Modifications to the Biophilic Interior Design Matrix are needed to better assess urban interior playspaces for childrenThe Biophilic Interior Design Matrix (BID-M) was developed to assess the presence and absence of biophilic design attributes in indoor spaces. While this tool was tested in spaces for adults and hospital settings for children, its applicability for urban indoor playrooms for children was not tested. The purpose of this study was to do so.
The study focused specifically on urban residential buildings in Manhattan, a borough in New York City. Confining the scope of the study to this one particular neighborhood minimized the influence of socio-cultural context. Residential buildings with indoor playrooms were identified through both in-person and on-line searches. To be included in the study, photographs of the playroom needed to be available online. Forty-five playrooms met the criteria and were included in the study. The BID-M was used to assess the biophilic design attributes of each of these playrooms, as portrayed in the photographs. The number of images available for each playroom ranged from 1 to 4. The design features assessed by the BID-M include environmental features, natural shapes and forms, natural patterns and processes, light and space, place-based relationships, and human-based relationships. In using the BID-M, a number of specific biophilic attributes are assessed in each of these design features, with a total of 52. Coding options for each attribute consists of either “0” (not present) or “1” (present), allowing for a total score of 52. For this study, each playroom was rated by four different coders (three undergraduate psychology students and the researcher). The mean (average) score of the four raters was then used in the data analysis.
Scores for the individual playrooms ranged from 8.75 to 29.50. While the raters were generally in agreement in scoring the matrix items (biophilic attributes), there were a few areas of disagreement. The fact that there were disputed areas suggests that some of the items on the BID-M may need to be removed or modified to make them more suitable for quantifying biophilic features in urban playrooms for children. Based on the biophilic features present in the higher scoring playrooms and highlighted as being “generally important” in the current literature, a schematic of an “ideal” biophilic playroom was developed. This schematic includes “access to natural and warm light, views of exterior vegetation, the use of natural materials (e.g., wood, stone, metal, and paper), operable windows and doors that allow natural air ventilation, interior plants, botanical imagery and animal motifs within the room, representations of rocks or rock formations, open space, and shapes found in nature.”
This study contributes to the literature by identifying areas in which the Biophilic Interior Design Matrix (BID-M) might be modified to reflect more adequately “how children in cities experience nature differently”.
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