Co-Design with Children to Create a Sustainable Learning Space

Abstract

With the increasing population and limited natural resources, we, as individuals and societies need to learn to live together sustainably. We need to take action responsibly based on the understanding that what we do today can have implications on the lives of people and the planet in future. Until recently, education systems have mostly prepared students to perform certain social functions in a relatively predictable world. However, the world is changing and we can no longer expect the same old. Today‘s students will soon need to deal with complex sustainability challenges, which require totally new skills and attitudes to be developed. This paper aims to formulate the framework for sustainable learning space that will help empower students and build good social skills or the future. The research follows participatory design method in which in which various techniques of communication with children was conducted on the basis of literature review. Qualitative data were analyzed on the basis of the data collected during the period of two workshops. The findings revealed that children‘s perception of space is different to that of adult and it can influence their growth and knowledge. Thus including children as the design partner can be beneficial for the society in terms of sustainable development.