Biophilic Toolbox for Promoting Physical and Mental Performance in Early Childhood Educational Spaces
Keywords:
Biophilia, Biophilic Design, children, educational spaces, nature, physical performance, mental performanceAbstract
Based on many empircal studies, nature play a cruical role in improving every aspect of children´s development—from the physical to the social, cognitive and even emotional. Unfortunately, today’s children are much less connected to the natural world. They spend in average 90% of their time indoors in artificial built environments away from nature; the natural connection has been replaced with more virtual technological interactions and less unstructured outdoor play. The negative outcomes for children of this disconnection include very high rates of childhood obesity, social disorder and increased psychological stress. This paper investigates a biophilic architectural approach that focuses on creating an interconnection between life, nature and the built environment to enriches children's daily lives in educational spaces. The research method consists of a wide range of literature review to explore the concept of nature connection, biophilia, biophilic design principles, and their impact on creating educational spaces for children. The findings took the form of biophilic toolbox that could help in promoting physical and mental performance of children in educational spaces.
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