Bangalore has always been home to creative endeavors. Over the last ten years or so, the design of spaces and places for children has received impetus at the hands of a few creative individuals, educationists and others -- those with a vision for children !

From the exclusive urban schools to those for village children, the concept of a good built - environment has come to stay. One may argue that a good building without a good adult teacher need not imply a good education. True enough; however all other factors being equal, a sensitively designed child-friendly space offers myriad possibilities for learning and experiencing through interaction.

At one end of the spectrum, high resource exclusive schools employ architects to explore spatial and formal ideas concomitant with the new innovative teaching methods and changing student-teacher hierarchies -- perhaps the best situation wherein design is conceived as a whole, from concept to detail; where additions taking place over time fit into the conceptual framework. On the other hand is the common situation where schools have to make do with existing spaces, at the most modifying them to suit needs.

When resources are scarce, creative ideas can transform an otherwise dull space into a stimulating learning/living space. With budgets varied, and the need to make resources stretch, a number of ideas have been explored by educators.

Tucked away off the Kanakapura Road lie a couple of unassuming buildings that comprise the Vikasana school. Malathi, who trained under the educationist David Hosburgh, began this village school with just one building built by her and a few others (Horsburgh built the roof). She used locally available materials -- stone pillars driven into the ground, rammed mud walls and a wooden raftered roof with tiles. The building has low windows and the cool interior which houses the delightful paper lanterns, collages and craft is in contrast to the bright light outside. The roof structure is used to hang many of their craft.

Each building was added on as the need arose, built entirely by the students and Malathi. The emphasis here is on self-sufficiency --whether it’s a leaky faucet, building steps on the site, planting trees or building a play house, it is hands-on work that gives the students their confidence in things learnt. All this in addition to the regular study subjects and crafts. In building their domed play-home all the under -tens pitched in using waste ceramic beads to decorate the surface and make seats and niches. The act of place-making by doer and user … there is ever so much care taken by the children in keeping their space clean. No architects here but ever willing volunteers !

Malathi speaks of flexibility of space as an important criterion in building for their system of teaching -- “a good roof and floor” -- within which almost any activity can take place. The low cost of the system, cool interior, ease of building, and above all learning through doing highly recommend this approach for their purpose.

The SOS Children’s Village off Bangalore is one of many the world over -- an idyllic experiment in providing permanent homes for abandoned children. Designed for the purpose, it provides cottages each of which accommodates a group of children looked after by a mother. The material used is granite, as the site is set in a quarry. “This makes the built structures both cost-effective and familiar to the children,” says Shahrukh Mistry, who has designed the villages in Bhopal and Bhubaneshwar as well.

The built complex of cottages and office evokes a romantic picturesqueness popularly associated with the notion of home. Pitched roofs on stone walls negotiate the uneven terrain. The cottages sit amid lush greenery, which is what links the various buildings.

The children in their spare time potter around their garden space planting, watering and maintaining the plants. Pathways through the luxuriant green connect every cottage. The constant interaction with nature, and the development, tending and conservation of their garden space fosters deep bonds between child and the natural world outside -- an unlimited learning resource!

Among the more interesting experiments in pre-schooling for urban children is that by Indira Swaminathan. Having researched for many years on the Montessori system and Piaget’s theories, she puts into practice all of her experiences -- conducting sessions in a delightfully designed shed-like space which once housed an architect’s office. As one enters, one is attracted to the riot of colour and the numerous visual stimulants --collages, playthings, charts, pictures, little objects, big objects, mirrors … Little circular cut-outs in the roof slab throw light in at different angles throughout the day. To Indira, every bit of surface has the potential to be used and experienced by the child. Furniture is kept to a minimum -- a low round table with work stools (empty cable reels - innovative and low cost !) -- to ensure that the child can freely move in that space. Indira calls it “mobility” of space, which along with “flexibility” and “interusability” are important criteria in designing child-spaces.

