• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.64-71
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of participatory design workshops conducted to design forest play spaces that reflect young children's needs and demands on the development of spatial concepts in young children. As a research method for this purpose, we used the participatory design workshop (6 times) and Landscape Montage Techniques (LMT). We conducted this study at the "Songsan-mulbit Forest Experience Center for children (FECC)" located in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, from the second week of May to third week of June 2018 for preschoolers in K-kindergarten (six and seven-year-old integrated classes; 41 preschoolers in total). We conducted the LMT evaluation on the same preschoolers before and after the workshop, and the drawings of 39 preschoolers drawn for LMT evaluation before and after the workshop were subject to the final evaluation. As a result of the study, the cognitive levels for the spatial concept after the workshop are higher than those for the spatial concept before the workshop, especially showed the result of comparing the LMT values of 6 age and 7 age, there were significant differences on pre and post workshop in p<0.01.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.49-63
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• 2021

The Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children who means preschoolers is an educational facility that achieves holistic growth by experiencing forests, and it should not be completed by installing specific facilities in the forest environment, but should be a space where preschoolers can play freely in the forest environment themselves. This study comprehensively evaluated the current status of Seoul Forest Visitor Centers for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to enhance the effectiveness of forest experience. Through the theoretical review, seven spatial elements that enhance the effect of forest experience and six areas composing outdoor play areas were derived to prepare an analysis table for current status evaluation, and field survey studies were conducted on 24 centers in Seoul. Through expert interviews, the physical status was examined from the perspective of childhood education and the experiences of the users were summarized. As a result of the study, the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children is classified into six types according to the location characteristics and spatial structure, and has the characteristics of each type. The effectiveness of forest experience can be enhanced by identifying and revealing the environmental strengths of individual centers. In the case of outdoor experience learning zones, the proportion of exercise play areas was very large. By evenly organizing the forest experience space for each area, it will be possible to provide more diverse experiences to preschoolers. However, the status of uniform facility-oriented cannot be viewed as a fragmentary factor that lowers the effect of forest experience. The key to increasing the effect of forest experience by inducing creative activities is the spatial composition that considers the surrounding natural environment. Facilities should be a medium to help preschoolers' interest move into the forest. This study prepared data to understand the average physical status of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children and suggested space improvement measures to increase the effectiveness of forest experience. This can be used as basic data for research to improve the quality level of the Seoul Forest Visitor Center for Little Children about 10 years after the project was implemented.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.69-81
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• 2018

Recently, user participatory workshops have been applied as a way to plan landscape spaces that reflects the needs and demands of the users. It is also required to improve the quality of the FECC (Forest Experience Center for Children), which is growing rapidly. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to deduct the design elements (forest play activities and space), the basic needs, and the demands of users in making the FECC a preschooler participatory workshop. For this, materials for preschooler participation were selected, and a step-by-step workshop was conducted to satisfy the demands of the preschooler's development. First, in the pre-workshops phase, design elements standards were deducted through the preschooler participatory results (41 children aged 6 and 7, Kindergarten). Second, in the main workshop phase, the design elements to be introduced on the site (Songsan-mulbit FECC) were deducted through the participating preschooler's selection and those results were analyzed. The materials used at the preschooler participatory process were 'drawing a picture' in the pre-workshop phase, and the design elements and the standard types charts were the forest play activity pictogram chart, and the forest play space general images chart in the main workshop. As for results, frst, there are 38 standard types of forest play activities that have been deducted. It consists of 27 cognitive activities (functional 16, constructive 4, symbolic 4, game on rule 3), 9 games (sensory 5, other 4), and two social play activities (solo, group). There are 21 standard types of forest play spaces. They consist of 8 play facility spaces (5 facility, 3 natural), 2 water spaces, and 11 spaces of 5 types. Second, as a result of applying the results to the site, the forest play activities to be introduced on the site were selected, and the functional play was most selected. Additionally, climbing and water play were most selected as the unit activities. Also, functional, constructive, symbolic, games based on rules were selected, even in the preschooler's development play. In the case of the forest play spaces to be introduced in the site, the preschooler's selection results by sex and age tended to be similar to the preschooler's comprehensive selection results, but the boys preferred function and adventure spaces more than the girls, while the girls preferred rest spaces more than the boys. This result is similar to the previous study results, which directly observed the preschooler's forest play behavior, and analysis that the preschooler recognized the site and selected the design elements introduced on the site. Therefore, the participatory workshop process and the materials process in this study are analyzed and applied to the purpose of the study. It is valuable as a case to be applied in design of the FECC from this point forward.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.162-176
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• 2016

