Our company believes that high quality, developmentally appropriate facilities are created through what is called concurrent design. Concurrent design means pulling together all the experts who design the facility and those who operate it at the same time. Program goals, curriculum, children's needs, staff needs and parents' needs drive the concurrent design process. Other issues that need to be examined at the front end of the process are furniture and equipment and developmental and operating costs prior to designing the physical space. Everything impacts everything.
Function is examined in the process prior to looking at form.
For example, many programs such as Head Start encourage parents to work in the classroom. Parent participation may necessitate more classroom square footage than state licensing standards require. State licensing requirements are only minimums and not necessarily quality standards. Outdoor areas designed for the inner city may have different durability and vandalism issues than an outdoor area in a rural area. Another example is that some cultural considerations will influence the design process.