commotion of the larger world, a place that provides
context for children's creativity, a world full of joy with
beautiful colors, where the child has the opportunity to
express his new ideas, and breed and grow his talents.
In designing of child spaces, child-centered designs
have priority. This means that the spaces should be
designed for temporary holding of children and this space
and all the equipment and facilities should be appropriate
for them. A children space should have an exclusive
design to meet their needs, particularly in interior design
and furniture. Environment is a trainer, and after
children’s parents, it is their first teacher. Children’s
pedagogy is transferred through forms, which are made by
architecture and their surrounding environment.
Sustainable design of children spaces locates in a high
degree of importance, because children interact inside and
learn from architecture and the space.
on the exciting environment, creating the necessary
conditions for the emotional bond between children in that
environment, expanding their social relationships and
creating a vibrant environment requires attention to the
views of children, as well as quantitative and qualitative
criteria and standards related to space.
Sustainability concept
It is not possible to make an exact definition of
sustainability in architecture. It is known that this concept,
which had been scrutinized with reference to different
priorities in every different period, has been discussed
under various titles since the 1970s. For instance, while
the concept “environmental design” was used in 1970s,
“green design” in 1980s, “ecological design” in the late
1980s and in 1990s, the concept “sustainable design” has
During this descriptive-analytic research, which is
done by library research method, first, definitions of a
child space and sustainability, and the necessity and aims
of designing sustainable spaces for children are explained.
Then, after describing two study cases, some solutions for
designing sustainable children spaces are suggested, as the
outcomes of the study. The aim of this study is to offer
some practical design features, which are beneficial in
order to have more efficient child-oriented spaces.
Sustainable architecture can be considered as one of
contemporary critical events, a subset of sustainable
designing, which is a wise reaction against industry era
architecture defines an understanding of environment-
friendly architecture under all classifications, and contains
some universal consent. In general, it can be argued that in
a building, which is a product of sustainable architecture,
an environment-conscious architectural code should be
used, and therefore, shaping, positioning and constructing
practice of the building and its relation to the topography
are of great importance. Currently, the buildings could not
meet the sustainable environment requirements with
reference to both unnecessarily consuming energy and
uncontrollable production of wastes. It is known that
buildings consume 50% of the energy produced in the
world and the other half is consumed in transportation and
buildings are responsible for the 40% of carbon dioxide
Sustainable design is an attempt to create maximum
comfort of the people with the highest quality of life and
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Since the aim of this paper is applying the principles
of sustainability in the architectural design of children
spaces, after reviewing the basic concepts and necessity of
this topic through library resources, and analyzing
examples of sustainable children's spaces, some results
acquired, which led to present executive and easy
proposals for designing child spaces.
Child and child space
Child is a Part of the civilized human society and
considering children is one of the principles of
urbanization. In children space designing, child-oriented
approach has priority. This means that the space should
be designed for the child’s presence. Therefore, children
safety during their presence in such spaces should be the
main point and guideline in design and construction
concepts and standards. Children have an active presence
in the environment, as long as all their senses are in
balance. For example, noise and air pollution, lack of
good physical and mental realm and sense of congestion
will prevent children from proper interaction with the
environment. In addition, existence of any safety and
security threat, which are detrimental for the balance of
their mental and environmental power, will prevent their
creative talents.
Necessity of sustainability for children
Moving and playing are two of the child’s primary
needs. The perception of the environment, space, time and
of nature and a clean environment in relation to the
physical activities happening there” is the most obvious
one in Curriculum for kindergartens. It should be added
that children must study how to learn throughout their life,
as environmental problems are unpredictable. The
children will approach these problems in the future as
adults and they will act so independently through learning
completely new skills. The consequence of such learning
In designing of children space, the aim is to create
safety and a sense of belonging to the space. Emphasizing
To cite this paper: Khodadad M, Moosavi Nadoshan SM, Khodadad S, Sanei M (2018). Operative Guidelines for Sustainable Designing of Child-Oriented Architectural Spaces. J.
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