In good weather the outdoors is used as much as the indoors. The instinctive creation of little places to sit, sleep, move around; the creation of levels using a pile of building debris; steps, platforms and seats; all these reveal an eye for detail from the child’s ability to use and comprehend.

While the creative spark of individuals has enabled the creation of good environments for small groups of children, what are the possibilities for the masses of our children who go to corporation and government schools?

An attempt to integrate the design of a classroom with new teaching concepts has been initiated in Karnataka under the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). Architects and educators are now working together to find creative solutions to enhance and enliven the study environments of primary schools across the state. In an otherwise bleak scenario, the DPEP scheme comes as a breath of fresh air; where earlier the primary schools comprised of dismal, monotonous “dabba” like buildings. The new programme sends a clear message that design is important even for villages and small towns -- the majority ! The DPEP brief to the architects was to include an activity-based classroom, flexible use of space, child-friendly details and future expansion possibilities.

In Andhra Pradesh, architect Romi Khosla worked with the state government to evolve 29 school building prototypes. School teachers and engineers sat together and chose a design from among these prototypes. The buildings used low-cost technologies, locally available materials, and had plenty of brick lattice windows and long and cool verandahs. Blackboards were painted on the lower walls for children to use freely.

In approaching a design assignment for schools one could come up with a checklist like this:

* If design of buildings is necessary, keep the design simple using an efficient structural system to keep costs at a minimum. Also clarity of geometrics of form and space could be used as a learning tool for children to comprehend the spatial dimension.

* Allow the building to respond to the movement of the sun and wind in terms of orientation and openings. This will naturally regulate temperatures within, irrespective of the temperatures outside. Again, sensitively designed surfaces -- as the sun moves across -- could be a learning indicator of the different times of the day and the concept of time.

* Instead of using glass in windows, provide openable shutters using country wood with sturdy details of joinery. Alternatively simple and attractive jalis could be created to filter in the light.

* Depending on the system of seating and type of furniture used, explore the possibility of creating exciting patterns on the floor using waste bits of coloured tile and coloured oxides. (A non-government organisation encouraged the local children it was working with to improvise on flooring patterns as work on their school progressed. Children acquire a sense of accomplishment leading to self-esteem, in hands-on work of this sort. A playschool in Goa (designed by Gerard D’Cunha) has -- amongst other explorations in the creation of childspace -- beautiful multi-coloured, variously patterned broken-titled floors. The concept of floor when redefined from a child’s point of view need not always stretch flat, but may rise up to make low furniture, sink in to make a space within a space, or gently undulate !

* Whatever the materials used, vary textures within the space allowing the child to develop a tactile sensitivity.

* Provide plenty of display area, using runners for easy pin-up of children’s work at heights accessible to them.

* Provide blackboard area wherever possible, even at lower levels for children to access, draw and write on.

* Build in wherever necessary, work tables and shelves for children using local stone; and niches, to allow for a personalisation of spaces.

* Outdoor seats, tree guards and sand pits could be the coordinated effort of students.

* Plant trees wherever there is a view to the outside.

* Create display walls for children’s work, even in outdoor spaces around courtyards and verandahs.

* Wherever possible reuse existing buildings making necessary changes for one’s needs -- a dash of colour perhaps ?

* Use colour to highlight certain surfaces within the classroom. White reflects light and may be the best choice for the interiors. Where funds are low and a face-lift imperative, a simple white-wash of an old building is an opportunity for interaction. As teachers and students join hands, the act of painting will buoy up the spirits of all. White has the unique ability to capture on its surfaces, subtle shadows of leaves and branches interspersed with light streaks. The outdoors is mirrored within. White walls can create poetry!

It doesn’t matter if one does not have vast means to build. A clever imaginative use of resources can result in a new image and new beginnings. If we stretch our resources our children can have a stimulating environment , where they see the glitter of the sun on their school floors and feel the seasons. A space where ideas interact and dreams build within simple white walls.



The author is a practicing architect in Bangalore, and is especially interested in the study and design of learning environments for children.