The Effect of Natural Environment on Children's Creativity

The effect of natural environment on child’s mind is one of the main issues in his/her life. Studies show that the childhood is the best time for the formation of personality and this time plays an important role in human life. Besides, Children’s environment is an effective factor on children development formation. It is suggested that through interaction with physical and social environment, children learn different knowledge and experiences. A review of findings also shows that physically and non-physically, environment influences on child’s creativity. According to the studies, Human beings considerably have creative ability which can be flourished by encouraging, providing opportunities and training while natural or built children’s environments are the most important factors in developing their creativity. Environment effects on children, their personality and creativity in different forms. Many researchers argued that children’s ability, developed perceptual skills, imagination and expressive skills is greatly improved by their relations with nature. Studies also found a link between play in natural environments and developed creativity. Many studies also support this idea that linking with nature can have positive effect on mental health and stress reduction. This relation may extend from plants and animals to inanimate objects such as streams, beaches, and wind. Also, link with nature occurs at many built environments scales, such as planting in buildings, windows views, biophilic building design, community gardens, and parks and green spaces. The purpose of this study is to review the recognition of natural environmental features which are effective for children’s creativity, and also to use them as a model to design the built environment for children. Built environment can influence on children’s creativity by not only the physical aspects, but also through its psychological organizations. The importance of this issue is noticed in the cities which emphasis advancing technology and living conditions without paying attention to the benefits of relations with nature. Meanwhile, this paper tries to find out: which features of the natural environment have positive effects on children’s creativity and which solutions can be derived from natural environment in designing the built environment for children, to enhance their creativity? This paper has been performed, based on a descriptive – analytical method and new research findings in the field of environmental psychology and architecture. The environmental psychological field profoundly studies the human psychological relations with the natural environment.
This research area is based on numerous experimental studies and less speculative than the just-mentioned modularity thesis. One of the main topics of environmental psychology is the study of different emotional states in individuals. So, this paper reviews the opinions of prestigious researchers, and the relationship between them. To gather the required information, articles, studies, reports and related documents (the library documents) were used. The extracted results of the studies indicate that there are characteristics in childhood which increase creativity in children by stimulating. The literature suggests that imagination, curiosity, and play have an important role in the child’s creativity. It is said that child’s imagination is the basis of his creativity. Children have amazing imagination that child’s imagination is the basis of his creativity. Children have amazing imagination that reaches its peak at the age of 4-7 years, and with this imagination, they can change facts according to what is inside them. Curiosity, which is the dynamic key in learning, is another feature that can increase creativity in person. This feature causes children to explore and understand the space and stimulate their imagination. Playing is also effective for promoting children’s creativity. It is the primary mechanism through which children become familiar with their environment. Also the extracted results of the studies indicates that natural environments with structural features such as Coherence, Legibility, Mystery and Complexity influence on children’s mental health and their creativity. Also, regarding to the children and their environment, it can be concluded that, natural environments with features such as a variety of shapes, lines, textures, colors, high contrast, complicated details, stimulating the senses and motivation are the best environment for development of children’s creativity. Then, based on these features, environmental factors that enhance children’s creativity can be derived. These environmental factors can be used in children built environment to foster children’s creativity.