“Barndom og arkitektur – Rum til danske børn i 300 år”.

The purpose of this book is to examine aspects relating to the physical space in childhood history. By describing everyday rooms and their significance, the author aims to elucidate changes in notions of the happy childhood over time as well as the societal expectations, norms and values regarding the rooms.

The study shows that rooms for children are a result of social, aesthetic and cultural processes, and that the different attitudes to children, their development and physical frameworks are expressed in these rooms. The study describes the historical development of our view of the child, and how our view of the child has changed from a focus on hygiene in the early 20th century to a focus on rooms built in the child’s scale after WW2. In the past 20 years, buildings have continued to be built in the child’s scale, and at the same time they are intended to support the individual child’s development whether for learning, care or play. Rooms are built for competent children to support their development and learning. This is done by building flexible and functionally divided institutions, in which the children have space to adapt, together or by themselves.

Architectural drawings, articles, memos and other documents together with photos taken by the photographer Bygholm make up the material analysed. The book includes more than 260 examples which have all been described in order to illustrate trends in our view of the child.

Coninck-Smith, N.d. & Bygholm, J. (2011). “Barndom og arkitektur – Rum til danske børn i 300 år”. Århus: Forlaget Klim.