NATURAL SCHOOLING - OVERCOMING NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER

Abstract

Singapore children childhood years are often associated with high amount of pressure as a child tries to keep up in a competitive society. The focus of childhood years has always been associated with the importance of education that defines the success of a child’s future. This is evident through the first 6 years of formal education in Singapore, where children are packed within enclosed learning environment and undergo academically driven learning for long hours, leaving no time and place for a child to rest or play freely in their childhood years. The rigidity of current education environment in Singapore has resulted in the separation between indoor and outdoor learning. With the lack of interaction with outdoors and nature, children are faced with physical (myopia, obesity) and mental health issues (suicidal thoughts, increased unstable mental well-being) that will affect them in the long run. The learning environment and framework that were established has turned the joy of learning and being curious into a compulsory act of learning. This has caused our children to suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder. My thesis seeks to create a dialogue between nature and primary school children through Architecture as a medium. To reconcile the paradox of high-density urban environments and children learning environment, where Architecture should aspire to redefine school typologies in Singapore through a return to nature and natural environments. This should be carried out to envision new forms of learning conditions for our children as digital revolution arrives and thrive, to ensure balanced learning between the real versus digitalised as a child undergo substantial growth, and benefitting from what nature has to offer. This will redefine the ideals of what a success of a child’s future will be