Lessons from Kindergarten: Reassembling Froebel's Architectural Legacy

Abstract

Kindergarten is both a time and a space where children develop key facets of self, outside of the familial domestic sphere. It is a threshold where a delicate balance of guidance through intervention, interaction, and individuation through the medium of play is vital to establishing a fulfilling sense of purpose and development within each child. A child learns from both social interactions with their teachers, guardians, and each other, and the shared and individual interactions with their environment. While approaches to child psychology, pedagogy, and methods of funding have evolved fluidly over time, kindergartens remain comparatively static. Many Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres in Auckland, originally villas or bungalows, were not explicitly designed with children in mind. Kindergartens face pressure to meet the demands of a changing parental working culture - young children and parents are increasingly relying on these institutions as the environment where many children may now spend a majority of their formative years. If the architectural components that define a kindergarten remain ‘static’ or fail to evolve with changing pedagogical ideas, then the spatial experiences that a kindergarten can facilitate will also remain stagnant. If we acknowledge that the physical environment mediates or otherwise accommodates experiential learning, an architect must accept the responsibility to critically reassess the implications of the space, and what it teaches, not just for the children, but for their parents and communities as well. How can architects respond to the changing needs and opportunities of contemporary New Zealand Kindergartens to best prepare children for the future? How can the built environment better accommodate and encourage the development of young children through design thinking? In the development of this project, the author of this thesis intends to revisit the origins of Kindergarten – a set of educational playthings known as Froebel’s Gifts – and explores the wide influence that the Gifts’ legacy has had on both education and architectural design thinking. Drawing from these considerations, this thesis situates itself as an architectural-educational driven framework for Kindergarten design and illustrates the findings through the reimagining of Ferndale Kindergarten. The findings of the research argue the relevance of Frobel’s Gifts today, not simply as an educational tool for young children, but also as a valuable design methodology in architectural practice – an ethico-aesthetic paradigm that hinges on creativity, inventiveness, and user agency.