PLAYSCAPES
This category, Playscapes, explores the concept of Free Play from a landscape architect’s perspective, examining its significance in child development and its application in designing play environments.
The enquiry commences from the conception of Free Play which is unstructured, voluntary, child-initiated activity that allows children to develop their imaginations while exploring and experiencing the world around them. It is the spontaneous play that comes naturally from children’s curiosity, love of discovery and enthusiasm.
This section further details out the benefits of free play in a child’s overall development as established by neuroscience studies which include healthy cognitive development, use of creativity and expansion of imagination, interaction with the world around them, development of social skills in learning to share and resolve conflicts, practice in decision-making skills, and confidence building.
Despite the advances in neuroscience studies and children’s behavioural studies its correlation and applicability in designing playscapes remains unexplored. For instance, when a toddler has learned to walk, he intuitively tries to challenge himself and takes slightly larger steps and, in this process, stepping stones becomes play for the toddler. Is it possible to derive a standard distance between the stepping stones that may lead to other forms of free play?
The vast domain of neuroscience studies gives us information with respect to what part of the brain develops during what age and what are the activities that a child participates in during this age. Is it possible to plan activities that enhance such development? Furthermore, based on the average stature of a particular age group could we derive standards to design such activities.
With the shift in the designer’s perception of environments designed for children’s play from installing play-equipment to designing immersive and flexible playscapes that encourage children to interpret, define and re-interpret spaces, there is a need to define such standards that may be used to design environments of free play. This series aims to establish guidelines for designing play environments that align with neuroscience insights, physical development benchmarks, and behavioral patterns across different ages.
Terrain Tapestry 