Entering and Moving About the Early Learning and Care setting: Overall design issues
Making it easy and comfortable to enter and move around inside a setting is critical to a Universal Design approach. Considering the range of users in a typical setting, it is essential that circulation areas are accessible, easily understood and usable. The overall layout of the building should be coherent, logical, easily navigated, and composed of distinct routes. In more open plan settings or where there are flexible space arrangements, legibility can be improved using distinct colour, landmarks and focal points, or other visual cues such as planting or artwork. Circulation areas should act as stimulating, exciting social spaces for children to play, develop skills, engage with others and interact with their environment.
When designing or retrofitting the circulation spaces of an ELC setting, consider the Key Design Issues as framed by the selected Síolta Standards (See Introduction page 16):
Circulation areas where children can move around freely and associate with their peers and with older or younger children in mixed age settings.
Provide welcoming settings for parents and families that are easy and comfortable to enter and move around in, particularly at peak times.
Design circulation areas that support and promote interactions between children, and between children and practitioners.
Consider how all parts of the circulation route, from the outside areas at the entrance to the corridors or stairs can support play, adventure and discovery for all children.
Design circulation to provide flexible space that supports practitioners as environmental planners and evaluators. Consider how the layout provides reflective spaces for study and peer-to-peer learning.
Consider how the layout, especially more public aspects such as entrance areas or reception areas, can connect and integrate the setting with the community in a safe and appropriate manner.
