Well-designed early childhood spaces promote learning, protect wellbeing, and invite children to engage in a range of experiences. Our webinar with architect Phil Smith and headteacher Jacqui Lees examined the principles of effective design in early childhood spaces, and explored ways that teachers can use the language of space to promote and encourage learning, creativity, movement, exploration, and social emotional wellbeing.
Environments really impact how we think, how we feel, and how we behave in a space. This can be particularly true for children, but it is also true for teachers and family members. If teachers are repeatedly saying the same messages to children about behaviour, then it is important to review the environment. Long narrow environments, for example, encourage children to run, while spaces with very high ceilings encourage children to shout. Environments can speak louder than words!
Challenging behaviour can be caused by overstimulating environments. Children can also struggle when there is a lack of familiarity in terms of the sights, smells, sounds, and people of an early childhood setting. If children and adults have to endure rather than enjoy an environment, they are likely to function in a diminished capacity. When environments are well thought-out, then activity and interaction levels are high, but stress levels are much lower.
Centre design should be attentive to the values, pedagogies, and philosophies that teachers want to promote. Loris Malaguzzi said that the environment should act as a kind of aquarium that reflects the ideas, ethics, and attitudes of those who live in it. Teachers might be mindful of the kinds of things they want spaces to communicate to children. For example, centres might be designed with concepts of whanaungatanga and relationships in mind, and therefore include visually-connected rooms and shared courtyards. Phil has designed circular buildings around a central courtyard that functions as a piazza or communal space. Note that where centres take ideas from other educational philosophies such as Reggio Emilia, they should be used in a way that reflects the cultural values and norms of Aotearoa New Zealand. In this case, while the piazza space in a Reggio Emilia early childhood setting may be an indoor space, translating this concept into the New Zealand context might mean replacing the indoor piazza with an outdoor space, which builds on New Zealand’s strong culture of being outdoors.
Children and teachers’ wellbeing can be promoted through calm environments. Calm can be created when environments have a reduced colour load, and lower levels of light, perhaps from lamps. Centres can draw on familiar objects from home, such as sofas and chairs, to make the centre more homely. Acoustic treatments, such as fabrics, can be applied to surfaces and walls to help absorb sound. Finally, people are part of what makes up a space. If teachers are calm and peaceful, children are likely to be calm and peaceful too.
Large spaces should be broken up, as these spaces can be overwhelming from the perspective of a small child. In addition, managing the numbers of children in a space can be helpful, as large numbers of children in a space can be stressful. Curtains, cushions, furniture, or even lighting can be used to demarcate an area, and second-hand and op shops are a great source of items for this purpose. Smaller ‘nooks’ are more conducive to undisturbed play than a large open-plan spaces, and individual spaces should have appropriate space, seclusion, and noise attenuation (through sound-absorbing materials) for the kind of activity that will take place there. Phil suggests that New Zealand’s Ministry of Education requirements of 2.8m2 are a bit small for creating ample activity areas and passageways, and recommends 3m2 or 3.5m2 instead.
Spaces should be manipulable, so that they can be adapted to changing groups and the evolving interests of children. Using movable furniture (on wheels that can be locked into place) allows teachers to create different configurations and adjust spaces to suit activities. Demarcating a space and hemming it in with furniture can create a secluded place for project work in which children can avoid distractions.
Taller units (1200mm) are great for containing a space from the child’s point of view, while maintaining good sightlines for teachers. In their overlooked and constantly watched lives, children highly value private spaces, spaces to hide, and spaces in which they can get almost lost. Taller planting can also help here, including things such as long grass where children feel like they disappear, while teachers are able to maintain supervision.
Design has to support children’s agency and autonomy by making spaces and resources accessible for children. Children have a right to interact with the space and make it their own. Teachers might like to rethink redesigning spaces for children while the children are absent, and instead try involving children in planning and implementing changes (they love hauling furniture about!). Children might participate in the strategic planning of activity areas, and offer quite strong opinions. Being involved in creating a space can also help them to be more respectful of it. Children are very astute at noticing features of their environment, and may be more attuned to their environment than adults are. This means there is much we can learn about effective early childhood environment design from children themselves. Phil developed an amphitheatre with detachable cushions that could also be used to build little cubbies with, because he observed his son enjoyed rearranging sofa cushions at home for this purpose.
While variety is important, designs and layouts do need a certain amount of consistency and certainty. Certain activity areas may need to remain constant, even if they move to different spaces. Resources that are made available and accessible to children for extended periods of time are important, as children need time to experiment with how to use things in order to develop depth in their learning.
