Thesis progress...(round 2)

   
Here is a selection of pages taken from the first half of my thesis marked: 'An historical framework', and which leads on from my last thesis update: round 1.


















I hope that this theoretical framework will offer a foundation to understanding the 'roots' of early childhood education and how they might relate to their architectural expressions.

Next up is part two: Defining an early childhood architectural typology (a brief).

This section breaks down the various components of the architecture of early childhood and discusses the implications of various architectural expressions for young children. This section is devised as a kind of guide for both early childhood practitioners and architects.


There is still more to come here, so keep posted!

Jess

An architecture that reflects the competent child

The pedagogy of 'a competent child' can be said to require an architecture that is accessible, is scaled and functions for the child, offers flexibility and choice, and treats the child as an equal (and therefore does not patronise). Reggio Emilia have  successfully embodied this philosophy in it's architecture, like this one here designed by ZPZ Partners in San Felice.

The seemingly simple building utilises a covered colonade providing a natural extension from the interior space into the gardens.

Reggio educators are highly concerned about what their school environments teach, embodying the belief that children are resourceful, curious, competent, imaginative, and have a desire to interact with and communicate with others (Rinaldi, 1998: 114). They believe that children can best create meaning and make sense of the world through living in complex, rich environments which support “complex, varied, sustained and changing relationships between people, the world of experience, ideas and the many ways of expressing ideas”, rather than from simplified lessons or learning environments. As Louise Cadwell says of her experience with Reggio education: “no space is marginal, no corner unimportant and each space needs to be alive and open to change” (Cadwell, 1997: 93).

Here, the use of skylights, differing artificial lighting, a sensitively chosen colour palette, external courtyards and number of natural materials (masonry and wood), creates a rich and vibrant atmosphere that mediates between the inside and outside, and between private and social spaces.

The central square with views to the courtyard garden, bringing a bit of the outside space within.

Ceppi and Zini (1998: 14) use the term osmosis to describe the relationship of the school with the world outside: “A school should not be a sort of counter-world, but the essence and distillation of the society. Contemporary reality can and should permeate the school, filtered by a cultural project of interpretation that serves a membrane and interface.”

(Left) is the activity spaces, with a stairway leading up to the mezzanine sleeping area.(Right) is the central piazza (or common core) space, showing the courtyard garden at the end of the space.

Reggio schools also include aspects of the ‘home’ with objects such as vases of flowers and plants - each are placed meaningfully into the context. Children’s ‘works’ are documented and displayed on documentation panels - communicating clearly to the children, their parents and community respect and value for the children’s abilities and potential.
The building’s ground floor plan showing the typical Reggio spatial layout with the central square or ‘piazza’ as a shared common core, with all activity rooms leading off this space; serving the role of a public meeting space, where parents, teachers and children can come and meet each other. The space also serves as a dining area, with all the ages (1-6 years) coming together for this important social role (Dudek, 2007: 67).

Reggio’s environments are treated as experiments in creating children’s spaces and the architecture is viewed as a backdrop to the children and their activities. It is spacious, elegant and decorated in a restrained manner so that is does not detract from the child’s artwork or activities (Dudek, 2007: 67).

Much can be learnt from Reggio’s approach of serving the ‘compent child’ an appropriate architectural learning context.

Via DesignShare, Dudek's (2007: 64-67) 'Schools and Kindergartens', and ZPZ Partners.

An architecture of adventure

    
This centre’s architecture illustrates the child’s need to actively explore and interact with their environment, creating a sense of adventure, and testing the child’s physical and imaginative abilities.

The Castle Child Care Centre, designed by Ton Venhoeven, in Souest, Netherlands in 1993 is perceived as a “day-care landscape” (Dudek, 2005: xvi).  

The interior environment - ramps, bridges, “hut-like” dens, different sized windows and openings, and a number of textural and lighting qualities combine to create an adventurous and challenging ‘landscape’ for the children. 

Venhoeven deliberately incorporated ramps terraces, and level changes encouraging children to climb and explore, just as they would do in a natural landscape.



He also “tapped into” his own early memories of childhood as inspiration when developing the design, using as inspiration a memory of a wide rambling garden around his house which had a large wooden boat marooned there, here he would play in it, around it, and underneath it.

The entrance, which is open guides the visitor into the various spaces.

This initial inspiration led to the creation of an architecture for the children that provides them many ‘affordances’ (Heft, 1988) to test and develop their physical, mental and social skills.

