The Impact of Landmarks on Children’s Way-Finding in between Home and School

Way finding is an important dilemma for children in especially when they are walking from home to their educational environments. There are different solutions for helping them find their way to their schools which is one of the essential spaces where they spend most of their time. In this way, architecture plays an important role in children’s way finding. Therefore, different architectural principles and elements can be employed in order to create better spaces in which children are able to find their way more easily. This research is an attempt to examine the role of landmarks on the children’s way finding on the way from home to educational spaces. Porpoise one hundred and seventy students have been interviewed (eighty-four boys, eighty-six girls) in a primary school in Nicosia and Famagusta, North Cyprus. The research questions if architectural landmarks have any effect on wayfinding at children from school to home and which landmark from is more effective and whether preference change according to gender the study clarifies the percentage of students considering archıtecture landmark as an influential factor in spatial perception based on their gender. Keywords: Children, cognition, Way finding, Home to Educational routes, Architectural landmarks