ANÁLISIS DE DATOS

What was found in the matrices was that the lowest scoring room was a small pediatric rehabilitation therapy/ play room that served both pediatric and teen patients and included an ocean theme. The space did have some biophilic variety; but it was small, windowless, not

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18 20 22 ₁₆

39

30

21

16 19 ₁₅ 19 17 20 21 19 ₁₄

24 25 27 25

15 19 18

N.C. Child Life Play Room Matrix Scores

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recently renovated, served many functions, and would be a greater challenge to offer the same level of variety found in other spaces. The highest scoring room was a very large and spacious play room that offered the most indirect and representational biophilic incorporation, including a large two-story window wall with outdoor access, large salt-water aquarium, views out to a garden, a sandcastle play house, and a sea-shore theme.

The types of attributes found seem very appropriate for pediatric and teen play spaces. The uses of obvious representations of animals for example that may seem too theme like for adult spaces was welcomed in these play spaces and assisted with increasing the presence of the attributes and thus the variety of attributes scored. Variances within the different play rooms’ scores included the highest above-average element, Natural patterns and processes, which was found consistently in every facility. Attributes like bounded spaces occurred in each play room, as they were all self-contained spaces, and sensory variability /informational richness were found in almost all of the spaces with multiple senses usually being documented. This usually included visual variety (color and variety in the choices of toys, for example), tactile variety (with the variance of tactile feature in the materials and toy choices), and auditory variety (usually with music and toys). The individual highest ranking attributes of all of the elements were color (present everywhere) and bounded spaces (all of the play rooms were distinct and separate entities). The next highest was egg, oval, and tubular forms, found commonly in the tubular steel in the chairs and tables, and the next highest was natural materials, which was present in all but two rooms and found in the use of natural wood (wood-looking laminate could not be included). These features are common in the interiors and yet we may not stop to think why they are so often chosen to be brought into the interior environment.

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Variances in below average levels occurred in the element categories of Place-Based Relationships and Human-Nature Relationship (see Appendix G for the full analysis table). This may be because it is easier to design a play room by including representations of animals and plants or other similar representational images than use attributes from these elements. It may not be as easy or may not as quickly come to the designer’s minds the need for a connection to the culture or ecology in a geographical context or the benefit that merging certain biophilic attributes within a space has to offer. Individual attributes out of all the elements that ranked lowest include change and metamorphosis, which was not found in any of the spaces in the combined form of both change and metamorphosis (both needed to be present for this attribute). Also warm light and fire, which can be found together in a real fire, were not in any spaces. The lack of warm or colored lighting was a surprise to the researcher. Only one facility used colored neon and rope lighting that added visual interest to the space, but had cool colors. The use of cooler lighting to accent nature designs with blues and greens in them makes sense, but experimenting with areas of warmer colored lighting may enhance the biophilic presence and may create a zone of play that is more inviting. I think that this is an unexplored design element that may not have wide research attention for its specific integration into play spaces. Fire was not expected to be common, especially in a more southern climate like North Carolina and in a healthcare environment involving children, but is always a source of interest in a space and can be currently found in some healthcare facilities in public areas. It is worth looking at how this feature can be safely included in play spaces. Hierarchically organized ratios and scales were also not identified and were difficult to find in the spaces without more measured details of the space and its features and obvious examples that could have been easily identified were not found. The total absence of plants was also an interesting finding, but in healthcare there have been issues with live plants

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harboring fungus and bacteria, as well as requiring maintenance, which adds to the overall cost. Options like sterilized dirt and safely edible plants may be possibilities for future research. The increase of some of these features may be justified in the future with research supporting their specific inclusion or new ways sought to create safe and proper inclusion of them for children’s spaces.

An interesting finding was that many design features supplied multiple attributes to the space. This allowed these features to increase the biophilic presence and became more significant to supporting biophilia variety in the room than their single attribute counterparts. This supports the product development for future children’s room features and furniture to focus on

experimenting with incorporating multiple attributes and further research documenting their influence.

It was expected and found to be true that the only type of biophilia interaction style present was passive, unless you count active interaction as including playing with the sunlight streaming in or playing in the fresh breeze entering the room, as active interaction requires an immersive experience with nature. The other biophilic presence that varied was the organic or naturalistic dimension, which defines shapes and forms in the built environment, and includes direct, indirect, and symbolic. Day lighting and fresh air were the only direct experiences that do not require human intervention for their presence, while the indirect included the one aquarium, the sinks, use of color, natural materials, and the views of nature. All the other attributes were symbolic nature representations. The opportunity for more of the Environmental features and use of direct and indirect experiences could be added to every play room and provides more existing research-support. The representational features are the easiest to add to an existing room and

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Kellert’s extensive documentation of attributes provides a vast amount of choices for incorporating them.

The use of the matrix was developed in order to assist designers with documenting the existing biophilic features in a space and for help with showing where opportunity for increasing the variety of attributes exists. The results of the play rooms’ matrices were influential in the analysis of these spaces as individual case studies and were aided by the survey responses.