For children, the Chinese New Year festival will leave many good childhood memories when they invite friends and play freely in the streets and alleys.
The construction of child-friendly cities has been a hot topic in recent years, and the number of playgrounds of all kinds in cities is increasing at a rate that is visible to the naked eye. Children's play spaces have largely changed from unfettered streets and alleys to playgrounds surrounded by fences. While this change has provided safe spaces and facilities for children, the construction of children's playgrounds should not be the only strategy for creating a child-friendly city. How to create a play space that meets the physical and mental characteristics of different children and an interactive experience that meets the growth characteristics of children of different ages is the key to the exploration of child-friendly city construction.
In this review, we invite Dr. Yuqing He, a New Zealand-based landscape architect, to share her child-friendly practices in the Lraleston community. As a mother, she constantly observes and thinks about what kind of community space should children spend their childhood in, and how to respect and be close to children's lives, so that children can truly participate in the process of community building.
(Host of this issue: Liu Yichen)
Recent review
From playgrounds to placemaking: child-friendly cities take a step further
Engage: Redefining Child-Friendly Spaces
Our home in New Zealand is in the small town of Rolleston, a key development centre in Selwyn Province, home to the Selwyn Natatorium, Gymnasium and the largest library.
The Rolleston Community Library has a community garden designed and built by students from nine local elementary schools. Completed two years ago, this playful outdoor space has become a popular outdoor reading and interaction space for local residents.
The small grounds are a clever mix of colourful and childlike decorative masts and floor tiles, as well as vegetable gardens, fruit trees and children's art exhibits, each of which is full of fun to explore and discover.
The Community Garden at the Rolleston Community Library. All images in this article are provided by the author
The garden is not just an outdoor playground for children, but also for all ages, both adults and children to enjoy it equally. At the center of the site are nine decorative masts, each completed by students from a different local elementary school, with nameplates representing their respective schools displayed in front. The unique design makes the garden a visual focal point for the community, a highlight for residents to stay and enjoy.
The mast displays a colourful pattern that incorporates the motto and values of each school, such as the words 'Hope, Excellence, Love and Peace', as well as hand-in-hand figures that symbolize precious human connections, characteristic totems of Māori culture, and iconic flora and fauna that represent the ecology of the Selwyn region.
The small garden is also designed with the needs of special populations in mind. For example, on the east side of the nine decorative columns, there are two areas designed with the participation of children with special needs. Because of the particularity of physical conditions, some groups have different needs for the environment. For example, landscape architect Dylan Robinson recognized that a noisy environment could cause too much stimulation to the sensitive senses of people with autism, causing them to generally avoid traveling to busy areas of the city center. With this understanding in mind, the city invited students from Rolleston's Waitaha Special Education School as consultants to provide advice to help create a public space that is freely accessible to all.
A circular path is specially designed in the garden where children with autism are able to freely perform repetitive movements, such as endless laps, in a safe environment. In the center of one of the circular areas, a mosaic designed by local artist Raewyn Beaver is designed to provide children with special needs with a familiar element of comfort and ease of tension that may arise from an unfamiliar environment. This community garden is not only a place for recreation, but also a platform for community cohesion and creativity, reflecting the shared commitment of the residents of Ralleston to building an inclusive, interactive and vibrant community.
A mosaic loop path designed for children with autism in a community park.
Everyday life: a new perspective on child-friendliness
New Zealand has been making various attempts to become a child-friendly city. In addition to the above examples of children being involved in the design and creation of community spaces, planners are also taking a closer look at urban planning and construction strategies. They believe that there is a need to create more free and safe spaces for children to explore and play independently, and to use urban spaces more safely and comfortably in the larger scale of urban life. This is not only for the health and well-being of children, but also for a more equitable and inclusive society.
Wellington, New Zealand's Safe Routes to School programme is a prime example of this. The plan aims to provide children with safe routes to walk and cycle to school, improve traffic safety facilities by adding sidewalks and bike lanes, and provide traffic safety education to reduce dependence on cars and promote environmental protection.
