I am the space, where I am
Between 1998 and 2000 I was studying in Helsinki, Finland at Aalto University. (At the time it was called The University of Art and Design.) I was accepted into the product and strategic design program. The beauty of the Finnish education system was that I could take classes in any other department that I felt leant to my thesis work. I decided very early on that I wanted to do my thesis on “designing learning environments with children.”
My first year was researching and finding all I could about architects, designers and educators who were active and, most importantly, innovative in this field. Very early on, I realised very few in the field of architecture and design seemed to design with children rather, they designed for them, and if you look at their portfolios and project pics devoid of children or even humans, I was not even sure they designed for them.
One designer stood out, Bruno Munari, he was in fact an industrial designer, but today he would be called a ‘Hybrid Designer’ as he designed across and within many design fields.
About the same time as I discovered Bruno Munari, I was introduced to another amazing educational institution the Reggio Emilia Approach, which would shape everything I have ever designed and even still today.
With these two and a few others dotted in between I started to put my own unique thoughts and ideas down on paper. I decided to start in the early years 3 months to 36 months. I had not design for this age group before so I began by really observing and engaging with children of this age in learning and care environments.
My final thesis was a journal detailing my observation and design process in sketches, words, research and thoughts. The final design was a series of ten screens of 1 x 1 meter made from reused sail fabric, balloons and velcro.
It was exhibited from September to November 2000 in the Voipaalan Museum.
