CASE STUDY OVERVIEW

THE YELLOW TRAIN SCHOOL BIOME ENV. SOLNS. PARAMETERS

SANGAM ELE. SCHOOL SFERABLU ARCHITECTS

Health Nursery School Chroma Arkitekter Ab Rehab Groot Klimmendaal By Koen Van Velsen

ORIENTATION

Arches bring about organic curves to the interiors.

Organic form allowing children to use the space openly.

Rounded edges giving softness of character and friendly to children.

Meandering facade.

GEOMETRY

CIRCULATION

Designed using ramps to make the journey memorable.

Use of colours on the floors in meandering patterns helps in wayfinding.

WAYFINDING

Ample outdoor spaces connecting seamlessly.

Clear segregation of functions.

Seamless continuity between interiors and exteriors.

NATURE

Subtle colours bring feelings of calmness; materials respondto visual and haptic systems.

Interplay of colours based on emotions they evoke.

COLOURS

Structural arches help in reducing scale; areas accessible only to children present.

Exterior has multiple punctures for windows which frame views and allow air to circulate.

Volumes are friendly for children with large openings enabling them to engage with outdoors.

VOLUME

Jaali patterns bring in sunlight and ventilation.

Two courtyards which allow diffused natural light and protection from harsh sunlight.

Ample daylight through large openings and cross ventilation.

Ample daylight spanning to 30m within the building.

Book Review

OXFORD TEXTBOOK OF NATURE AND PUBLIC HEALTH : THE ROLE OF NATURE IN IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF A POPULATION

By Matilda van den Bosch, William Bird (2018)

Some of the questions posed in this book are :

01. Why is nature a health factor?

02. How can nature affect health?

03. What is the imapct of contact with nature on public health?

04. How do varied populations interact with nature? What is the nature of the city?

Why is nature a health factor? This book seeks to explore how natural environments and ecosystems contribute to human health and wellbeing. Psychological and physiological parallels seem to lead back to stress and stress recovery processes. Multiple arguments are provided for why investments in green spaces across populations are necessary for maintaining and improving public health. Such arguments are important in any health policy making and should increase collaboration across environmental, architectural, design, and health sectors and disciplines.

Gardens have traditionally been used in mental health care, but many other forms of nature interactions such as farming, and wilderness experiences exist as therapeutic means.

Landscape architecture can be both an arena for interventions and have therapeutic effects. Concepts such as horticultural therapy, green care, and wilderness therapy are related to respective diagnoses for which efficiency has been demonstrated.

Children’s Relation to Nature

Children’s relation to nature and landscape is of specific value for the developing individual itself and for the environment. If no connection to nature is established in the early years it will be hard for the growing individual to develop a sense for the environment and outdoor special perceptions. Outdoor nature exposure contributes to various benefits – for cognitive, social, motor development, physical activity, concentration capacity, academic performance, preventing myopia, Vitamin D deficiency, stress and obesity.

Environmental Psychology in the Health Context

The natural environment has presently gained a more central focus when it has become clear that increasing urbanization and industrialization are rapidly taking their toll on nature and landscape and thus on the quality of people’s living environment. In response to these developments, modern environmental psychology and architectural psychology takes an active interest in studying people’s interactions with natural and built environments in relation to their health and well-being. Particularly the restorative or stress relieving functions of contact with nature and landscape (visual and physical) have become a major topic for research and theorizing.

Stress Reduction Theory

Automatic positive reactions or emotions are elicited by:

01. Presence of natural content (vegetation, water)

02. Symmetry

03. Depth and spatial cues

04. Smooth textures

05. Deflected vista

06. Absence of threats.

Attention Restoration Theory

Roger Ulrich is a Professor of Architecture who is renowned for his research on evidence-based design of healthcare environments. In 1983 he first published his psycho-evolutionary theory on aesthetic and affective responses to natural landscapes (commonly known as SRT). This theory assumes that certain environmental features and patterns elicit rapid, affective reactions (i.e., like/dislike) which occur without conscious processing.

Contrary to general / popular belief, Ulrich’s experiments showed that natural scenes with water were not more effective in providing restoration from stress than natural scenes without water. In general, it is observed that nearly all kinds of nature are equally restorative apart from scenes that induce perceptions of danger, like unstructured enclosed woods.

This was posed by Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) who were struck by the universal positive value and meaning of nature to people.

The four qualities of environmental experiences are:

01. Being away

02. Sense of extent

03. Fascination

04. Compatibility

This theory identifies the four qualities of environmental experiences that would help restore mental fatigue : being away from daily hassles and obligations; a sense of extent of connectedness; fascination or the capacity of an environment to automatically draw attention; and a compatibility between the individual’s inclinations and the characteristics of the environment.

ART has highlighted the importance of cumulative effects of repeated restorative experiences with nature in the living environment. For example, the cumulative value of “micro restorative experiences” is afforded by a window view into trees and other natural features from the home of workplace.

In line with this reasoning, many studies have reported particularly strong relationships between green space in the living environment with public health and well-being.