10.04.2013 - Ausgabe: 2/2013

Landscape designers plan Kita (child care facility) playground

"Leave no child behind" is the motto of the red-green State government in North Rhine Westphalia.

Investing in children is investing in the future. One of the related targets is the improvement of education in early childhood. An even more central theme is movement. Everywhere in the State new playgrounds for the under 3's are springing up, by either constructing new child day care facilities or expanding existing ones. And what do the areas for movement, the playgrounds look like? Because playing outside is healthier.

In mid-March in Düsseldorf Ute Schäfer, the Families Minister for North Rhine Westphalia referred to the current figures for construction for the under 3's for the next nursery year 2013/2014 as a successful result in an exemplary attempt to make progress. There are 144,883 care centres for children under three years of age in the coming nursery year in North Rhine Westphalia. 106,567 in children’s day care nurseries and 38,316 in children’s day care. This corresponds to a rate of provision of about 33 per cent. With reference to one and two year old children – in other words, children who have been entitled since 1st August 2013 to a child care place – the rate of provision is as much as 49.2 per cent.
"Moreover, we will not disturb the currently applicable quality standards in child care nurseries and in children's day care. Of course, they are all the more applicable with the coming into force of the entitlement", said Ms Schäfer. She went on to comment that there are many specialised staff in child care nurseries and in children's day care, whose work ensures that toddlers are well and reliably cared for even outside the family in North Rhine Westphalia.

This standard of quality, it is to be hoped, is shared by the children's playground.
We should say, "Yes" to investing in education in early childhood – for active play sharpens the wits. And playing out of doors is healthier.

On 1st February 2013 the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the KfW Banking Group started up two new, low-interest incentive programmes for the construction of child care facilities. For this purpose, from 2013 to 2015 KfW are providing loans totalling 350 million Euros to local authorities and other providers of child care facilities. The Federal Ministry of Family Affairs is supporting the project with an interest-rate subsidy. The promotion is part of the Federal Government's ten point plan, "Children's Day Care Facilities 2013".

Using the body instead of overloading the brain

Measures for new construction, renovation, conversion, refurbishment and modernisation, plus investment in facilities in children's day care facilities. In these, the theme of movement remains an important one – and therefore also space out of doors for the playground. On the topic of "Movement in Infancy" the sports scientist Professor Renate Zimmer said: "In order to develop in a healthy manner, children must have the chance to take exercise every day". She stated, "Active play sharpens the wits". Renate Zimmer is Professor of Sports Science and Sports Education at the University of Osnabrück. The Herder Publishing House has published her book, Toben macht schlau – Bewegung statt Verkopfung (Active play sharpens the wits – using the body instead of overloading the brain).

Playgrounds for the under 3's from the planning perspective

The topic of children's day care facilities remains exciting. In the expansion of child care quantity and quality must be guaranteed. Important points are: What does the child under three years of age need in a children's playground? What needs to be done for the surrounding area? What do these "areas for play" look like from the landscape planner's perspective? What are the planning premises?

Johannes Czerniejewski, Landscape planner NRW study group, AK NW, RMP Stephan Lenzen Landscape planners:
"DIN 1176/ 1177, GPSG, GUV-SR 2002 – safety is the highest imperative!
Guidelines for the prevention of accidents are the bible for every planner. The requirement for risk and the fathoming of one's own boundaries is not only significant, but in particular for children under four years old, is an important step for developing the motor skills, the senses and creativity. Consequently, finding a healthy balance between safe play and the incentive to take calculated risks presents the planner with special tasks when dealing with younger children. The "ouch" effect is good and is an important part of healthy physical development. Unforeseeable dangers, however, must at all costs be avoided. The promotion of imagination and creativity must go hand in hand with safe design.

