authors: Marіana Drobotenko, Hanna Korzh
Relevance of the research. Contemporary transformations in education require a reconsideration of educational space beyond its functional and technological modernization. In the context of digitalization and hybrid learning formats, it becomes necessary to interpret spatial design not merely as a technical or aesthetic solution, but as an anthropologically significant factor influencing the formation of children’s subjectivity and life-creative experience.
Problem statement. A contradiction arises between the rapid implementation of innovative spatial solutions and the insufficient philosophical reflection on their impact on the child’s mode of being. The influence of architectural, technological, and symbolic components of educational space on autonomy, communication, and embodied-sensory experience remains insufficiently conceptualized.
Analysis of recent research and publications. The theoretical framework of the study draws upon the idea of the relationship between experience and environment developed by John Dewey, the phenomenological understanding of lived space articulated by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the symbolic interpretation of culture proposed by Ernst Cassirer, the critical analysis of institutional space elaborated by Michel Foucault, and the communicative approach formulated by Jürgen Habermas. However, an integrative model that synthesizes these perspectives in relation to children’s life-creativity is still lacking.
Research task. The aim of the article is to substantiate a concept of educational space as a multidimensional environment that supports children’s life-creative activity and subjectivity, integrating physical, social, and digital dimensions.
Main material presentation. The article argues that educational space should be understood as an active factor in shaping children’s experience. The principles of flexibility, transformability, and children’s participation in organizing the environment are justified as conditions for fostering autonomy and creativity. Special attention is given to embodied and sensory experience, as well as to communicative openness as a prerequisite for social interaction. The risks of digital fragmentation are outlined, emphasizing the need to maintain a balance between virtual and direct interaction.
Conclusions. Educational space is interpreted as an existentially significant dimension of child development. Its design should be grounded in anthropological and phenomenological principles that promote subjectivity, social responsibility, and creative potential. Further research perspectives are associated with interdisciplinary elaboration of the concept of space as an environment of life-creativity.
Keywords: educational space, philosophy of design, childhood, subjectivity, life-creativity, hybrid environment.
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