Where it all began…
Are the current play and learn methods too structured?
Are they giving enough freedom to children to explore?
Can Spaces enhance their nurturing?
Can they enhance their natural creativity, imagination and exploration?
Are the current play and learn spaces stimulating all the different senses in children? Can they be made to experience Multi-Sensorial spaces?
Is the opportunity for direct and spontaneous contact with Nature a vanishing experience of childhood?
Can the new technological advancements be used positively for creating physically more experiential play and learn spaces for children?
Over-arching Research Question – (Version 9)
How can we create an experiential, dynamic, biophilic free play space for children in order to nurture holistic development and provide a prototype for developing a child-friendly community space?
Keywords –
Children, dynamic, biophilic, experiential, free play space, nurture, holistic development, prototype, child-friendly, community
Research Aims/ Sub-questions–
To explore the role of free play spaces in nurturing children.
To re-conceive spaces in order to enable natural creativity for children (aged 2-7 years) and encourage social interaction between children and also with adults.
To enhance experiential quality of spaces for children by encouraging multi-sensory free play and inspiring interaction with nature.
To use Biophilia and Bio-mimicry as a design tool to enhance the contact with nature
To develop a prototype (universal solution) of an experiential biophilic space for children that can be adapted in every neighborhood in order to promote child friendly community spaces.
Research Methods –
Observational Methods – to observe children’s interaction in different play and learn environments. Observing the use of natural elements in play I would analyse what interests children.
Field Research – I would discuss in depth about various issues in existing child care/ play/ learn projects by having informal interviews with designers and users- children, teachers and parents which would help collect relevant data.
Case Studies – of spaces for children will help me position my research, check for what others have already explored and analyze accordingly.
Photographic documentation – of children’s spaces will help me in taking field notes and for documenting other case studies. It will also help me in tracing my research process and help me analyse what I make.
Drawing/ Sketching, Planning – to conceive spaces, ideas, concepts, mapping ideas, to reflect over and refine my project.
3D Visualization, Model Making – to develop conceptual ideas of making spaces.
Material Board/ Mood Board – to study various materials and textures – man-made and natural which can provide multi sensory experience and put them together as a tool to form spatial narratives.
Research Methodologies –
Phenomenological Research to study the sensory/haptic experiences of children with their environment. This would help in understanding how different materials/ textures affect children. This methodology will also help to understand the curiosity children have towards different types of play. It will enable me to study the phenomenon of Biophilic Design & Biomimetic Design and how they affect children.
User-Centered Design Research as the research revolves around children, their spaces and people related to them. This research will involve gathering requirements for children’s spaces and their types, testing their current usability in order to design and evaluate.
Material Culture Research, New Materialism – to study the relationship between children, their spaces and culture. This will include the natural environment/man-made spaces and its materials. The inter relationship between children their spaces would be studied in relation to its making, history, preservation and interpretation. This research will also help give insights about ideas, beliefs, habits and values of children and their care takers. It will be useful to explore different materials which would develop sensory/experiential spaces.
Testing and Evaluating – “Test Drives”
The Research Question which started as a simple inquiry has developed through the six weeks after reflecting through ideas and questioning ideas in three different papers – Design Practice-1, Contextual Review and Research Methods. It is still an ongoing process to derive the right framework of words and ideas to formulate the over-arching question. The process of this development can be seen through the Research Question Blog.
https://akankshasexplorationsblog.design.blog/research-proposal/Mind Mapping
Conceptual Sketches
Design Practice 1 Exercise – Five words and their meanings in practice and research.
Selected Word – NARRATIVES
Conceptual Model
Design Practice 1 Exercise – Five words and their meanings in practice and research.
Selected Word – CONTOURS
Conceptual Open Section
The conceptual model with the tubes (straws) was made to define the word ‘contours’ as ‘patterns‘. This was a suggestive pattern which could be an interesting play for kids. Through deeper explorations, I thought if I could give these patterns different scales – its meaning would change. So they could be just windows where children could sit and look out or cozy spaces where they could sit indoors. The material which these would be made with could change to give each one a different feeling. These would form spaces where children can play with loose objects. Some could be just translucent. The pattern could also be the roof of the space with undulating mounds of greens which would form free play spaces outdoors. One of these could just be scaled and projected out to become a slide which connects the outdoor to indoor. Some of these together could form steps to reach higher up- where one of these could be a telescope to look out. These cylindrical shapes could form musical stepping drums at different levels. Few of these could be solid and form draw/ paint surfaces for children. Few of them could have concave and convex mirrors on them for play. While connecting inside out the pattern could encourage interesting peek-a-boo sessions. The Conceptual Open Section is reflecting these ideas.