Moreover the challenge also lies in creating playgrounds which will please all age groups and will satisfy all development needs. The playground user often goes there with several children of various ages. The greater the difference in age, the harder it is to do justice to the differing requirements. For this reason items of play equipment or combinations of games for all age groups are difficult to design. Separate zones in a play area for the different age groups make for a good playground. This, however, should not lead to insurmountable barriers or even widely spaced separation of these areas; rather the degree of difficulty of use of the individual sections of a playground should provide a natural or even constructed restraint. Regardless of this however, the natural desire to overcome obstacles remains.
As he grows up, the child makes increasing use of more and more items of play equipment. In this way are created meeting places for children of the same age, points of intersection with play for all age-groups, but also places to withdraw and dens for quiet play. The younger children have the possibility of watching the older ones play and of imitating them within the limits of their own motor skills.
There is also much to be done outside the area of play. It is not only older children who provide the models for the little ones. Play equipment according to DIN 1176 is designed for children from the age of 36 months and we have a duty to supervise the little children on play areas.
The persons supervising must also have the opportunity to rediscover themselves on the play area. So, designing play areas with their play equipment is only halfway to good planning. In the future we must expand the function of the playground as a meeting place, a place for exchanges and communication and not just for children. A minimum requirement is a bench close to the sand play area. If the adults feel at ease, this can only be good for their charges.
Play equipment which the toddlers and the adults with them can use together would be a starting point for something that until now has scarcely been considered in the planning of playgrounds."

Uta Henklein, Uta Henklein Landschaftsarchitektur:
"The play area is individually designed to meet the wishes, needs and events of children's day care. The most important factors are the parents and children's care organisations. The grounds which are available set the vertices for planning. When I plan a playground, I design individual items of play equipment especially for the grounds in question taking into account prior public involvement. This play equipment gives the children enough space to run about, refers to the child day care facility’s name and as a result creates an individual place to play, with which the children and parents are able to identify.
The emphasis in planning is on developing motor skills, on stimulating creativity, the senses and shapes and colours. The size of the children plays a role and we must not forget DIN EN 1176.
What should be accomplished is everything which goes with the educational aims of the child day care facility and which can be used and looked after by the educators and parents actively involved in situ."

Dipl.-Ing. Nils Kortemeier, Kortemeier Brokmann Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH:
"For us the important thing in designing children's playgrounds is that the playground gives the children the opportunity to develop their own skills and to experience the world through their own senses. It should be set out in themes as little as possible; in fact it is far better not to set it out thematically. Children themselves give the objects themes; each child has his own conceptions and these often change each time he plays.
What should be provided are a variety of spaces, which, despite being free of all labelling by themes take on an identity for the children. Often just a small intervention in the form of topographical design is sufficient.
We believe that the deficiencies often lie in meaningless, loveless play equipment which has been thrown together. Play themes interfere, rather than complementing one another in a meaningful way. Playgrounds of this sort do not challenge children and therefore do not encourage their strong desire to discover the world. In our opinion another deficiency lies in the concentration on quantity rather than quality. Quantity is not important. Quality is the deciding factor.
What will be needed in the future – in terms of planning, policy and practicality? In the future opportunities to play should be more concentrated. We believe that from the point of view of demographic change it makes sense to dismantle some playgrounds and to upgrade others in terms of design. We would be delighted to see user participation in this under the leadership of a landscape planner."

Christian Loderer, plancontext gmbh landscape planner bdla:
"At the age of less than three years a child needs a children's playground where the play spaces are equipped according to age – often the smallest children are forgotten or not sufficiently considered – and where there is a combination of opportunities for action as well as age and gender specific spaces, where the child can retreat quietly.
The surrounding area must be as safe as possible to reach and be free of barriers: the playground should be a protected place. It should give a feeling of safety and emotional security, to allow children to develop freely.
Our planning premises are: Potential for stimulating children to develop their creativity instead of fixed game rules. Playgrounds should have a theme appropriate for children. Playgrounds for toddlers in towns and cities are also important points for adults to meet each other; it is important to furnish them accordingly. It is imperative that we construct sufficient opportunities for action and movement, which are within reach, can be designed and can be used at any time.
The problem nowadays is that there is too little tolerance for children in public spaces. Modern construction regulations make it obligatory to include playgrounds in residential areas. Mind you, "alibi" playgrounds are often constructed, which merely serve as proof of conformity with zoning regulations.
In terms of planning, policy and practicality the quality of play spaces in the future should form a more important part of public debate. Design for a child-friendly town or city must be tackled more resolutely by local authorities to benefit a cross-section of the population.
The planners' job will be to present to children, educators and parents graphic plans for playgrounds with regard to design criteria and quality. Conversely, it is important that planners listen to children, parents and educators and observe them to find out their needs and experiences.

