Wednesday, July 06, 2011

School Playground Design - Access and Integration

Schools are increasingly required to accommodate for a wide range of needs, and a rich outdoor environment that offer a wide range of experiences can be a wonderful learning tool as it provides a wealth of opportunities for children of all ages and abilities. It is however essential that the design of these very important spaces are carefully planned and based on sound horticultural knowledge and a good understanding of children’s diverse needs.

The beauty of the outdoors is that nature is dynamic and forever changing. Nature offers opportunities that cannot be recreated indoors and spending time outdoors in the fresh air is important for our health and for our physical and mental development. Reality is however that cold and wet weather, poor access and poorly laid out gardens and playgrounds prevent us from using the outdoors to its full potential.

Access

To be fully inclusive and to encourage peer interaction, school playgrounds should be accessible to all and integrated to encourage contact between children of different ages and with different levels of ability. Paths should be wide enough to allow plenty of room for wheelchair users and ground surfaces should be even. Alternative walkways provide a sense of mystery and by using a variety of ground surface materials also interesting to explore. For partially sighted people surface materials help with orientation and therefore should be planned to inform users of what they are approaching during their journey.

Choice

Offering choice is important to encourage active decision making. By creating a number of separate areas that have different experiences and challenges to offer within the school playground, children can choose where they feel most comfortable to play. Circular paths that run through a space encourage movement. By starting and ending a path in the same place, users will always get back to where they started, which for some children are an important safety feature. Set off the main walk, alternative routes can be incorporated, creating separate areas each with different sensory experiences on offer.

Way finding

To inform users of which area they are entering, entrances that have clearly recognisable features can be included in a design. These features should not change with the seasons and should all be different to ensure they do not get confused. A piece of art, the sound of wind chimes or the sound of moving water to inform users of where they are are examples that can be used. The use of colour can also be an efficient way to facilitate orientation, for instance, arches can be painted in different colours and placed by each entrance. The chosen colours can then be picked up in the planting within each space in order to create a strong and recognisable colour identity for each area.

Themes

To satisfy a variety of needs and to give structure to an outdoor space, each ‘room’ could have a theme or focus. One of the themes can for example be an area to relax, where there is limited amount of stimuli and the dominating colours are green and white. Another theme could be water, since water has the ability to stimulate so many of our senses. There also needs to be an area where children are exposed to an element of controlled risk and challenge to explore their physical abilities as well as their limitations. A physically active area that offers an environment with uneven surfaces, changes in levels and balancing and climbing opportunities should therefore be accommodated for. Further themes that can be included in a school playground design are wildlife areas, kitchen gardens, tactile exploration, outdoor classrooms and nature trails.

Plants have a wonderful ability to provide a wide range of sensory stimulation in terms of their colour, scent, texture and ability to create sound. Care should be taken to ensure plants are within reach to all. A raised bed system allows for easy access and users to get into close proximity to plants. Seating in a playground must not be forgotten. Places to sit in pairs, small groups or larger groups, provides spots for children to stop and enjoy a view or sensation that they like.

We feel strongly that every child should be entitled to quality outdoor provision. In an age where access to explore the outdoors is limited due to safety concerns, school playgrounds have an important role in exposing children to a wide range of environments.

Posted by Mia Witham | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink