SYMBIOSIS

Primary School Interior Design for Children with ADHD

“Environment is Stronger than Willpower.”1

COMMENSALISM describes one of three types of Symbiosis. It is described as “an association between two organisms in which one benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm.”
ANALOGY
The analogy interwoven throughout, to illustrate this meaning will be a bird and a tree. Where ‘bird’ represents the Student, and ‘tree’ represents the Classroom. The bird nesting in the tree is considered a “prolonged interaction”, as does a student maintain a prolonged interaction with their classroom. Where “one [organism] benefits and the other derives neither benefit nor harm,” the tree continues its process of photosynthesis and the bird’s presence has no effect on the tree. In this case, the structure of the tree is the stabilising force in the bird’s existence. So too with discovery through inquiry and design, it is intended that the classroom becomes the stabilising force in the student’s existence.
The intention is that the design of the classroom(s) must be able to provide similar emotional and psychological ‘nourishment’,” allowing the time and space for the student’s learning to flourish, within a structure that protects the learning of the student.

Western Gerigone

There is a bird that carries a generic Greek name that means “born of sound.” Gerygone, pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Their song is “sweet, elfin, silvery ‘falling leaf’ that seems to finish before end.” (Pizzey and Knight 2007, 366) It is this song I associate with children with ADHD. It is a tone which, if played on a piano, would bounce on the black keys, with a tune that is seemingly random and without purpose, yet delightful.

Selected Pages

The model for the images below has been created in Revit with post production in Illustrator and Photoshop (Adobe Suite).

1 Paramahansa Yogananda