The Role of Playgrounds in Children’s Cultural Worlds. Are Playgrounds Redundant in the Urban Environment?

Abstract

As we struggle with the demands of rapidly growing cities, the needs of our youngest citizens are being ignored. Due to how space is allocated in cities today, playground space has decreased. The loss of playground space denies children their right to play freely. This paper argues for a reconceptualisation of play space and for cross-disciplinary collaboration to get us there. Documentation of playgrounds from Europe and the US was used to outline the changes in playground design since the start of the 20th century. The concept of free play was assessed by reviewing literature and theories of diverse disciplines such as sociology, education, and cognitive developmental psychology to understand its role in children’s cultural world and well-being. The philosophical works of Foucault, Hobbes, and Rousseau were included to define the notion of childhood in the reflection of the values of different times. Building regulations from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany were considered to understand legal planning requirements for playgrounds and their relevance for urban space allocation. The findings show that playground design has been diverse over time while its purpose remained unchanged. Unsupervised outdoor play is an essential element that creates children’s culture and alters culture as such. Apart from having health consequences and impacting their cultural capital, the lack of contact with nature-related playground space has a detrimental impact on children’s social development and deprives them of agency. The paper concludes that changes in procedures for authorities and architectural education are necessary to generate improvements. A cross-disciplinary collaborative approach is suggested to understand children's needs and devise solutions addressing the challenges in architecture and planning.