AEC | Architecture of Early Childhood
Passionately promoting excellence in the designed spaces for early childhood
Hello and welcome.
The AEC was born in 2011 when I (Jess) began researching early childhood architecture for my thesis at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
In researching EC architecture I found that;
a) there was not much in the way of research publications existing on the topic, and
b) the movement was newly garnering attention via online weblogs, yet there was still little information to be found in one easy to find place.
Therefore the AEC forum began firstly for myself, and then for others in the same position as I.
It was in this process of searching, analysing, writing and sharing, that something dormant (and perhaps was as a seed always there) began to emerge – that of an EC architecture (or as we architects call a [EC architecture] ‘typology’.
It is my hope that this website will continue to spread the seed – that a child’s early learning and growth is best achieved when the environmental conditions are right – which goes to say the architecture plays a pivotal role. We (as a society) need an architecture that says: ‘We believe in these children!’ as it is these very children who will one day be our future – so lets give them the very best start in life.
As Anita Rui Olds’ (2001) says:
“Child care centres are a new building type in search of models that not only provide for children’s basic needs but also honour them as the miracles they are by nurturing their spirits during their most formative and vulnerable period of their lives.”
Jess
About Me
If you would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you.
Best,
Jess
jesikza@gmail.com