Evaluating nursery kids persona through environmental psychology
- Vol.88(1), Jan
- Mumbai The Indian Institute of Architects 2023
- 12-18p.
Preschools are systems in which the environment is considered fundamental for any child development as they involve many interacting factors that are pedagogical, physical, socio-cultural, motivational, and socio-economic. The quality of physical environment and its features play an important role in children’s long term personal, cognitive, and emotional development to ensure holistic learning and growth. Children undergo many transitions throughout their lives, but one of the most crucial transitions is the one from a preschool program to kindergarten where from being egocentric the child becomes very altruistic at this stage. This phase requires a child-centric environment where they are encouraged everyone to explore naturally, with great curiosity. Kindergarten built spaces should be designed in a very thoughtful and responsible way as it is the immediate environment that stimulate our senses, observational and social skills. As we consider environment as a third teacher, in essence, kindergarten is a ‘space for children’s life, growth, and entertainment’. This research identifies the criteria of space-planning and issues as per psychological principles by analyzing three successful case studies as the subject matter in designing the physical learning environment of kindergarten in India. The outcome will be prescriptive design strategy to understand the effective kindergarten design requirements in terms of child psychology, safety, functionality, and efficiency.