The kitchen and ‘common core’ of the centre. Here you can see the elevated platforms or stages - offering the children a space to play and ‘perform’ on.

Sections through the building show the variety of spaces the centre has to offer the children for a multitude of spatial experiences.


Via DaF Architecten, Children's Spaces by Mark Dudek and VenhoevenCS.

A beautiful description of the Diana Municipal Reggio Preschool, made by some 5 and 6 year olds in 1993

    

This is absolutely gorgeous.

Here are a few (of my favourite) excerpts from a pamphlet ‘Advisory’ made by some five and six-year-olds at the Diana Municipal Preschool for three-year-olds who are about to enter:

“It’s the most beautiful school in the world to us. The way you get there is always the same, and when it’s no more a new way to you, that means that you know it.”

Map of school and park

“As soon as you go into the school you’ll see mirrors shaped like small triangles. If you get into it and look, it makes you see thousands of yourself. Don’t be scared though, because it’s only you that the mirror makes so many. Your picture makes many pictures just like you, but if you get out of it, it’s always you only.”

“As you get in, just past the hall, turn right and you’ll find the classroom of the three-year-olds. There are some green tables there, and you’ll find, right straight, another door: if you find it unlocked, you can go into the courtyard. There is a blue carpet and three ladders fixed to the wall: you can climb them and then you can throw yourself down those ladders!”

Indoor garden

“There are two small gardens in the school. We call them gardens of beauty. They show some things of nature. You can see the sky and trees come out of the roof.”

“If you are a little sad, you can take a look at the gardens and you’ll cheer up.”

Tree house

“The tree house is up there, just before your eyes. You must be careful when you use it because if somebody moves too much on the rope bridge, he may fall. It’s very adventurous. You feel very scared at first, then you get used to it.”

What a fantastic insight into how children perceive (and own) their early learning environments!

(From: Children of Reggio Emilia. “Children in Reggio Emilia Look at Their School.” Children’s Environments 1993, 10(2): 39-45.  Retrieved [16/03/2012] from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/.)

The 'designer' playground continued...

   

I found this wonderful archive of snippets from a book written in 1967: Creative playgrounds and recreation centers - capturing the post-war era where a number of architects and artists began to design public spaces for children's play. (It also follows on rather nicely from my previous post; The 'designer' playground). 

Modular system of prefabricated elements for demountable play equipment

Designed by M. Paul Friedberg & Associates, New York

Friedberg designed this simple and flexible system of demountable and portable play equipment, which were to transform vacant lots into novel playgrounds.  

The elements did not require any foundations, and could therefore be placed on to any desired site. Many of the elements could also be moved or adjusted by the children during their play, therefore the playground is not a fixed structure, but is constantly changing.

The play elements (here arranged into a umber of configurations) include: wooden logs, pipes and cables, slide, playhouse, sliding pole, rubber ball swings and a climbing structure of wooden logs of different lengths and sizes.


Wendy houses made of pre-fabricated reinforced concrete components
Designed by Virginia Dortch Dorazio & Manufactured by 'Creative Playthings, Inc.', New York, U.S.A

The "fantastic village" was the prize-winning design in a competition for play equipment held by the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with a play equipment firm and parents' journal. It consists of five different types of house, each five feet high.

The prefabricated parts of reinforced concrete can be assembled into a number of configurations as roof or wall elements can be adapted to each of the various age groups.

The openings, which serve as doors and windows also give convenient holds for feet or hands for climbing, as do the attached ladders and climbing bars.

Jingle-net and swing-ring

Designed by Joseph Brown of Princeton University, Princeton, U.S.A.

The designer began designing with the assumption that the child should learn to grasp the unpredictable  and therefore adjust to the diversity of the environment. Therefore the playground is designed to challenge children's abilities, to stretch their limitation, and that constant change is the principle of life - by accommodating a number of uses.

The jingle-net and swing-ring is designed for children of any age - and consists of tied rope to a steel core. 

"The children need agility and swift reactions not only for grasping with the ropes, but also for adjusting themselves to the unexpected shaking movements caused by the other children."

Play sculptures

Left: A play sculpture at Mennheim by the sculptor Nagel. Middle: The saddle slide - made of polished reconstructed stone set in a mould - thus cast in situ. Right: Play sculpture by Piere Jeanneret (Le Corbusier's cousin) at a playground in India.

