How can young children play an active role in the designing and developing of nurseries, childrens centres, schools?
What methods can be used to bring together childrens and practitioners views about their environment?
What insights can young children offer into good designs for these childrens spaces?
Based on two actual building projects, this book is the first of its kind to demonstrate the possibilities of including young childrens perspectives in the design and review of childrens spaces. It provides insights into how young children see their current environment as well as their aspirations for future spaces. The issues raised have implications for those who work in childrens spaces as well as for those who design them.
The book describes a particular set of methods for listening to young children, the Mosaic approach, which has been pioneered by the author. The methods used are designed to play to young childrens strengths and include visual as well as verbal ways of communicating, with an emphasis on new technologies.
Living Spaces documents the adaptation of this approach in the context of changes to the physical environment. It demonstrates how this visual approach can support practitioners as well as young children to articulate their perspectives And it shows how participatory methods can support new relationships between children, practitioners and architects.
The author, a researcher at the Institute of Education University of London, is a leading expert in this area of rapidly growing policy and practitioner interest. She is engaged in research and training in the UK and abroad.