Richard Mazuch, an architect, the director of Design, Research and Innovation for Arcadis, and the founder of TH!NK – the research and development arm of IBI (with whom Arcadis merged in late 2022), discusses some of the key learnings from paediatric healthcare design – in both physical and mental healtcare settings – for areas such as teaching, and vice-versa.
So, what is Paediatrics, and what is Pedagogy, and how can one better inform the other? Paediatrics is essentially the branch of medicine dealing with the health and medical care of infants, children, and adolescents — from birth up to the age of 18. On the other hand, Pedagogy is simply defined as the method and practice of teaching, which incorporates teaching approaches, teaching theory, feedback, and ultimate assessment. Crucially, healthcare has much to offer multiple sectors in terms of knowledge, child-centric focus, ameliorating outcomes, health/safety guideline documents and wellbeing, best practice, products, insights, design interventions, and legislation. An insight into Paediatrics, physical and mental health development, the 7 ages of childhood, and cerebral and sensory maturation, can usefully help develop more refined education tools and new models of teaching.
Healthcare design tools such as Sense-Sensitive Design, Design Prescription, Emotional Mapping, and the AEDET and ASPECT evaluation toolkits, underpinned by Evidence Based Research, can usefully benefit Pedagogy, as, for example, in the 2023 research paper by Rebecca McLaughlan — 'Engaging young people in architectural research. Three visual methods for understanding the impact of the built environment on children's wellbeing'.
Insights into post-COVID paediatric neurological symptoms and mental health conditions can be of considerable value, as can an intimate understanding of developing neural landscapes in the delivery of new models of teaching such as Neurodidactics and Neuroeducation. Where 'Best to see Best Practice' than in children's hospital schools such as those at GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital), UCH (University College Hospital), and the best CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) units, such as The Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People in London, that assess and treat children and young people with emotional, behavioural /and mental health difficulties, which are so prevalent post-COVID?
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