Designing Spaces For Children

Designing Spaces for Children

Meeting children as equals, on their own level, is not only a question of educational theory. Räume für Kinder shows how architecture and interior design can promote childhood development. Based on historical and current concepts of progressive education, the book sketches design principles for building daycare centers that can also be transferred to other spaces, such as pediatric clinics. Rooms can invite discovery; they can promote communication and social interaction, strengthen self-confidence, and be places of retreat or landscapes for play. For years, the Berlin architectural firm baukind has been creatively balancing the strict legal requirements and architectural possibilities of architecture suitable for children--always with a view to children's needs. The book presents realized projects, such as the kindergarten Weltenbummler in Berlin, and aims to foster the equal involvement of children in the design of our environment.

Designing Spaces for Children

Designing Spaces with Children

Architects and designers have been endlessly fascinated and inspired by working with children and young people. The relationship between the designer and child is potentially a rich source of learning and development for both, leading to new thinking about the design of our built environments. This book will help practitioners and students to get the most out of their interactions with children in the design process. The book brings together the theory and practice of engaging children and young people with architecture and the built environment. Structured around a series of roles that a child/young person might play in the architectural design and build process, it helps readers gain a broad understanding of the principles underlying the field, but within a supportive framework for its application. Roles are as follows: Advocates for Change Creative Inspirers Researchers (Co) Designers Trailblazers Builders Clients Placemakers Expert Consultants Written specifically with a design audience in mind, it provides a range of inspiring examples of educational and participatory design projects from the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Poland, Germany, France and Turkey. The book finishes with a 'how to' guide - for those who want to design their own participatory/educational design process. This will include diagrams and will cross-reference to the examples in previous chapters. However, the guide is specific without being prescriptive. It categorises stages and phases of involvement as well as the roles of participants, allowing readers to critically deliberate which approaches will be appropriate in which contexts. Beautifully illustrated and in full colour, this book will be essential to anyone involved in engaging children in built environment design and education projects - from architects and students of architecture to teachers, youth workers and professional facilitators.