Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 12(1), pp. 252 - 268
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2024.120120
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Revealing Elementary Students' Architectural Spatial Image of Their School Through Visual Language Reading

Astrid Austranti Yuwono ^1,2,*, Purnama Salura ¹, Karyadi Kusliansjah ^1
1 Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Indonesia
² Faculty of Art and Design, Universitas Kristen Maranatha, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Children's point of view about places is different from adults', thus there is a need to examine their preferences of place according to their activities as the foundation to reveal the architectural spatial image of their school. Unfortunately, the research on architecture spatial image as the relation between preferred places and activities children have in their mind is scarcely being done, especially in the school environment. This research aims to reveal the spatial architecture image of the students about their school environment as the place for their learning activities. Therefore, the benefit of the research is the findings that have the potential to be developed into open design criteria of each learning activities category, as a concern to all stakeholders related to primary level education, namely school administrators, school building designers, and school building standard decision makers. This research discusses using visual language to read drawings of 9-11-year-old students from two primary schools to identify significant spatial qualities. The architectural properties and compositions of the significant elements will be read to reveal their spatial quality as the base for the interpretation of participants' architectural spatial image of the school concerning the activities. Participants respond to some instructions about preferred places by visualizing them freely through drawings, followed by semi-structured interviews as a confirmation and clarification process. The school's teachers are also being asked for the same instructions based on their observations of students' daily activities. The research analysis revealed that participants' preferred places based on learning activities have significant spatial qualities named insideness and centricity. Each of the learning activities types has different architectural spatial images, such as a place that has a definite space with specific arrangement, orientation, and closure; a place that has enough space to gather, and that has details as the identity of the place; a place that has the vocal point according to the activities; and a place that has a spacious area that allows one to move freely. The implications of these findings are open for the development of the standardization of primary school buildings.

KEYWORDS
Architecture, Children, Preliminary School, School Buildings, Spatial Image, Visual Language

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Astrid Austranti Yuwono , Purnama Salura , Karyadi Kusliansjah , "Revealing Elementary Students' Architectural Spatial Image of Their School Through Visual Language Reading," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 252 - 268, 2024. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2024.120120.

(b). APA Format:
Astrid Austranti Yuwono , Purnama Salura , Karyadi Kusliansjah (2024). Revealing Elementary Students' Architectural Spatial Image of Their School Through Visual Language Reading. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 12(1), 252 - 268. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2024.120120.