Day Light, Good Light (03-12-10)
Good mental health depends on soaking up a few rays – and not just outdoors.
Good mental health depends on soaking up a few rays – and not just outdoors.
Kaiser, a principle with Perkins + Will, has integrated his own professional experiences with material from rigorous studies of effective (and ineffective) navigation tools to identify features of successful wayfinding systems.
Several recent articles have probed the importance of integrating nature into academic design.
Advocates of full-spectrum fluorescent lights (FSFL) believe that these lights offer unique advantages over cool-white fluorescent lights (CWFL). Researchers Jennifer Veitch and Shelly McColl have investigated these claims by reviewing research conducted from 1941–1999.
An American Academy of Pediatrics Committee and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have come out with updated design guidelines to prevent children from falling out of windows.
Green environments around schools, such as green playgrounds and window views, might help ADD children, or even all children, function more effectively.
Design suggestions for child-safe environments are shared not only to aid designers in their current projects, but with the hope that they may someday be incorporated into a more comprehensive set of standards for safety in children’s facilities.
Gary Siebein and Martin Gould, both from The University of Florida at Gainesville, and Glenn Siebein and Michael Ermann (Siebein Associates) investigated typical classrooms to determine how architectural changes can improve a student’s acoustical situation.
School acoustics is only one aspect of a successful school plan. Three web sites provide additional useful information to inform school, playground, and outdoor space design.
Researchers Sandra Whitehouse, James W. Varner, Michael Seid, Clare Cooper Marcus, Mary Jane Ensberg, Jennifer Jacobs and Robyn Mehlenbeck examined the Leichtag Healing Garden at the Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego to identify aspects of gardens that relax and heal. Originally published in Issue 3, 2002.