Keynote Speech: Child Friendly Place

Child Friendly Place

Workshop on Design Place for Children in Solo, Java Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta

5 August 2009

Learning outcome:

To explore the qualities of child friendly place in city of Solo

1

Ismail Said Dept of Landscape Architecture Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Problems in Cities for Children

•

_{Cities are home to an increasing proportion of the}

world’s children.

•

_{Yet, most cities are largely unfriendly to children.}

•

_{Six out of ten children will live in urban areas in low- and}

middle-income nations by 2025.

•

_{Despite the growing proportion of the world’s children}

living in urban areas, most city authorities remain

ill-equipped to make their cities more child friendly.

•

_{Children are losing the ability to travel on their own or}

Why we need to develop child

friendly city?

•

_{Towns and cities have rich affordances which,}

through children’s exploration, contribute to

their repertoires of widening social and

cognitive worlds (Chatterjee , 2005).

•

_{Cities are places where children’s right to a}

healthy, caring, protective, educative,

stimulating, non-discriminating, inclusive,

culturally rich environment are addressed

(Riggio 2002, 45).

Child Friendly City

•

_{The CFC thus has the promise of making the world a}

better place for many children.

•

_{Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of}

the Child may provide the right of every child to:

–

_{Meet friends and play}

–

_{Have green spaces for plants and animals}

–

_{Walk safely in the streets on their own}

–

_{Express their opinion on the city they want}

Convention on the Rights of the

Child

• _{Respecting children’s views (Article 12): a child friendly city}

promotes the active participation of children, ensuring

children’s freedom to express their views and that their views are given due weight in all matters affecting them.

• _{It does not treat children in isolation from the larger political}

and decision-making process. On the contrary, it integrates their concerns into the larger city managementand planning process (Eliana Riggio, 2002).

• _{Introduce an integrated system of green spaces and play areas}

into the old city area.

Children play beside a railway line where their families have set up makeshift homes.

Play in Cities

•

_{Play is an instinctive and essential part of childhood.}

•

_{Play allows children to work out their emotions.}

•

_{But, design of modern cities has left fewer spaces for}

play.

Children play in a flooded street in Mumbai.

Millions of people were upset by the disaster. It's difficult for the children, but

The Benefits of Play

•

_{Play is essential to development as it contributes to}

the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional

well-being of children and youth.

•

_{Play allows children to use their creativity while}

developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical,

cognitive, and emotional strength.

•

_{As they master their world, play helps children}

develop new competencies that lead to enhanced

confidence and the resiliency they will need to face

future challenges.

Sense of Place

•

_{A sense of place conveys a way in which the setting}

instills itself in the child.

•

_{SOP consists of three phases: the first phase is}

belonging to a place

, the middle phase is

attachment

,

and the third (and most intense) phase is

commitment to a place

(Shamai 1991).

•

_{Through regularly playing outdoors in attractive,}

engaging environments children form emotional and

meaningful bonds with place, which in turn has

positive effects on self identity and esteem.

Sense of Control

Place attachment and Friendship

•

_{Chawla (1992) notes “children are attached to a}

place when they show happiness at being in it

and regret or distress at leaving it, and when

they value it not only for the satisfaction of

physical needs but for its intrinsic qualities” (p.

64).

•

_{Children should be able to form friendship with}

place just as they are attached to favorite

places

Friendship

•

_{Friendship is a process of mutual selection by}

which a child chooses and is simultaneously

chosen by another as a preferred friend (Doll

1996). The essentials of friendship, according

to Hartrup (1991) are reciprocity and

commitment between individuals who

Friendship

Six essential elements across the developmental range of childhood (Doll, 1996):

1. Mutual affection and personal regard, by which each friend demonstrates a caring responsibility for the other (Hinde 1979)

2. Shared interests and activities, representing the friends’ investment of time and intention to have fun together (Hartrup 1989a; Youngiss 1980)

3. Commitment, or the intention on the part of both friends to continue

fostering the relationship over time (Asher 1995; Hartrup 1989a; Hinde et al. 1985)

4. Loyalty, that is the intention of both friends to protect the interest of the other (Hartrup 1989a; Hinde 1979)

5. Self-disclosure and mutual understanding, by which each friend acquires and contributes to an uncommon understanding of the other (Hartrup 1989a) 6. Horizontality, such that friends share power in the relationship (Hartrup

1989a; Hinde 1979)

Place Friendship

•

_{Children share affective relationships with}

favorite places that cater to a range of

developing friendship needs and ideologies.

Children play at an evacuation camp in Datu

Affordances

• _{Affordances are unique to the individual playing child, or}

group of children, and are to some extent unpredictable.

