School Planning and Design with Children's Participation: A Case Study of Shimoyama Elementary School

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments 17(1), 2007 School Planning and Design with Children’s Participation: A Case Study of Shimoyama Elementary School Kaname Yanagisawa Faculty of Engineering, Department of Design and Architecture Chiba University, Japan Citation: Yanagisawa, Kaname (2007). “School Planning and Design with Children’s Participation: A Case Study of Shimoyama Elementary School.” Children, Youth and Environments 17(1): 315-321. Keywords: children’s participation, design workshops with children, school design, Japan This report is founded on the belief that user participation in design and planning is a key to success in creating better schools. Designers need to understand what teachers, children and community people really think of their present school, and what they want to do for their new school. It is especially important to bring children’s views and ideas into school planning and design. According to my research, well-organized design workshops with children help provide useful information for creating better schools and help foster affection for the school. Yet, it can be difficult to involve children in such a process; this paper describes one attempt. The new school site for Shimoyama Elementary School is located on sloped land in a mountainous village. The school is small, serving just 120 pupils, but it also serves as a symbol of the community. Five existing schools were to be demolished and combined into the new school. Facilities such as the gym, library, multipurpose spaces and practical rooms were to be designed for use by the wider community as well as students. We first surveyed the existing schools to understand the current problems and the children’s needs. Next, we conducted an observational survey of children’s behavior and interviewed them. We then organized several design workshops—the focus of this report—with all students of the existing schools to enable them to evaluate their current schools and allow them to exchange ideas for creating an ideal school. School Planning and Design with Children’s Participation... 316 Design Workshops with Children The process of design workshops was as follows: 1. All students of the five schools met for an orientation. We made a slide show presentation of unique school buildings to fifth and sixth grade students. 2. Individual students worked in each school for two months. 3. All students of the five schools met for the students’ presentations and to exchange ideas. We divided the children from all schools into three groups according to age: first and second grade, third and fourth grade, and fifth and sixth grade. Each group worked on a different theme and used different methods (Table 1). Some of the results of the students work are shown in Tables 2 through 5. Table 1. Design workshop themes and methods Theme Target Method My Favorite Places in My School 1st / 2nd grade Children pick their favorite place, photograph it and write about it on a formatted sheet. My School History: Learning and Life 3rd / 4th grade Children in groups study their school’s history through documents and interviewing a person of an older generation. My Ideal Future School 5th / 6th grade Children in groups study and design their ideal school. Table 2. Results from 1st / 2nd grade design workshops: My Favorite Places in My School Name of School Examples Reasons Slide Good view from the top of the slide. Sanba Elementary School Pond Many killifish in the pond. Attractive grass field around the pond. Some grasses can be cooked and eaten. Japanese Room A symbolic big drum is in this room. Comfortable tatami floor used in this room. Habu Elementary School Clinic Clinic is only in this school. Nice doctor there. Gym Popular for playing with balls. Wagou Elementary School Tree House Created by all students. Swing by using automobile tires. Play House Created by 1st grader from 412 milk cartons. Tahirazawa Elementary School Play Land Lots of play equipment in it. Tarzan rope is most popular. Frog Pond Lovely gigantic carps are in the pond. Azou Elementary School Creature Land There are 13 hamsters, 3 crabs, 8 tadpoles. School Planning and Design with Children’s Participation... 317 Table 3. Research themes from 3rd / 4th grade design workshops: My School History: Learning and Life Name of...