Examines five issues related to child care facility design: (1) siting the building, outdoor play, and service areas; (2) creating favorable microclimates; (3) developmentally appropriate play yards; (4) pedestrian access and site circulation; and (5) vehicular access and parking away from pedestrians and play. (KB)

This handbook examines the relationship between school buildings and educational performance. Following the introductory chapter, chapter 2 presents findings from empirical studies that have examined the building/performance issue. Research has demonstrated that the physical setting has both direct and mediated effects on prosocial and achievement…

Examines general principles in designing child care centers and preschools: (1) design the site and building so that it has a friendly, child-like, inviting image; and (2) design child development environments to be child scaled, including furnishings, materials, the building, and the site as a whole. Contains criteria and suggestions for…

Part of a seven-volume series on children's environments, this monograph is a design guide for policy, planning, programming, design, and evaluation of early childhood facilities. The design guide includes 115 patterns for large, medium, and small child care centers in neighborhood and work-place settings. Many of the patterns are appropriate also…

Notes that the location of any child care center is a key factor in its success. Provides four major objectives to consider when siting a center: (1) the center as a part of the community; (2) access and visibility; (3) desirable and undesirable surroundings; and (4) characteristics of the site itself. (SD)

Examines the notion of an early childhood education center organized as a series of houses around a common core of shared facilities. Discusses examples of child-care centers in Sweden and explores ideas that can promote functional facilities. Suggestions include ideas about physical-motor activities areas, administration offices, centralized…

This paper describes findings of a study that integrated design patterns to illustrate prototypical school designs. The present work is part of a more comprehensive study conducted on the impact of school facilities on educational performance. The paper focuses on the third part of the study, which developed 27 design patterns to create integrated…

This paper discusses the developmentally appropriate design of child care centers, focusing on the qualities or properties of center design that have been proven to influence child development. The paper suggests that the design of child care centers can be considered in terms of the five main steps in planning and designing a child care facility.…

This guide addresses the planning and architectural design of play/learning environments for special needs children. The exceptional children discussed include those with most types of mild to severe handicaps and developmental disabilities. Specifically excluded from consideration are health impairments, severe psycho-emotional difficulties such…

This paper questions the physical environmental adequacy of the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) developed by Thelma Harms, Debby Cryer, and Richard Clifford at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. ITERS is a 35-item scale designed to assess the quality of center-based infant and toddler care, and one of a family of child…

This paper explores the often elusive yet very important relationship between architectural design and educational reform. A review of the major findings from the educational and architectural research literatures on the impacts of school design on educational program effectiveness is presented. Commonalities among the disciplines were identified…

Examines the size of child-care-center spaces as a factor for designing developmentally appropriate facilities. Explores a range of architectural and design issues related to the size of spaces and ways of subdividing rooms to provide opportunities for small-group, quiet activities that are important to quality child care. (AA)

Examines the size of child care centers as a factor in designing developmentally appropriate facilities. Proposes as a general principle that, whenever a center is to house more than 75 children, it should be partially decentralized into a village, campus, or articulated series of interconnected houses, with each module serving no more than 60 to…

Provides a list of developmentally appropriate activity areas for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers which could be used in multi-house, module, or medium-sized child care centers. Describes these age-appropriate physical, academic, sensory-motor, fine arts, and multi-use areas, and provides suggestions for inexpensive materials, toys, storage,…