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The following is excerpted from Anita Rui Olds book Child Care Design Guide.Until her death in 1999, Ms. Olds was highly regarded as one of the leading experts on

the design of childcare facilities. She held a doctorate in Human Development andSocial Psychology from Harvard University and was the founder and director of TheChild Care Institute, an annual training program for designers and child-care

professionals, co-sponsored by Tufts University and The Harvard Graduate School ofDesign.

Much of the philosophy around the design of The Cedarhouse School comes

directly from Ms. Olds teachings in this book.

Childrens Four Basic Environmental Needs

In addition to the need for consistent and personalized care, children have four basicenvironmental needs, (which adults share), for movement, comfort, competence, and control.Keeping these four needs foremost in mind during every aspect of center design, and especially

in developing the interiors, will go a long way towards assuring an optimal outcome.

An Environment That Encourages Movement

A key design requirement is to allow children the greatest possible variety of large musclemovement both indoors and out. The entire ambience should offer an invitation to move within

safe and tolerable limits. Motion permits children to locate themselves freely in space, createtheir own boundaries, access diverse territories, and explore their abilities. Moreover,

movement is considered to be the bedrock of all intellectual development.

Adults can easily become aggravated by many little bodies each moving to a separatedrummer. In an attempt to constrain movement indoors, caregivers sometimes eliminate gross

motor equipment, restrict the territory available for action, or require children to sit in chairs,cribs, or playpens.

If restricted too much, children become frustrated and their attempts to learn are

diverted into inappropriate expressionthey fidget in their seats or incessantly try to gain

access to prohibited materials. When these behaviors become repetitive or lead childrenconsistently to disobey established rules, teachers may begin to locate the causes for themisbehavior within the child, and to suspect deficiencies such as poor motivation, attention

deficits, and hyperactivity. But often it is merely limited opportunities for movement that create

many so-called behavioral and learning difficulties. Group rooms designed with appropriateindoor supports for large muscle activity (such as climbers, lofts, movement areas, andequipment with movable parts) and opportunities to run, climb, swing, slide, and crawl

outdoors, can resolve the tension between childrens needs to move and caregivers needs toorganize the movement.

An Environment That Supports Comfort

When children feel comfortable in their physical surroundings, the will venture to explore

materials or events around them. Consider places which make you feel comfortable. Mostlikely, the settings involve moderate and varied levels of stimulation for the senses.

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Our sense organs are designed to detect changes in stimulationrather than to monitor asteady state or constant input. They therefore require movement and change, even though the

built environment tends to be static and unchangeable. While dramatic fluctuations instimulation level can be frightening and disorienting, patterns of movement that are moderatelydiverse help to maintain optimal levels of responsiveness and make us feel comfortable.

behavior is optimum at moderate levels of stimulationthe comfort zonerather

than when there is too much or too little stimulation. The relationship between performanceand stimulation is actually non-linear: Although performance tends to increase with increasing

stimulation, at some point, too much stimulation leads to a decrease in performance. In fact,because behavior at the two ends of the spectrum looks identical, it is often difficult for a

teacher to know whether a childs disinterest is due to boredom or overarousal.

Comfortable settings provide neither too much sameness or too much contrast, but whatFiske and Maddi call difference-within-sameness. Nature best exemplifies this difference-within-sameness concept providing us with some of our most comforting experienceswafting

breezes, babbling brooks, sunlight dancing on leaves. The sense of calm we experience in a

beautiful natural setting is perhaps due to natures capacity to establish rhythmic patters ofchange akin to our own physiological rhythms. Children also appreciate, and need to have,

extensive experiences outdoors.By contrast, the over- or underarousing levels of sensory stimulation present in many

child care centerslong, echoing corridors; cold tile floors; groups of identical tables and chairs;

glaring fluorescent lights; artwork hung indiscriminately; bright, chaotic colors and patterns

everywhereexacerbate feelings of disease.The many ways in which design can provide difference-within-sameness are discussed

throughout this book. Among the most important are variation in architectural elements such

as scale, floor height, ceiling height, and lighting, variety in the texture of finish materials, and

the presence of soft elements such as carpets, couches, and pillows. Each group room alsopresents opportunities to create separate places for engaging in different activities: areas

that are warm and cozy; hard and sterile; dark or light; noisy or quiet. Varied spaces preventboredom and discomfort by enabling children to seek out stimulation that suits their moods andlevels of arousal at different times of the day. Variety is the spice of life is a good adage to

keep in mind when designing for comfort.

An Environment That Fosters Competence

Children need to feel successful in negotiating the world around them. Yet, their immaturityand small size constantly force them to confront intimidating and frustrating experiences: light

switches too high to reach, faucets to tight to turn, clay too hard to pound. A supportive

environment helps children fulfill their own needs, execute tasks easily, manage their own toolsand materials, and control their own movements from place to place.

Listed below are three design factors that enhance childrens ability to work

competently:

1. A variety of things to do. To assure that children will find things at which they cansucceed and through which they can reveal themselves.

2. A variety of places in which to do them. To reduce the overall scale of the roomand group, and help children perceive the possibilities and limits of each activity.

3. Well-organized and accessible things and places. To invite child use, help focusattention, clarify ideas, and support possibilities for execution.

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An Environment That Encourages a Sense of Control

It is also important that children have the ability to exercise control over their immediatepersonal environment by being able to have some privacy, to make predictions, and to

appropriately orient their bodies in space.

Privacy. Because adults must have full view and ready access to children in child care

settings, a childs opportunity for privacy is often neglected. However, like adults, childrensuffer when possibilities for retreat are not available. Window seats, platforms, cubbyholes,fiberboard barrels with cutouts, and small enclosures provide real ideal spots to get away from

it all. Certain design tactics can also assist in maintaining a balance between access to the childand the childs need for privacy.

Predictability. Institutional settings are inherently unpredictable: one is never sure what willhappen next, who will arrive, and for what purpose. Unpredictability increases childrens lack ofease and control.

A well-designed center is decipherable by a child. For example, upon entering a room,

the first thing a child wants to know is: How did I get in here? How do I get out? What otherspaces is this space connect to? Boxlike rooms with few connections, or womblike enclosuresthat create too much environmental protection, are as distracting and unsettling as too much

physical stimulation or visual input; children feel cut off from things around them, not knowingwhat might occur to interfere with their activity. Doors and windows that are informative and

distinctive give reassuring answers to these questions.

Spaces designed to support predictability often involve a vista or an elevated position sothat occupants can scan all areas of the room and anticipate future events. This is one reasonwhy lofts and changes in level can be valuable. A building whose scale is small, and designed

as a cluster of spaces is more interpretable than one consisting of many rooms off long

corridors. Predictability also can be increased by using interior windows or walls of glass, bykeeping boundaries low and partially transparent, by well-modulated lighting and sound, and

bold graphics.

Orientation. Solidity at ones back is another essential of environmental control. Adults

instinctively place their own chairs and desks against a wall or in a protected corner, but theyoften leave children vulnerable in the more exposed areas such as on the floor in the middle ofthe room. For children to experience a sense of safety and control, they need to sit so their

backs are against the walls in the rooms most protected places.

Balancing the Four Needs

The design of any child care setting needs both to provide for and to balance these needs formovements, comfort, competence, and control. Whenvever one factor is limited, the others

have to be increased. For example, if children are required to sit stillas in a group meetingthey will need to be provided interesting things to attend to, a comfortable place to sit, and a

vista or view that gives them considerable control over the room. If a child is disabled and

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experiences many limitations at once, such as ineptitude, decreased movement, and decreasedcontrol, then the comfort dimension must be given more attention than normal.