Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The process of designing successful outdoor spaces

Landscape and garden design is concerned with the creation of outdoor spaces. It is an interdisciplinary subject where horticulture, science, arts and social science meet. Its multifaceted nature is what makes landscape design so exciting. It is not just about creating an outdoor space that looks nice, no, it goes beyond two dimensional art since the space must also feel nice and satisfy the needs of the users. Still, landscapes and gardens are more than three dimensional, they are four dimensional since time is a key factor when determining the success of a garden. Gardens are created to last for a long time, and as such, they can be regarded as investments in the future. Garden designers must therefore understand plants and soil in order to plant the right plant in the right place. They must know how to read a landscape in order to create outdoor spaces that last and evolve over time and can be enjoyed by people.

There is a framework that landscape and garden designers work within when designing outdoor spaces. We do not have the freedom to create just anything, as our creations much satisfy and comply with a variety of conditions. On the one hand we must carefully consider the site; it’s condition, aspects and horticultural potential and limitations. On the other hand we must take into consideration the client’s desires and needs. There are also legislation to consider, as well as time constraints and budgets. This may prove a challenge, but this is also what makes our work so exciting! When designing outdoor spaces for specific user groups, school children for example, the consultation process needs to be carefully planned in order to achieve quality results. The process itself, the journey, becomes a vital part of the whole project, to ensure a successful space is created. At no time should we consider ourselves as holders of all knowledge, no, the school children and staff are the experts here and the information gathered through the process of consultation is invaluable. We need to understand how to best access the information required from the children, by adopting effective methods of engagement. This stage should be fun and inspiring and through close collaboration, we can ensure that a sense of ownership is instilled in the participants, which is essential to ensure the long term success of an outdoor project.

CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, developed a toolkit called Spaceshaper 9-14 to be used to effectively engage with communities and other groups of people. The training and use of the toolkit is now administered by the Landscape Institute. The toolkit is used as a quality assessment tool and is delivered by trained facilitators at the start of a design project. Here at Forma Landscapes we are trained to use the toolkit and we find that this interactive, hands-on tool works very well with both adults and young people. For further information visit:
http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/Spaceshaper/spaceshaper914/index.html

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Friday, July 15, 2011

Children's natural desire to Do

Children approach their world in a naturally inquisitive manner and when coming across new items they want to find out what they can do with it by involving all of their senses; seeing, smelling, hearing, moving, touching and tasting. At some point as we move into adulthood we depart form this hands-on approach and come to focus mainly on one of the senses - that of seeing, and looks become the highest criteria of beauty.

Canadian-born play designer Barbara Hendricks argues that ‘young children, like early civilisations, value impressions of the world around them and do not concern themselves with the idea or concept of good taste - but with what tastes good, feels good and so forth. They have an innate appreciation of the beautiful, not a learned appreciation. Our culture teaches us another set of rules of beauty - a lecture in good taste’ (2001).

Schools, nurseries and other child care facilities can offer more choice in terms of outdoor play compared with a public playground since not only are these playgrounds supervised by staff, but a variety of loose play equipment can be stored away and brought out to extend play opportunities. Such objects can often be manipulated by children, such as stack and build objects, thereby extending ways of engagement. When involved in designing public playgrounds, great care goes into creating environments that are robust to withstand general wear and tear but also, sadly, to cope with potential vandalism and theft. Loose objects are therefore rarely included in such spaces, which is why I’m arguing that play spaces that are supervised should be equipped with a wide range of items and materials and make these available to children. Play should be child-initiated. The role of the adult should be to provide the space and offer variety, ensure the space is a quality space and is well looked after.

Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground

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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.

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