KIDS IN SPACE: Green Depot

KIDS IN SPACE: Documenting the child's perspective of architectural design.

#1 - GREEN DEPOT






PANEL COMMENTARY

ARCHITECT: At only 19 months of age, Wyatt is still free of the socially constructed barriers we see all around us on a day-to-day basis as adults. Some of these pictures illustrate how the intuitive explorations of a child could certainly help designers critique these invisible barriers as superfluous (crawling in a small space) to necessary (toilet explorations). –Caleb Mulvena, Studio Mapos

EDUCATOR: From the child's perspective the space seems full of possibility for exploration. The bold colors and arrangement of displays invites them in to touch and investigate. Smaller areas combined with open spaces draw the child to specific areas allowing them to become more intimately involved in the space and the displays. –Rachael Skinner, Special Educator and Conductor

PARENT: Wyatt has a natural curiosity and a knack for finding trouble -- hence the wires and the toilet. Wish I could say that seeing him doing this was isolated to the location, but it's actually an everyday occurrence. If it's dirty or dangerous, he's there. –Laura Kenney, Wyatt’s Mom

PHOTOGRAPHER: Child logic is curious; it literally marks the flow of curiosity. I often wonder what would happen if more people could be counted on to maintain the same level of curiosity into adulthood - would design then need to account for it in order to achieve sophistication? –Sarah Sloboda

Autumnal Moments

This year in New York City, autumn has been gorgeous!


In years past, I noticed that the trees in NYC would stay green until Thanksgiving and then be suddenly bare. This year, fall slowly but surely turned leaves yellow then orange and red, at a pace slow enough to be relished and delighted in. Rainy days have alternated with sunny, and the temperature has fluctuated from cool to mild. All in all, a perfectly quintessential fall!

Not only was I able to take several of my clients to the park for their child's yearly portrait session on some of the more radiant afternoons of the season, I have also made time to capture the brilliance of the leaves on rainy days, too. While rain isn't any good for shooting portraits, the overcast sky makes for extraordinarily vivid colors, so I was finding myself enamored with the leaves as they changed colors and scattered themselves on the ground.

These are some images I snapped, inspired by the last burst of fiery life in these plants before they take their well-deserved winter respite, and a shot of a heart-shaped cloud break on a lovely fall morning, just after setting the clocks back for daylight savings.