Beyond Survival: An architecture for the wellbeing of vulnerable children

Millions of children in India miss out on their childhood because of poverty. Children living in poverty in India have no access to education and cannot afford to experience the joy of play due to the lack of basic needs. The development of the body and mind is stunted when a child is deprived of basic needs. Therefore, poverty at a young age can have a significant impact on the physical and psychological wellbeing of children. Therefore, this thesis aims at focusing on children living in poverty and their wellbeing.

This thesis aims to address the issue by investigating how culturally inspired architecture can facilitate engagement in education and promote a meaningful development of children living in poverty in India by encouraging and celebrating play and playfulness. This design-led-research thesis investigation seeks possible architectural solutions that can create a fun and playful learning environment.

The thesis proposes to develop an architectural alternative by selecting and critically analysing theoretical material and case studies on educational architecture that has a playful learning environment. The thesis aims to focus on three main concepts, Culture, play and Pedagogy to investigate How play and culture can be implemented into the design of an educational architecture.

The thesis will also carry out design experimentations using multiple research techniques such as narrative, experimental, simulation and modelling to explore how playful and creative spaces can be implemented within a culturally inspired architecture to facilitate engagement in education. Each of these research techniques will be used depending on the different stages of the thesis.