Volume 15, Issue 10 · IJARST · ISSN 2319-1783 / 2320-1126

Commercial Logic and Structural Mismatches in Child-Centred Design for Chinese Children’s Art Training Centres

Commercial Logic and Structural Mismatches in Child-Centred Design for Chinese Children’s Art Training Centres is an open-access, peer-reviewed research paper by Li Jinyang, Wan Zequn, Nurul Azlen binti Hanifah*, published in Volume 15, Issue 10 of the International Journal of Advanced Research in Science and Technology (IJARST), a UGC-approved journal (Print ISSN 2319-1783, Online ISSN 2320-1126).

Author

Li Jinyang, Wan Zequn, Nurul Azlen binti Hanifah*

Abstract

Commercial children’s art training centres have expanded rapidly across urban China, yet interior design research has paid limited attention to these hybrid spaces. Existing scholarship has concentrated mainly on kindergartens, primary schools and museum learning environments. This article argues that the gap is not simply empirical, but theoretical: commercial art training spaces are produced through retail real-estate logic, storefront visibility, replicable fit-out templates and fee-paying parents’ aesthetic expectations, all of which can systematically reshape the conditions under which child-centred design is interpreted and implemented. Drawing on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Vygotsky’s account of environment as a learning scaffold, Erikson’s theory of socio-emotional development, Gibson’s theory of affordance, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model, the article develops a six-part analytical framework for child-centred spatial design. It then identifies five forms of structural mismatch between this framework and the commercial production of children’s art training spaces. These mismatches are treated as predictable effects of commercial constraints rather than as the failures of individual designers, institutions or parents. The article further proposes a mixed-methods empirical strategy through which the framework can be tested in future field research. Its contribution is threefold: it clarifies the theoretical content of child-centred design in commercial educational environments; it explains how commercial logic becomes a constitutive variable in spatial production; and it advances the concept of market-aware child-centred design as a basis for future design research and practice.

Keywords: child-centred design; commercial educational environments; children’s learning environments; spatial affordance; commercialisation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62226/ijarst20262842

 

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DOI

10.62226/ijarst20262842

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How do you cite this paper?

Li Jinyang, Wan Zequn, Nurul Azlen binti Hanifah* — “Commercial Logic and Structural Mismatches in Child-Centred Design for Chinese Children’s Art Training Centres.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Science and Technology (IJARST), Volume 15, Issue 10. DOI: 10.62226/ijarst20262842.

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