In the video, “The best kindergarten you’ve ever seen”, the architect Takaharu Tezuka showcases the kindergarten environment that he has designed. The environment is different from a regular kindergarten because it is primarily in a large circular outdoors open space. It has no boundaries between the indoors and outdoors space, or between classrooms. Because of this, children are free to explore it and have ample opportunity to play and interact with one another while also allowing them to be observed at all times (Takaharu, 2014). The building is deliberately not entirely safe: the roof allows access to trees that children can climb, for instance. The architect argues that the noise, freedom to explore, and a slight danger provided by this environment are helpful to children’s development.
This is a novel approach, different from the more traditional kindergarten architectures that are probably modeled on adult spaces. It highlights how an environment designed to be welcoming to children can be different from those designed for adults. Some design decisions in creating such an environment can be unintuitive or difficult to understand. There is also a strong theme of exploration and exploring a natural space being beneficial or even necessary to a preschooler. It is fascinating to see how the kindergarten’s design differs from that of usual modern buildings.
This is relevant to developmental psychology because it explores the importance of one’s environment to his or her development. It highlights the contrast between how a child and an adult can view environmental factors such as noise or having a private space. It also brings up matters of how natural an environment is and the opportunity to explore it, particularly with some risk involved, as important to children. Finally, as the building’s architecture lacks the ordered structure common to most other buildings, it shows how differently children and adults perceive and respond to structured spaces.
Reference
Tezuka, T. (2014). The best kindergarten you’ve ever seen [Video]. TED. Web.