Clik here to view.
The 'designer' playground
The playground frequently seen today is a colourful collection of commercial equipment where use is predetermined, leaving little open to interpretation or improvisation.Michael Laris a playground...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The state of play today
Following my previous post, which looked at a number of (sculptural and adventure) playgrounds designed by architects and artists between 1930-80 in America who sought to create meaningful and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thesis update (Round 1)
Sorry about my rather long absence - but I've been hard at work on my thesis!So I thought for now, I'd show you a wee "snapshot" of a few of the pages I've compiled so far....and keep posted, as there...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A beautiful story from the year 1093 that likens the child to a plant...
A story from ‘The Invention of Childhood’ a BBC Audio Series, by Cunnigham & Morpurgo, counteracts the widely held view that the Medieval and Victorian people viewed childhood as having ‘little...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A beautiful description of the Diana Municipal Reggio Preschool, made by some...
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
And to think is the beginning of a real education
“Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A school which strives to be better - to retain its history, encourage...
"Is this all ours?", asked a junior pupil. "The children are excited by all the space they now have", says Julia Simpson, the charismatic head teacher at Sandal Magna School, who has championed the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fuji: an architecture that says "kids first"
Probably one of the best little or should I say rather big schools for little people is Fuji Kindergarten in Japan, designed by Tezuka Architects. Architects Takaharu and Yui Tezuka joined forces...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ngati Hine Childcare Centre now finished!
I blogged in August last year on the design concept for a new maori childcare centre in Kawakawa, New Zealand that had won a WAN (World Architecture News) Award. Designed by Phil Smith who has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Children NEED Play
"Play is essential to the development and learning of young children. Not optional…essential. Children learn as they play. In fact, play provides the perfect context for learning for the whole child -...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sure Start offers a useful guide for designing an early childhood centre
In 2001, the UK government published 'Every Child Matters', a 10-year plan of action committed to giving young children the best possible start in life. A part of this is the creation of a large...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A play experience for children and the public alike that goes further than...
Blaxland Riverside Park in Sydney, Australia is a new playscape designed by JMD Design that goes much, much further than your standard playground set. Landscaped mounds with varying textures and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Born from the land is a centre that nurtures and delights this small NZ...
Following my previous (not long ago) post - I have some more stunning photographs for you of the recently completed Ngati Hine Childcare centre in Kawakawa, New Zealand. (Thanks to the designer Phil...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mirror House Kindergarten - a whole new way to look at play
The Mirror House, by MLRP Architects reflects - literally - the play of children. It is a serious, yet fun approach to play - as Tommy Honey in Urbis says: "What makes this house hot it its attitude...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Walls, floors and roofs become not just shelter but double as spaces for play
Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of the kindergarten was perhaps the first to realise the potential of using a chid's natural inclination for play for learning, creating a series of play objects,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Susan Isaac’s Malting House ‘child laboratory’
Following the early progressive educational thinkers such as Froebel and Dewey, came came the influence of research into medicine, the physical sciences and the emerging fields of sociology and...
View Article