For more details about this please follow link to Design Practice 1 Summative Assessment – https://akankshasexplorationsblog.design.blog/design-practice-1/summative-assessment/
Readings & Influences
READING 1
Kirk, Mimi, “How to Design Cities for Children” Designing Better Urban Spaces for Kids – City Lab. 2February 2018. www.citylab.com
Reflection– I was really disgusted reading about ultrasonic weapons (the Mosquito) being designed and used in the UK to stop children gathering in streets and public spaces. Instead, cities should be built to encourage kids using public spaces. The ‘popsicle test’ mentioned in the article was a very interesting way to test the child-friendliness of urban cities. I totally agree with the views of this article which advocates having better child-friendly cities and creating better neighborhoods locally than creating large museum/ parks which only few children can access. A smaller transitional space in every neighborhood for children will be more useful for local children than making larger infrastructure used mostly by tourists. As a starting point for my research this article helped me define my research proposal and locate it. I would like my research proposal to be a prototype of a community space for children which is easily accessible locally and invites social interaction in a neighborhood.
READING 2
Brooks, Libby ” Kids and the city: how do you build the perfect space for children? “. The Guardian. 20 December 2016.
Reflection – Although I found this element of inter-generational spaces in the article to be very interesting, I would not like to intervene this too dramatically into my project currently. I am locating my project within a neighborhood/ community and this would imply that it is broadly taken care of by adults/ parents in that community so the idea of parents being “co-producers” could be well-derived from this article. I can relate the Fuji Kindergarten project to my research project in terms of its two elements. The roof being a playground is a similar concept which I am trying to incorporate for my project. The way the trees puncture the huge roof is indeed beautiful! Also the idea of indoor-outdoor seamless space is an idea which i’m working on creating in my project.
READING 3
White, Randy & Stoecklin, Vicki. “Children’s Outdoor Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature”. 1998-2011
Reflection– This article adds to the inspiration of my research. It emphasizes the need for dynamic free play areas for children. The ideas in the article closely resemble my idea of having an outdoor-indoor transition space for children which can encourage free play, discovery, learning and holistic development of children. It also inspires me towards creating a more biophilic design for my research project and assures my belief about the importance of children’s interaction with nature and its scope in learning.
Bibliography
- Brooks, Libby ” Kids and the city: how do you build the perfect space for children?”. The Guardian. 20 December 2016
- Dudek, Mark. “Children’s Spaces”. 2005.
- Green, Nicole & Turner, Michelle. “Creating Children’s Spaces, Children Co-Creating Place”. Journal of Childhood Studies. 2017
- Kellert, Stephen & Heerwagen, Judith & Mador, Martin. “Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life”. January 2008.
- Kirk, Mimi. “How to Design Cities for Children” Designing Better Urban Spaces for Kids – City Lab. 2February 2018. www.citylab.com
- Lee, Hyo C.; Park, Sung J. “Assessment of Importance and Characteristics of Biophilic Design Patterns in a Children’s Library.” Sustainability 10. 2018.
- Olds, Anita Rui. “Child Care Design Guide, Author Biography.” McGraw Hill Education, Professional. 11 Feb. 2013.
- Russel, Alexia. “Where – and how – will the children play?”. Newsroom.
September 12, 2018. http://www.newsroom.co.nz - Van Doorn, Fenne & Gielen, Mathieu & Jan Stappers, Pieter. “Children as co-researchers: More than just a role-play”. 2014.
- White, Randy & Stoecklin, Vicki. “Children’s Outdoor Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature”. 1998-2011
- White, S.T. “Big Thinking, Little Humans: How to Design for Children”. Metropolis. February 13, 2017.
- Zamani, Zahra. “Young Children’s Preferences: What Stimulates Children’s Cognitive Play in Outdoor Preschools?” Journal of Early Childhood Research 15, no. 3. September 2017.
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