Challenge: How do we program outdoor preschool environments with high quality in an expanding city?
Challenge Giver: City district Enskede-Årsta-Vantör, the City of Stockholm
Solution: Fungi the Mushroom
Concept: Fungi the Mushroom is a little Micro-Space in a big yard, which helps the Children to learn to relate to and act in a noisy environment
Challenge Area: Education

ABSTRACT

In an expanding city with growing population the question how to use limited space is vital. It is particularly important for preschool yards, where outdoor environment directly affects children’s’ development. By including children’s perspective in the design thinking process, we discovered that yards of today are too noisy, have no place to hide and lack inclusiveness, some children become overwhelmed and struggle with having focus. This also affect the working environment for teachers. We believe that preschool yards, no matter how small, should have diversity of spaces for different needs. That is why we created Fungi the Mushroom and the concept of micro-spaces as a helping tool for teachers, who could combine it with a pedagogical approach in order to make environment in their yards calmer and more inclusive.