COMPARISON OF SPACE UTILIZATION PATTERNS OF AFTER-SCHOOL DAYCARE CENTER BY PUPIL'S NUMBERS (24-28 PUPILS)

－Case study on the “SWALLOW HOUSE” converted from farmer's barn－

Abstract

 This paper aims to clarify the differences of usage pattern which the group size brings by taking notice of the free play style in which pupils spend a large portion of weekday time in the after-school care facility that converted a barn of farmhouse.

 Although this facility had been converted a barn of farmhouse, the floor for playing has 60.9 square meter and it is near the space of usual classroom of elementary school. Since the facility located in a rural area, use pupils number is about 10 to 30, and the floor space per pupil has nearly satisfied the conference proposal standard (3.96square meters) so this is a standard type facility that is almost equal to the proposal level from the viewpoint of pupil's necessary floor space in the mountainous areas. Furthermore, the ground for playing outside has been improved near the facility, and the exterior spaces, such as the south garden of main building and pond, are also used as a place for playing. Most pupils are playing in outdoor space for a long time on fine weather day, and the importance of securing the outdoor playground of sufficient is pointed out for the care of pupils in after school hours of weekday.

 From the viewpoint of architectural planning, this facility is converted into the two-room and three domain type that was utilized the space composition of existing barn, and it has been divided into multipurpose room and playroom. Since the difference of pupil's arrival time to the facility, the time zone that snack, study and indoor play develop in parallel exists, so by assigning study to multipurpose room and snack and indoor play to playroom, the facility can respond to about 20 pupils. The time zone of free play has few pupils who hold indoor play as several persons, because most pupils may hold playing outside in fine weather day. Study and static play are assigned to multipurpose room, and the dynamic play is assigned to playroom on rainy weather day, so the mutual interference is avoided.

 In cases of 25 pupils, multipurpose room and playroom are both used for snack and study space in the time zone of snack and study, so the playing of pupils and putting the playroom in order by staffs overlapped. In time of free play on rainy weather day, the scenes that adequate space for each pupil is in sufficient but the cases that group plays interfere with each other are few. In cases of 28 pupils, in time of free play on rainy weather day, the scenes that adequate space for each pupil is in sufficient and the cases that group plays interfere with each other are often seen because the many pupils frequently concentrated in the playroom, and the time of same play decreased.

 Therefore, also in the case of floor space of about 60-square meter, if it has space composition of two-room and three spheres, it will be judged that the correspondence to about 15 to 20 pupils is possible enough but in case of over 20 pupils, there are some problems for playing and facility management, so the maximum number of the facility may be 25 pupils.