – Sarah Goldhagen
Clearly educational spaces for children has evolved over the years. However, the path has neither been constant, nor smooth. Different theories and ideas have surfaced in different fields – education, psychology, design, and politics. However, today as in no time in history, are we developing and sharing information in our search to understand the processes involved in learning and teaching and the role of the physical environment. We may be witnessing a paradigm shift as we realize that the physical settings play a much larger role than ever considered.
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Child’s Play _ Alison Killing
Design for children offers the chance to foreground a different set of values than those which typically guide the design of the built environment. Where most architecture centres the needs of adults, in many of these project their needs take a back seat to those of the children and their learning. Surprising, playful elements have been introduced to many of the school buildings, while in the playgrounds, functional requirements are less important than space for imagination. This section explores a large number of projects from primary schools to kindergartens and from open-air playgrounds to indoor playrooms for kids.
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