Abstract

Space for Active Play - Involving Local 8-12 year old Children in Guiding Play Space Design for a Local Park Redevelopment

Author(s)

Rachel Carlisle -Heart Foundation

Liz Chapman -Moonee Valley Council

Penny Jordan -Flemington Project

The Space for Active play is a project aimed at engaging local councils in the redevelopment of play space for older children (8-12 years), utilising input from local children to feed into the redesign process and landscape architect's brief.  This poster will focus on the first site involved in this project, 'Debneys Park Active Play and Community Space' in Flemington, Melbourne.

The target community is highly diverse, including a large public housing estate adjacent to Debneys Park.  A 'Children's Ideas Group' was formed  involving local children, who were provided with experiential learning sessions to broaden their active play experiences and elicit their views and ideas.

These views were then tested against local classroom students of the same age group, local community members and a professional/stakeholders workshop.  The resulting insights were documented and passed on to the landscape architect for consideration when producing the concept design for the space.

This project shows the importance of engaging with local children to design play spaces that incorporate their insights and preferences.  It also revealed the different needs of older children and their interest in an environment they could genuinely engage with and manipulate.

The resulting design incorporates some of the themes the children put forward and opportunities for some of the activities they wanted to be able to engage in.  The outcome has been the design of a novel, innovative outdoor space with a focus on exploration, manipulation of the environment and an undulating landscape that provides for a variety of kinetic experiences.

This project is an initiative of the Heart Foundation with support from Go for your life, Parks Victoria and VicHealth.