Markus Schäf, Landscape planner and town planner BDLA:
"I think that nurseries which have only a patio, a large grassed area and some loveless play equipment jumbled together are dreadful. Children need to be challenged. Where else are they supposed to learn to balance, to climb, to crawl and to skip, if not in the nursery? In the tidy open spaces of our towns and villages, well protected by overcautious parents, there are scarcely any more places where children can play freely. Inner city green spaces are often laid out to be multi-functional and to be used by toddlers, apart from the traditional sand play areas.

I am of the opinion that it is essential that professionals take over the planning of open spaces, for the good of our children. The art of good planning is to combine all the wishes and demands of the children and their supervisors in a safe, exciting, ecological, harmonious and also, for the most part, affordable design concept. This can usually be done only by a landscape planner and not by an architect, who has the huge task of designing lovely buildings and indoor spaces, but who cannot take the open spaces into their planning as well. The local authorities themselves, the nursery parents' council, a garden or landscape construction firm or even the supplier of play equipment are increasingly important components of the planning process, but not the communicator landscape planner, who brings everything together.
After all, the aim is to plan successfully to support and make possible children's intellectual and emotional development. A well thought out, sustainable design also takes into account the long-term development of the garden.

Children have special and sometimes also contradictory needs for space; as well as play, sports and communication, important components of planning an open space bring together creativity, quiet, being alone and discovering nature. Therefore, these facilities should be as varied as possible and should offer spaces to be used in different ways, by different age-groups and in different sorts of play.

Play facilities shared by nurseries and crèches are exactly the situation in which it is important that the design provides toddlers with their own play area and their own opportunities for play. At the same time we must ensure that the little children cannot climb unobserved the climbing equipment, designed for the big children.
Differences in height between steps and walls should be avoided in crèches as far as possible, since these always attract children like magic and then become a source of danger.

The concept of nursery should be interpreted in the original, literal sense of the German term – Kindergarten, a garden for children. A garden should be seen as a place for children, to run about, sharpen their senses, find out what they are capable of, and a place, where the imagination is stimulated. In these gardens children can amass experiences with all sorts of natural materials: stones, sand, gravel, mud, soil, water, as well as tree branches, leaves and flowers. They can find out what things feel like, what happens when you mix them up and put them together. This is the place for all the old favourite games, especially for toddlers, such as baking cakes or making soup. The children should be able to find the ingredients for this for themselves in the garden. The open areas in the Kindergarten however must not be the same as in a classic ecological garden; they can also be designed. But they must give the children space, both for running around and being active and for hiding and withdrawing quietly. An empty stretch of lawn bordered by a hedge and a swing with a sandpit are definitely not enough.
Just as in our own gardens, elements related to each season, such as tents, hammocks, paddling pools, lawn sprinklers and similar items can be used for play. The garden must always have areas where things can be altered, in which the children themselves can be the master-builders. Often a couple of long tree branches or planks, large leaves and a few stones are sufficient to allow the children to build a den or the like.

An ideal Kindergarten combines both. Clear shapes and edges, preferably in the area close to the building and a wilderness where the children can play, probably designed more often in the farthest part of the garden. The wilderness can be made more interesting with elements to stimulate the senses, such as sound games, a bush telephone or a distorting mirror, etc.
Plants (trees, shrubs, hedges and flowerbeds), landscaping (ramparts, hills, depressions and dips) or structural elements (walls) can be used to create different spaces in the garden.

Children have an innate need for movement, usually fast and with lots of noise. This is best achieved when they can run and ride in circles and whizz around. Therefore when I design a garden, I never forget to include a track for running around, which is best made of smooth asphalt or synthetic surfacing and leads up mountains and down valleys."

TM
Photos: Lothar Bublitz