Category Archives: Play spaces

On playgrounds, play areas, play spaces

My new book ‘Urban Playground’: Sneak peek and seasonal discounted price

Posted on December 14, 2020 | 13 comments

Urban Playground book coverI am delighted to share news that my forthcoming book Urban Playground: How child-friendly planning and design can save cities, is available to pre-order from the RIBA website here.

The book opens with an overview of urban planning and children, setting out why the topic matters. A working definition of child-friendly urban planning (familiar to readers of this blog) is set out in Chapter 2.

2 dimensions of child-friendly cities imageChapter 3 looks in detail at Rotterdam, the city that has arguably devoted more time, money and energy to the approach than any other, and whose investment is grounded in hard-nosed economic priorities.

The geographical scope is expanded in Chapter 4, with case studies and precedents from a dozen or so cities around the world, from post-Communist Tirana to post-industrial Antwerp, from tropical Recife to Nordic Oslo, from historic Ghent to high-tech Vancouver (also taking in my home city of London).

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Posted in Child-friendliness, Mobility, Play spaces, playground, Public policy, Public space, Urban planning, Urbanism

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Why one city is undergoing a child-friendly revolution

Posted on June 25, 2019 | 2 comments

Why would a mayor decide that talking about children is the best way to fix a fast-growing, underfunded, polluted city whose people have a deep distrust for politicians? I spent a week in Tirana last month trying to answer this question.

The Tirana context
First, some context. Tirana, the capital of Albania, is a city of around 1/2 million people (double that figure if you include the wider region). Physically, the city has both Eastern Bloc and Southern European qualities. The city centre is spacious and ordered, taking in wide boulevards, grand squares and buildings, and pleasant parks and green spaces.

Skanderbeg Square, Tirana city centre

Skanderbeg Square, Tirana city centre

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Posted in Child-friendliness, Mobility, Play spaces, playground, Public policy, Urban planning, Urbanism

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How to build cities fit for children

Posted on April 30, 2019 | 9 comments

After decades on the margins, child-friendly urban planning and design is emerging into the mainstream. What does this mean for children, for cities, and crucially for the decision-makers and professionals who will shape the futures of both?

My new report Building Cities Fit for Children gives perhaps the first overview of the decisions and programs of those cities that are at the forefront of the movement to reshape their neighbourhoods with children and families in mind. Based on my Churchill Fellowship travels in Europe and Canada, the report takes as its starting point not what I think cities should be doing, nor what agencies like UNICEF are promoting, but what leading cities have actually done. Continue reading →

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Posted in Child-friendliness, Mobility, Play spaces, Public policy, Public space, Urban planning, Urbanism

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Save Emdrup Adventure Playground | Love Outdoor Play

Posted on February 4, 2016 | 5 comments

I was lucky enough to visit Emdrup – the world’s first adventure playground –  on a study visit to Copenhagen in 2003, and I still remember its relaxed, low-tech, quietly self-assured ambience. It would be tantamount to a crime against children’s culture to stand by and see its spirit die as a result of bureaucratic whim.

Emdrup, 2003. Photo credit: Ben Spencer

Emdrup, 2003. Photo credit: Ben Spencer

Please do what you can. You can support the campaign by writing to Dorthe Rasmussen Kjær at dk@rysensteen.dk. More details are in the reblogged post.

You may want to highlight why it matters for children and young people of widely differing ages to be given the chance to play together. US psychologist Peter Gray has good things to say on this [pdf link].

For more on the adventure playground model and the debt it owes to Emdrup, see this 2014 Guardian article.

Hats off to Play England for sharing news of this campaign. And a hat-tip to Alex Smith at Playgroundology for prompting me to include the contact details here.

Please note the title of the blog post that follows has a typo: the correct Danish word is ‘Skrammellegepladsen’ (translation: junk playground).

Source: Save Skrammelselegepladsen i Emdrup | Love Outdoor Play

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Posted in Outdoor play, play, Play spaces, playground

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Playful urban spaces: a lesson from Bilbao

Posted on October 1, 2014 | 10 comments

I was in Bilbao a few weekends ago and spent several evenings in Plaza Nueva, a square in the old town and a popular weekend meeting place for local people. While grown-ups enjoyed drinks and tapas (or to use the Basque term, pintxos) in bars under the elegant colonnades, the central area was humming with children playing. Ball games, scooter races, chalk-picture-drawing, heely tricks (remember Heelys?) and chit-chat were just some of what was in the mix.

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Posted in Play spaces, Public space, Urbanism

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The wobbly bridge revisited, or the problem with playground standards

Posted on April 29, 2013 | 14 comments

3 boys in playground, one falling off a beamIn my last post, I used the example of a wobbly bridge to highlight why it is hard to manage risk in play spaces. I promised to say more about the role of equipment standards in managing risk, and why they need to be rethought. This post delivers on that promise.

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Posted in Outdoor play, Play spaces, playground, Public policy, Risk

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