Embedded Files
To have an engaging activity for both children and adults to feel a part of the design process.
Pinewoods Library
Broadacres Community Center
When it comes to designing for a community, where most of the use will be coming from children, you must switch your design mindset from something that just an adult will enjoy, over to a place where children can feel comfortable and have fun. Adults have a great understanding of what will be good for their kid, but understanding exactly what a child wants in an outdoor space will help make it impactful and feel special to them. Allowing yourself to step down from a professional design standpoint and leveling with the children of the community allows you to see all of the imagination that they have and helps give inspiration to truly engaging site programming.
Child engagement will involve using some of these skills:
Giving the children an engaging activity will allow you to start a conversation on their interests.
These conversations may not seem as useful, but it allows you to hear of what kind of imagination these children have and what specifics they get excited over.
Steer the conversation around to find the specific interests that the children have, whether that be sports, video games, reading, drawing, or other creative interests.
While this is happening, others can have a conversation with the adults of the community to get their idea of what they want to see in a space.
Find a balance between the adults' ideas and the children's interests to allow for both groups to feel heard and feel a part of the design process and take a sense of ownership of the design.
Design Phase:
This method was mostly used in the Engagement phase, then taking those ideas into the envisioning phase.
Goals:
For our engagement activity, we handed out coloring sheets as a way for the children to express their wants in a way that was easier for them to understand.
Activity Formats:
This skill was mostly useful in a learning activity where you can sit down and spend time talking with the children as you both draw and color.
Suggestions:
The best way to use this skill is to sit down with the children and just listen and show that you are interested in what they are saying.
It can be difficult to work on a space that is designed for children, because most of the useful input given will come from the adults in charge. The adults of the children will know their kids well enough to give input on what kind of site programming will be good for the site, but for more intention and engagement to the site, input should be given from both sides. For this example, we had an engagement event where we utilized coloring pages of the site for the children to show them using the site in any way they want. This engagement event led to a lot of interaction with the children, bringing up a lot of interesting conversations.
It was much easier to communicate with the children through coloring and drawing pictures because it allowed for them to pick up a crayon and draw up their response to what we were showing them. Some of the younger children responded well to the different bright colors that could show up on the exterior of the building and around the site, while others had a lot of excitement in writing down the new letters and words that they learned how to spell. This was useful to know that they wanted a bright and colorful space that gave them the ability to show off some of the new things that they learned. This helped lead to the inspiration for the painted stone paths that give the kids a sense of ownership over the new site design. This also gave inspiration for the outdoor chalkboard. One, to allow for the teacher to lead a lesson, but also to allow for the children to grab some chalk and practice their writing skills. These two elements will be great for both the children and the adults to participate in implementing.
A lot of the interactions with some of the older children were a bit more difficult, as it seemed like their mind ran a bit too wild. It looked like a lot of scribbling and gibberish standing over the kids drawings, but leaning down to their level and having a conversation helped to realize the creativity that they show. The kids started to tell wild stories of themselves playing in the space we were designing. The conversations couldnt necessarily be steered in any certain direction, their imaginations were way beyond what any adult could design for. This led to the inspiration for the children's play stage. The children of this community didn't seem to express much interest in sports, but instead enjoyed playing their own made up games. The stage will allow for the children to express themselves however they want and having a space for the teacher to sit and watch gives them the attention needed for them to truly enjoy it fully.
Engaging with the children of the community showed to be much more useful than it initially seemed. Talking with them helped our team to think on the level of a child to find what they would enjoy with a space, rather than what we thought they would enjoy from our understanding. To get this method to truly work, you must take a step down and engage with the kids, not with a mission to get input from them, but to sit back and enjoy your time with them and just have a conversation of whatever they enjoy.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse