Colourful schools : how can children be involved?

Abstract

It is well-known that colour has the potential to play a key role in the development of both individuals and communities. Apart from being a powerful subject, colour is a fascinating design tool, which can alter an environment, enhance the mood of an interior and contribute to the improvement of the quality of life within. Colour stimulates feelings before reason and intellect. Despite the decades of research on the subject, people are often unaware that anxiety, stress, visual disorders, and numerous other problems may actually be caused by incorrect environmental conditions involving poorly planned colour schemes and strategies. In order to create healthy interior spaces, one must evaluate the parameters in terms of colour by first identifying the needs of the people who will be interacting with the space. This might be quite problematic in the case of public spaces especially where children are involved. Though children are considered to be among the most vulnerable groups in society they are left out during design processes concerning their own environments. Apart from its potential to produce a humane architecture, participation in the design of school buildings encourages learning which leads to an increase in motivation and ownership among children. The school's physical environment is a vital psycho-physiological factor. Colour together with other environmental variables is important in the creation of surroundings that are conducive to learning and that promote physical and mental well-being. The above-mentioned considerations provide the basis for the analysis of designing adequate colour schemes to improve the quality of life in primary classrooms, by listening to the voices of the main users in school buildings - the children. This dissertation includes a study of classrooms in two Maltese primary schools in which pupils were asked to analyse their existing learning environments and design a colour scheme for their classrooms.