INFLUENCE OF ROOM LAYOUT AND USE ON MIXED AGE INTERACTION IN AN INTEGRATED COMPLEX OF NURSERY SCHOOL AND AFTER SCHOOL

Abstract

  In this study, first, to clarify the relationship between the physical environment of integrated complex facilities and cross-age interactions, we extracted scenes in which nursery school children and school children interact and examined the "room layout" and "room usage". From the perspective of "room layout," the following elements were found to promote interaction. 1)The entrance to the nursery school can be seen from the after-school nursery room, 2)The layout is so that you have to pass in front of the after-school nursery room to get to the nursery room, 3)There are rooms in the after-school nursery room that nursery school children need to enter, 4)Placed so that nursery school children can see school children playing in the halls and gardens, 5)The relationship between rooms and hallways is integrated and movement is easy.

  Next, by targeting a complex facility where all the school-age children are graduates of the nursery school within the same facility, we will be able to live in the same integrated complex facility that they are used to attending through interaction between different ages from infancy to childhood. To find out whether doing so led to a sense of security and attachment for children, and reflection on their own growth, we conducted an interview survey with school children and staff. It has become clear that integrated complex facilities, which are places that children have been accustomed to attending since infancy, give school children a sense of security.