The experience and play activities in forest spaces have played an effective role in children's growth and development, therefore, many studies and projects related to forest activity space have progressed actively. However, the focus of previous research has been merely on the effectiveness of forest activity but little on providing the basis for the spatial design of these types of forest activity spaces. Thus, this study aims to identify the relationship between children's developmental play activity and the physical characteristics of forest activity spaces for evidence-based design. First of all, indicators for Cognitive-Social play(CSP) was selected and forest spaces were categorize into play facility spaces and forest spaces. More detailed environmental characteristics of each space were 'play area' and 'paving materials' for play facilities and 'density of tree and shrub', 'slope', 'paving materials' and 'fixing and type of natural loose parts' for forest space. Through environmental inventory and behavior observation, the types of play behaviors and the occurrence frequency of children aged four to five were collected and analyzed. The results were as follows: 1) In play facility spaces, play behaviors occurred at a high frequency at the facility playground with play facilities and sand area. In terms of CSP, functional-solitary and functional-parallel plays occurred predominantly. 2) In forest spaces, various play behaviors occurred at high frequency in the environment with low density planting and various natural loose parts. For CSP, functional-group and symbolic-group plays occurred at a high frequency. 3) Symbolic-group play appeared to be highly affected by environmental characteristics like tree area of scatter density or less, 10~20 degree slope, and the presence of fixed large stumps. In conclusion, this study provides standards of physical environmental characteristics for forest activity space design through direct observation and analysis of children's play behaviors.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.1-13
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• 2019

This study is to derive a design alternative to the FECC (Forest Experience Center for Children) that meets the preschooler's preferences. For this purpose, preschooler participation is included in each phase of the FECC, the site perception phase, the deriving design elements phase, and the deriving design alternative phase. In this study, the process of the deriving design alternative phase was carried out with kindergarteners and preschoolers (6, 7 years olds; all 41 students) at Songsan-mulbit FECC in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. In order to derive the design alternatives, three detailed design processes (preschooler participation 2 times, researcher analysis 1 time), tool construction, and a preschooler participation workshop were conducted. The results of this study are as follows. First, as a result of the preschooler's design process, 41 designs were drawn, and an average of 7.66 spaces were drawn by each preschooler. The 6-year-old males designed the least (average 6.80 spaces) and the 7-year-old females designed the most (9.0 spaces). The physical and adventure play spaces were most common (38.9% to 48.7%) regardless of gender or age. To analyze the feasibility of the preschooler's design using a base map, the appearance of the physical environmental characteristics (7 items) in the site were analyzed in each of the 41 designs. As a result, the environmental characteristics were apparent a total 72 times overall. Similar environmental characteristics appearing more than once were apparent in 87.8% (26 designs) of designs. Second, three design alternatives were derived: APS- types (intensive planning of active play facility spaces) was presented in 15 designs, NS-types (planning focused on nature spaces) was presented in 14 designs, and SPS-types (planning focused on static play facility spaces) were presented 12 designs. Third, NS-type, which were finally selected through a preference assessment (5-point scale) and a comparative assessment of the three alternatives, has mainly natural spaces (forest space, forest path, shelter, natural exploration space, and ecological pond) and active play facility spaces, water play space and soil (sand) play spaces was appropriately designed. Therefore, the NS-type was analyzed as the design alternative that can fully accomplish all types of cognitive development through developed through play (functional play, constructive play, dramatic(symbolic) play).