Children play in response to both the objective and subjective qualities of an environment.

• _{Affordances are highly dynamic - different}

features/elements/materials affording different play

experiences for different individuals on different occasions.

• _{The number of affordances increases with complexity of the}

environment.

• _{Through manipulating and changing flexible environments}

through their play, children detect new affordances.

Children displaced by war play on a tree near the town of Gos Beida in eastern Chad

Children play on a destroyed Russian tank in the stronghold of Panjwaii in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, April 10, 2009

Tool, artifact and representation

•

_{Meaningful features of the environment include not}

only affordances but also

tools,

artifacts

and

representations

.

•

_A

_tool

_{is found in the environment and is selected for}

its possibilities for extending and aiding action. An

artifact is a tool that has been designed to carry out

various tasks. The knowledge stored in artifacts is

more than just how they are used as implements. It

also includes knowledge of aspects of daily life,

techniques, social history, and rituals.

Tool, artifact and representation

• _{Representations create possibilities of storing knowledge in}

the inanimate environment. Representations allow

information to be publicly available in a more self-conscious attempt to shape the future of humankind. In the context of child-friendly environments, found tools (naturally-occurring places and attributes) and artifacts (specially designed places and attributes) have potential affordances which, when

actualized by children, will result in place knowledge.

Constructions by children in the environment such as dens, pondok, and play forts, and other conscious attempts to

define special places, such as graffiti and inscriptions, provide representations of their territories.

Friendly Place

•

_{Children are attached to favorite places}

because they get relaxation, feeling calm, and

clearing their minds (Korpela, 1992).

•

_{The places also provide beauty, sense of}

control, security, freedom of expression and

escape from social pressures.

Qualities of Friendly Place

• _{In order for the child to prefer that specific place to others,}

the place has the responsibility to satisfy those needs, to create a fit between action and the environmental features affording those actions.

• _{Key qualities for children’s friendly place (Wilson, 2007;}

Chatterjee, 2006) :

– _Accessible – _Inviting – _Stimulating – _Flexible – _Challenging – _Comfortable

Summary

• _{A child-friendly place is an environment that promotes exploration and}

actualization of its many affordances for different activities and social interactions; offers opportunities for environmental learning and competence by shaping physical characteristics of the place through repeated use and promoting children’s participation in care and

maintenance of the place; allows children to express themselves freely in creation and control of territories and special places; and protects the secrets and activities of children in these childhood places from harm (Chatterjee, 2006).

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Inventive freedom and contact with living things have always been at the heart of emotional memory

Children displaced by war play on a tree near the town of Gos Beida in eastern Chad

Children play on a destroyed Russian tank in the stronghold of Panjwaii in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, April 10, 2009

Tool, artifact and representation

•

_{Meaningful features of the environment include not}

only affordances but also

tools,

artifacts

and

representations

.

•

_A

_tool

_{is found in the environment and is selected for}

its possibilities for extending and aiding action. An

artifact

is a tool that has been designed to carry out

various tasks. The

knowledge

stored in artifacts is

more than just how they are used as implements. It

also includes knowledge of aspects of daily life,

Tool, artifact and representation

• _{Representations create possibilities of storing knowledge in}

the inanimate environment. Representations allow

information to be publicly available in a more self-conscious attempt to shape the future of humankind. In the context of child-friendly environments, found tools (naturally-occurring places and attributes) and artifacts (specially designed places and attributes) have potential affordances which, when

actualized by children, will result in place knowledge.

Constructions by children in the environment such as dens,

pondok, and play forts, and other conscious attempts to

define special places, such as graffiti and inscriptions, provide representations of their territories.

Friendly Place

•

_{Children are attached to favorite places}

because they get relaxation, feeling calm, and

clearing their minds (Korpela, 1992).

•

_{The places also provide beauty, sense of}

control, security, freedom of expression and

escape from social pressures.

Qualities of Friendly Place

• _{In order for the child to prefer that specific place to others,}

the place has the responsibility to satisfy those needs, to create a fit between action and the environmental features affording those actions.

• _{Key qualities for children’s friendly place (Wilson, 2007;}

Chatterjee, 2006) :

– _Accessible – _Inviting – _Stimulating – _Flexible – _Challenging

Summary

• _{A child-friendly place is an environment that promotes exploration and}

actualization of its many affordances for different activities and social interactions; offers opportunities for environmental learning and competence by shaping physical characteristics of the place through repeated use and promoting children’s participation in care and

maintenance of the place; allows children to express themselves freely in creation and control of territories and special places; and protects the secrets and activities of children in these childhood places from harm (Chatterjee, 2006).

Inventive freedom and contact with living things have always been at the heart of emotional memory