Landscapes for Learning: Creating Outdoor Environments for Children and Youth

Ask people what they remember most about the physical surroundingsof their childhood and they're likely to describe a special placeout of doors--a school yard, a patch of woods, a community garden.For it is outside space that is most conducive to the ebb and flowof spontaneous activities, offers rich and often surprising sensoryinput, and provides endless possibilities for exploration. If theclassroom is the place where children are taught, the outdoors iswhere they learn on their own.

A growing legion of landscape architects is exploring andexploiting the ability to create outdoor environments that optimizethe learning experience and mirror the ideas, values, attitudes,and cultures of those who inhabit them. In Landscapes for Learning,Dr. Sharon Stine presents 11 case studies of the very best of thesedesign projects from around the world. Her findings describe notonly design concepts and end results--rich outdoor learningenvironments--but, more importantly, the processes that led to thecreation of these environments. She examines the roles ofdesigners, teachers, and the children themselves, and how theirinteraction affects the planning, building, and use of thespace.

Dr. Stine shows how the most successful designs address the needsof both the children whose job it is to "mess up" the space and theadults who supervise them. She defines nine pairs of contrastingelements that are essential to any play environment and uses theseboth as the basis for her analyses of particular environments andas the foundation of a common language that designers and educatorscan use when developing a new design. She also addresses the issuesof safety and security and demonstrates that learning environmentscan be stimulating, interesting links with the natural world andsafe places for children to run free.

Landscapes for Learning is the ideal source for landscapearchitects, architects, planners, school administrators, andteachers who want to collaborate in the development of useful,intriguing outdoor environments for students in day care,preschool, elementary school, junior high, and high school.

Discover the keys to creating delightful, stimulating, challenging,and educational outdoor environments for children and youth

This unique volume explores the vital and growing movement that istransforming school yards, day-care facilities, and museum groundsaround the world. Dr. Sharon Stine presents detailed analyses of awide variety of outdoor environments for children and theprinciples and processes that enabled their design, creation, andongoing operation. Special features of this book include:
* Eleven case studies of outstanding outdoor environments forchildren and youth--both contemporary and historical
* More than 140 photos and line drawings that illustrate theapplication of specific design principles
* Nine pairs of contrasting elements essential in any playenvironment that form the basis of a shared language for the designand analysis of outdoor learning environments
* In-depth analyses of the development and evolution of outsidespace in two schools over a period of 80 years
* And much more

SHARON STINE is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. She holds a doctorate in human development and a master's degree in landscape architecture and uses this dual focus in her research, writing, and design consulting. Environment behavior issues, particularly as they relate to children, youth, and sustainable design, have been a major focus of her career. Her work encompasses invited teaching, presentations, and research in Japan and Europe. A former faculty member at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, where she taught, studied, and wrote about school environments (with Elizabeth Prescott and Elizabeth Jones), she is currently studying the social and cultural dimensions of the design of sustainable communities.