A nursery which signs up a lighting engineer who has designed lightshows for the likes of Bowie and Madonna can expect dramatic results.
Happy Times' founder Adam Shaw recalls the downside of that approach in his first nursery at Richmond. 'The problem was it was showbiz lighting. When a bulb blew, it cost 130 to replace and we had to get in a theatrical technician, not just one of our maintenance men. Of course, it would have been all right if we'd been on tour...'
However, eight years on, and about to open Happy Times' fourth, and biggest, nursery, in Fulham, he remains committed to a belief that getting the lighting and colour right is key to any environment. The design for this 170-place centre includes input from a child psychologist specialising in colour therapy, and a state-of-the-art lighting system.
That conviction reflects a growing awareness among nurseries that there's more to design than simply levering open a tin of fire-engine red emulsion.
The University of Harvard even offers a course in childhood design. Course lecturer is Jim Greenman, senior vice president for education within global group Bright Horizons Family Solutions, and author on children's environments. He raised the subject's profile with the publication, in 1987, of Caring spaces, Learning Places, Children's Environments that Work. The book appealed equally to architects, designers, teachers and childcare workers.
In it, he argued that the experience of children spending up to nine hours daily in nursery was very different to that of adults spending the same amount of time in the workplace. He says, 'A lot of childcare programmes in the US were being opened by people who didn't have a background in early education and looked at it a lot more like first grade. They had to shift from teaching to learning environments.
'They didn't think about homey spaces and so a typical childcare environment would include ideas like, let's have a cosy corner that you share with 15 other people. The child's overall experience was not thought about very much.'
Jim Greenman points out that homes, even those in the lowest income brackets, are rich in terms of comfort, space, and variety. 'When you think of home, you never think of having uniformity, of fluorescent lights, or one kind of plastic furniture.'
In his view, a good early child environment is one part home, one part classroom, one part laboratory.
He says over-lit rooms and shiny floor surfaces are common errors. 'The biggest institutional factor can come if you get lighting and floors wrong: if you have uniform lighting, gleaming floors, no windows, and all your furniture is plastic or bland polyurethane wood.'
Colour choice makes a difference, too. Children love primary colours and, Jim Greenman notes, architects often choose to make a statement using colours within their design. 'The architect wants the building to look interesting so he uses primary colours. And the minute he's gone, this whole other riot of colour arrives - furniture, artwork, and you end up with a kaleidoscope, visual clutter.'
He recommends introducing natural light wherever possible, as well as quilts, dried plants or fresh greenery, and natural textures like wood and stone. He adds, 'We like adult furniture like a couch, a rocking chair, because they create laps. And we think access to water is really important, so that the room can be a laboratory.'
By design
For Jim Greenman and other nursery operators, the issue appears not to be the size of the nursery itself, but what happens within that space, that matters.
At Treetops Private Day Nurseries, whose 18 centres are a mix of purpose-built and conversions, design stays in-house, with input from childcare staff. Paul Foster, managing director, says, 'We're not simply looking at space ratios, we want to make rooms interesting.
'We have an in-house architect, who talks to the childcare team on a daily basis, so our childcare experience is informing our design.'
Decor is decided by individual managers, rather than prescribed from head office. He explains, 'We try to describe ourselves as a family of nurseries rather than a chain or group, and our attitude is that we want all our nurseries to be individual. When we set up a new nursery, we tell our managers it is their blank canvas. We ask them to look at their parent and child base, the local environment, and try to create something to suit that.'
Valuable lessons have been learnt through some of the most challenging building projects. Treetops' Ashbourne centre is based in a listed former Sunday School building. Renovating it resulted in a large play area leading into gardens. This indoor/outdoor space worked so well that Treetops has since replicated it in new builds.
Domestic scale
Michael Fallon, managing director at Just Learning, identifies two strategies for avoiding an institutional feel. For each of his 68 nurseries, he retains a domestic scale to the design - new builds are single storey with an A-pitched roof, replicating a private, small-dwelling house. 'We always design nurseries to replicate a domestic environment' he says. 'We avoid public-type buildings such as libraries or railway stations or primary schools.'
Second, he lists segregation as an important way of preventing younger children from feeling intimidated either by the size of the building itself, or by the other children accommodated within the building. So, most rooms have their own access to garden and play areas, rather than children being required to move throughout the nursery.
Other nurseries, including the Teddies chain, agree smaller buildings are important to creating a homely feel. Teddies' Simone Noblett explains, 'One thing we have stuck to is relatively small-size nurseries. But within that, it's a real mix, with old buildings with lots of character, and scope to create lots of different rooms - a sensory room, a library, and so on.
'Within each nursery, we have separate rooms for different age groups, but the children move around. We believe if you are at home with a child you would not stay all day in the living room. The children are outside twice a day, so that takes them into a completely different environment too.
'We have lots of separate areas in each room - a construction area, or the story time corner, where you kick your shoes off and have a read. There are sofas for one-to-one time in the baby room. The nurseries are all similar, decor wise, with everything, including children's artwork displays, at low levels.'
Colour therapy
Adam Shaw is satisfied that in his settings - all of which cater for upwards of 100 children - the concept of cosiness is perfectly compatible with large spaces. He says, 'If a child comes from a small flat, why would it want to be put into another poky space? Cosiness can be created within a room, but that room can still have light, and space to run around.'
His ideas are most advanced in his Fulham design, where he has taken the advice of a colour therapist, experienced in working on hospital paediatric wards. 'She explained that if you decorate with primary colours, then add children's artwork on top of that, you create colour noise, colour clutter'
says Adam Shaw. 'What she suggested was an uncluttered, calmer environment, have it a little bit more peaceful.'
Happy Times' joint venture with Philips Lighting has resulted in a specially designed system to replicate natural light. The cost turns out to be a substantial part of Fulham's overall 3.5million budget. Adam Shaw says, 'You can have a huge amount of variation from sunrise to sunsets. If we want to rock it up, or alter the mood, we can do that with light, music, colour.' Philips plans to monitor the results, to see how effectively it works within a nursery environment.
Bright Horizons has its own architecture department - Mr Greenman shares the teaching of his Harvard course with the chief architect. But he believes the de-institutionalising message is not yet reaching everyone. He comments, 'A lot of people still don't pay any attention to the building.
It's hard getting away from the assumption that for a childcare setting all you need is space, that doesn't even need to be above ground.'
He acknowledges that nurseries are businesses, operating within financial constraints. But, he adds, 'People could spend only a little more money, and end up with a much more inviting place.'
Adam Shaw has spent 170,000 on lighting alone at Fulham. He's confident it's a worthwhile investment. 'Lighting can make or break a place,' he says. But, he adds, high tech design is no substitute for good staff. 'Basically, the people are key,' he says. 'Children want to be loved, encouraged, and feel secure. It is terribly simple stuff.'