Wellington's Safe Routes to School setting site. Image from the project's official website
The plan is a real focus on children's safety in the details of their daily lives, and is a solid step towards achieving the big goals of environmental sustainability and community inclusion. Wellington is moving closer to becoming a true child-friendly city with concrete actions.
Think: Environmental Equity in the Deeper Meaning of Child-Friendly
Child-friendly is not just about providing playground equipment for children, it is also about environmental justice at its core. This means that children should have the same rights as adults to enjoy urban space. Children should not be confined to playgrounds, they have the right to grow and explore in every corner of the city.
Children playing freely in the streets and alleys. Image from the official website of the Dutch non-profit organization BYCS
Environmental equity means ensuring that children have their place not only in physical space, but also in the city's social, cultural and decision-making systems, in the construction of child-friendly cities. This requires going beyond traditional playground thinking to consider how children interact with the urban environment as a whole, ensuring that their needs and rights are taken seriously and integrated into every aspect of urban development.
The place of children in urban planning and design decisions is also an important indicator of child-friendliness. According to UNICEF's guidelines, child-friendly cities should take children's views into account in the planning process and, where appropriate, make them part of the decision-making process. This approach not only promotes an urban environment that is more responsive to children's needs, but also helps to develop children's awareness and ability to participate in society.
A children's activity space that incorporates abundant natural elements. The image is from the official website of Environmental Design Group, an American civil engineering company
No amount of flashy multi-purpose play equipment can hide the loss of children's power to control the space. In playgrounds, children's activities are limited by space and facilities, and they are deprived of the opportunity to participate and explore freely in natural and community settings. This loss not only limits children's physical activity, but also their imagination and creativity.
The natural schooling scene in New Zealand. Image from Chive, a New Zealand charity platform
Therefore, the two examples of child-friendly cities mentioned above are not only the physical transformation of urban space, but also the reshaping of urban culture and values. When we put children's needs and well-being at the heart of urban planning, we not only create a more welcoming and supportive environment for children, but also improve the quality of life for the entire community.
By focusing on children's daily lives and radically improving their quality of life, we are not just building a city, but also nurturing future citizens and shaping a more harmonious and sustainable society.
(Text/He Yuqing, Doctor of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Designer)
This week's theme recommendation
Child-Friendly Cities in China
Based on the case studies of child-friendly cities in Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Changsha, Chengdu, Nanjing and other places, the book systematically describes the spatial construction system of child-friendly cities, and provides experience and guidance in the process of exploring child-friendly cities in recent years based on the environmental characteristics of different cities.
Book |
The author observes that when children visit art museums, they are often asked not to touch or run, but to listen quietly through the glass. In order to enhance children's interactive experience, he launched the iSTART Children's Art Festival project, which awakens children's perception and desire to explore, so that children's curation can go out of the art museum and into schools and communities, and stimulate children's unlimited creativity and free expression.
Children and the Play Environment
By summarizing the changes in the play space in the city in the past 20 years, analyzing the current situation of children's play activities, observing the utilization and planning of urban parks, thinking about how to create a child-friendly play environment, solving the problems of safety, health and comfort, etc., and comparing the game environment of various countries and the development stage of using play equipment for play activities, the author conducted a cross-domain analysis on enhancing the interactive experience and participation of games.
"The City in Sight" Children's Edition
Childhood is full of curiosity and exploration, and urban landscapes often limit the space for children to interact with the environment. Based on interviews and direct observations, the book reflects on the different preferences of boys and girls in the streets of the community, and provides suggestions on how to create a community culture and enhance a sense of belonging.
Designing Child-Friendly High-Density Communities
The book focuses on how to provide safe spaces and travel routes for children in high-density communities. By building a car-free community, we can create a wider and more free place for children to play, by designing playable streets to meet children's social and interactive needs, and by creating rocks and logs that can be climbed, children can get close to nature and stimulate their imagination.
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