Child Care Design Guide [Hardcover]

Olds Anita Rui (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0070474494 | ISBN-13: 978-0070474499 | Publication Date: November 20, 2000 | Edition: 1

A-Z's for designing superior day care facilities

Virtually unknown 30 years ago, daycare has become a growth industry. Child Care Design Guide helps architects and designers plan, design, and renovate functional, developmentally rich, pleasing centers. Author Anita Rui Olds brings to this work over 25 years of design experience with children's facilities. She gives you step-by-step explanations of interior and exterior layout and design principles fleshed out in clarifying case studies. You learn about licensing and code requirements, operational standards and strategies, and get helpful checklists, charts and graphs for optimum facility design within time, space, and budgetary constraints. This highly visual work features over 300 floor plans for infant and toddler, preschool, and afterschool spaces, plus areas for outdoor play and more. (20010501)

Editorial Reviews

Review

CHILD CARE DESIGN GUIDE by Anita Rui Olds

This new resource guide is the compiled works of the late Anita Rui Olds. Anita held a doctorate in Human Development and Social Psychology from Harvard University and was the founder and director of The Child Care Institute, an annual training program for designers and child-care profesionals. Her firm, Anita Olds & Associates, amassed over 30 years of experience in the design of children's environments. In addition, Anita was on the advisory council of the ECO Institute.

The book contains the principles of interior and exterior layout and design for child care centers, beginning with an explanation of the important facets of a child environment. Fully developed ideas and solutions for effective design processes, intelligent overall center design, and efficient layout of dedicated, as well as over 550 floor plans, drawings, photographs, charts, and illustrations. (Earthworm, newsletter of Early Childhood Outdoors Institute )

About the Author

Anita Rui Olds (Woodacre, CA) holds a doctorate from Harvard University and has taught since 1969 at Tufts University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her firm Anita Olds and Associates has more than 25 years of experience in the design of children's environmental facilities, including daycare, hospitals, playgrounds, and schools. She is widely published and makes frequent presentations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (November 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070474494
• ISBN-13: 978-0070474499
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long awaited, exceeds expectations, December 24, 2000

By 

Dana Wiser (Community Playthings, Rifton, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Child Care Design Guide (Hardcover)

Preeminent authority on design for child care, Anita Rui Olds consummated a lifetime of deep concern and research into the needs of children with the publication of this magnum opus. Lavish use of illustrations--photos, sketches, floor plans, and examples--and attractive layout support Ms. Olds's incisive text to create a remarkably accessible book. Many hundreds of child care professionals and architects who have studied under Ms. Olds will recognize and welcome this work as the summation of the concepts that placed the author at the forefront of her field.

More and more children are in institutional care and, "in search of a model," day care typically happens in society's "leftover" spaces, church basements, warehouses, and places intended for adults. This book will help anyone committed to doing better for our children to "see that young children are raised in nurturing, spirited settings that honor their precious young souls." (from the introduction)

The book's only drawback is technical as the reproduction of photographs is of disappointing quality.

Tragically, Anita Olds did not live to see this book published. We can be thankful that she left it for us, full of her passion for children. In its use we will honor her spirit as we effect her designs.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Resource, February 17, 2002

By 

Jim Greenman, Bright Horizons Family Solution... (Minneapolis, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Child Care Design Guide (Hardcover)

This is a terrific and necessary resource for anyone involved with the design or renovation of a child care setting. The author has clearly and concisely poured into the book her considerable knowledge and understanding of child care facilities, her passionate beliefs, and her attention to the details of good design. Her knowledge of child development is evident in all of her ideas.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Resource!!, August 1, 2003

By 

dauba (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Child Care Design Guide (Hardcover)

Worth every dime!!! Anita Rui Olds has incredible insight into creating environments that are reflective of children and their interests. She believes that a child care setting should have "spirit." Included are Reggio-type environmental solutions that create a sense of wonder with an architecturally aesthetic sensibility. Lots of great ideas packed into this book. Only regret is that the pictures are too small and not in color. Would have been worth extra [$$] to have an expanded edition.