CONTROLLED AUTONOMY : ENVIRONMENT OF THE ARTS FOR CHILDREN

Abstract

Design Intention The thesis intends to devise an environment that encourages general arts appreciation in children and to design specifically for children between the ages of 2 to 12 by catering to their needs and requirements. Programme The programme is a venue for exhibition, performance and related workshops. Environment of the Arts for Children aims to introduce arts in its various forms, visual, performing and media, to all children. The Environment would be located within the Waterloo Arts Belt to tap on its existing festive mood and informal characteristics deemed necessary to the scheme. Issues and Strategies Performance-going experience for children is different from that of the adults. Children require an informal and adventurous atmosphere whereby they are allowed to formulate their own experience of the visit. The architecture aims to empower children with this right through the strategy of controlled autonomy. With sufficient amount of control, children would gain the autonomy to negotiate the Environment on their own. Furthermore, children's visiting experience would be enriched with the addition of pre- and post activities workshops, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of the process behind the finished products. Adaptability is adopted as a strategy to cater to the different needs of arts forms and children, and to economize the limited space available. This is achieved by devising a neutral matrix, upon which changes and flexibility are made possible. This neutral ground also forces the users and children to formulate the environment that they felt necessary for that particular situation, an act of Montessori architecture.