Architecture for kids: Deinstitutionalizing the design of child-care centers

Abstract

For many of the hundreds of thousands of American children who spend their days in child-care centers, the experience must be much like that of a prisoner on furlough. They're home nights and weekends, but stay the rest of the time in institutional environments designed to confine them safely and keep them under constant surveillance. The typical center is a large partitionable space built around a core of kitchen and bathroom facilities with proportions scaled to adults, small outside play areas, and interiors laid out to promote orderliness instead of creative exuberance. Essentially the design is custodial. Little consideration is given to the psychological and educational needs of the children.