Play sculptures designed by Moller Nielson, which incorporate caves, crawling ducts, climbing structures and slides.

Play sculptures designed by Robert Winston, U.S.A. 

Made out of a skeleton of tubular steel, covered with expanded metal and three layers of cement mortar. Named the "monster" by adults, this play sculpture is a ship, aeroplane, a cave, hillocks, a look-out r jumping platform to the children. For smaller children, it serves as a crawling tunnel, a house or a table for sand pies. It shows how differently a child's imagination interprets a plaything, accommodating multiple uses.


Vest Pocket Playground and Nature Study Centre
Designed by M. Paul Friedberg & Associates

Vest Pocket Park and Playground in Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.


Section and elevation.

This park in Manhattan not only served the children, but offered young people and elders who had little chance for direct contact with nature, creative leisure activities. Not only was it a playground, but was intended as a centre for learning about the natural sciences. This scheme was part of a larger programme, with each centre intended to focus on a different facet of natural science. Here (seen in the section) is a dome in the centre of a pyramid, featuring a planetarium, hidden beneath the playground. A laboratory also below ground has work tables for individual research.


Vest Pocket Park and Playground in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Despite its small size and simple facilities, this playground provided the children of Brooklyn with a play space, where before they could only play in the streets of abandoned refuse-cluttered lots. Friedberg created his "vest-pocket" playground to fit in with its surrounding environment and using local community labour of al ages. The playground  inspired a number of renewal schemes after its completion.


Cypress Hills Playground, Brooklyn, New York
Designed by Charles Forberg Associates

In conjunction with the New York City Housing Authority, the Museum of Modern Art and the Park Association, three experimental playgrounds were built for the Cypress Hills housing scheme, in Brooklyn. The first is shown here.

They were intended for 3-8 year olds, to be unsupervised and were built with "indestructible materials" like concrete. The forms were designed to foster children's movement, whilst offering different types of space for children to hide in, run through or climb, and in which to imagine and make up games.



The playground included a forest of concrete slabs, a tower, with a spiral stair and slide, a group of half cylinders for mountain climbing enclosed by a low ramp and a spray fountain. A spherical fixture lights the playground in the evenings.

Left: Part of the playground. Left: Plan of the first completed playground - showing the vertical concrete slabs, which enclose the inner circle. Wood slat benches are placed along the outer ring by the entrance.


Playground for the Children's Creative Centre, Canadian Federal Pavilion, Expo '67, Montreal, Canada
Designed by Landscape Architect, Cornelia Hahn-Oberlander

The creative Centre introduced to the visitors of the Canadian Pavilion advanced methods in teaching music, art, drama and in nursery education. It consisted of four classrooms, where activities could be observed through one-way screens. The playground designed on the adjacent open space offered a variety of possibilities for active and creative play, as well as a section for quiet play containing a manipulative wall with a series of art puzzles for the children to arrange in infinite ways. Free standing screens made up of different musical instruments - strings, bells, drums and xylophones and playtables, as wel as a climbing net and story telling area with moveable bookshelf are included also. The hexagonal nursery leads off the main open space - with a sand and canal area, a mound with tunnel, slide and treehouse, as well as a flat space for building games.

 Left: Perspective drawing of playground, and right: site plan - you can see the hexagonal nursery.


Left: the treehouse, accessed by ladder, rope ladder and climbing tree, and a sliding pole for getting down quickly.

Left: Beams and boards for all kinds of building games. Right: Between the two sand islands a boat.

Pepsi-Cola Playground, New York, U.S.A.

Designed by Jerry Lieberman

With the support of the Pepsi-Cola company Company, a graphics and exhibition designer, Jerry Lieberman, devoted two years' work to developing novel playthings, which consist entirely of standard products of the plastics industry. A temporary indoor playground was arranged with these objects, in association with the National Recreation and Park Association, in the entrance hall of the Pepsi office building on Park Avenue.

The brightly coloured plastic modules are arranged as a play town. Fibre glass cylinders in three lengths form bases of different heights and tubes to climb through.

A variety of openings have been cut in the sides to make windows and doors.

Each of these examples share a spirit of the times - of modular components for free play (influenced perhaps from the adventure playgrounds in Europe), and an experimental approach of using a diversity of materials - including the first uses of plastic, offering the benefit of being colourful and 'safe' for the children). Each show what can be achieved when artists and designers put their creative talents into creating spaces for children - vibrant public spaces for all.

Via Architekturfinder.