Sharing 5 principles of design for children from my experience in education to healthcare. Created for the first The Well conference in 2013 produced and curated by Remedy Chicago.

1. Close your eyes.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

2. JULIAN GERMAIN, CLASSROOM PORTRAITS 2004-2012
Tuesday, October 22, 13

3. Tuesday, October 22, 13

4. Tuesday, October 22, 13

5. Why is there a dichotomy
between our
environments and our
experiences?
Tuesday, October 22, 13

6. How might we create
new ecologies for living,
learning, and healing?
Tuesday, October 22, 13

7. Tuesday, October 22, 13

8. DISCOVERY ACTIVATION STRATEGY DESIGN
Tuesday, October 22, 13

9. Develop deep empathy.
Focus on feelings to understand the
perspectives & stressors that impact
a child’s world.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

10. THE WELL CONFERENCE
Vulnerable populations have
decreased ability to articulate,
control, & cope with stress.
It is our responsibility to mitigate
or eliminate environmental
stresses by design.
Stressors:
cataclysmic events
stressful life events
daily stressors
ambient stressors
Tuesday, October 22, 13

11. "Research indicates that stress from a variety
of sources — including crowded and chaotic
home and classroom environments, for
example, or problems with family or peers —
impedes learning
...working to reduce inappropriate
environmental stresses facing young
children would not only improve their overall
well being, but also improve their ability to
learn in school.”
James A. Griffin, Ph.D., of the Child Development and Behavior Branch
at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Tuesday, October 22, 13

12. What factors affect a student’s
life outside of school?
Outside of the hospital?
MALCOM X COLLEGE, CHICAGO
Tuesday, October 22, 13

13. THE WELL CONFERENCE
Tuesday, October 22, 13

14. Use new language.
Shift your design from nouns to verbs
and you can imagine new
vocabularies of place.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

15. “We’re going to have a baby.”
“We’re going to have burping,
messing, cooing, crawling
discovering, spilling, learning,
growing, crying, loving...”
Tuesday, October 22, 13

16. retreat
make believe
dig
GREELEY SCHOOL, CHICAGOLAND
gather
socialize
chase
leap
bound
stretch
climb
Tuesday, October 22, 13

17. Values to verbs to places
Tuesday, October 22, 13

18. Design the in-between.
Create more seamless experiences by
designing interstitial environments that
cultivate connection & enhance culture.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

19. We’re both pretty bad at corridors.
healing? learning?
Tuesday, October 22, 13

20. The connective tissue of our
institutions is broken.
We inadvertently thwart our goals of security, connection, & efficiency.
47%
the highest incidents of reported school bullying
happened in hallways
U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics
20-30%
of our schools are dedicated to circulation
THE WELL CONFERENCE
Tuesday, October 22, 13

21. storytelling
transitioning
connecting waiting
CHIARAVALLE MONTESSORI,
EVANSTON
Tuesday, October 22, 13

22. How might we make
hallways more human?
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON STEM ACADEMY
CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS
Tuesday, October 22, 13

23. Create safe spaces.
Build ownership and a sense of
personal space institutional &
shared settings.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

24. HUGA FORTS - STANFORD MASTER’S PROJECT
TTT+ FELLOW: MICHAEL POPE
Tuesday, October 22, 13

25. Children seek places for refuge
& imagination.
Fort building can be a formative childhood
experience.
By constructing and governing
their own worlds, children gain an
experience of control over their
environment that few other activities
afford.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

26. “Child’s Cave”
“Secret space”
“Special place”
“Nook”
“Fort”
“Treehouse”
“Refuge”
Researchers: Sobel, Chawla, Cobb, Clayton
Resilience
Coping
Identity
Self-discovery
Tuesday, October 22, 13

27. Empower children’s
agency.
Design in moments for children
to understand, learn, & do.
Tuesday, October 22, 13

28. JERRY THE BEAR
DESIGN FOR AMERICA
Tuesday, October 22, 13

29. Let’s work together to design a new
ecology for children and families to
learn & be well.
learning wellness
Tuesday, October 22, 13