20.08.2017 - Ausgabe: 4/2017

How to benefit from urban spaces - An innovative playground concept

By Dr. des. Katrin Korth (Korth StadtRaumStrategien)

Playground concept for the historic city of Reutlingen

In contrast to earlier times, playing and physical activities are nowadays practised in protected places specifically intended for this purpose. However, urban open spaces for playing and physical activities such as parks, squares, roads, paths or hidden corners in the townscape are just as important for urban everyday life. Particularly in these places, children and youngsters have the opportunity to discover new things, away from regulated standard offerings and their often completely organised everyday life, as playing there allows them to widen their scope of experience and to interact with other city users.

Regarding the creation of child and youth-friendly everyday spaces, in recent years, the focus was primarily on residential areas. Meanwhile the conditions for playing and recreation in these areas are comparatively good. Nevertheless, this contrasts sharply with the situation in the inner and historic city areas. Due to the close interaction between industry, trade, gastronomy, events and cultural programmes, it seems as if there was hardly any room for playing activities because there are only very few typical playground spaces. Furthermore, inner city areas are also important living places with a mix of dense and often cramped housing conditions and simultaneously many newly-built and high-priced city apartments.

Although a child and family-friendly environment is one of the most important soft location factors, which contribute to the quality of shopping and relaxing areas, the traditional urban development policy generally does not provide enough multifunctional areas for children. And this despite the fact, that especially the open areas of the old part of a town offer much potential for playful activities. Due to their reduced traffic areas, their narrow and winding alleys, the flair of historical buildings and structures with small squares, historical fountains and flights of steps, there are manifold small sections which children would enjoy to explore. Apart from that, there are unused wasteland areas as well as parking spaces and delivery zones for retailers, which (at least sometimes) allow an appropriation of this area.

This is the background situation taken up by the playground concept developed for the historic city centre of Reutlingen. The concept focuses on identifying suitable places and on regaining them for children and youngsters.

 

Historic city: playground area

For the last ten years, the historic city centre has been in the focus of creative planning processes. On the basis of an idea contest in terms of urban development in 2006 and a master plan for the historic city centre, the municipal council decided in 2007 to redesign open public places, a step-by-step undertaking, which has been in progress since 2009. As city planners think that playful activities involve a lot more than just providing playing areas or selective offerings of game activities, a concept for playing and physical activities as well as recreation for children and youngsters was developed in the course of the years 2012 and 2013. The "Playground Concept for the Historic City" was developed under the leadership of the Department for Green Areas in collaboration with a planning office specialised in game and physical activities and the help of our colleagues of the urban, youth and social development departments. This concept is a collection of ideas and a framework for action and thus a guideline for the new child and family-friendly design of the historic city centre. It had to be ensured that no "classical" and (therefore) arbitrarily interchangeable playing points were created but that, instead, playing and recreation areas for children were to be identified along the specific characteristics of the building structure and the benefits of the historic city. On this basis, design proposals are to be developed with a focus on movement-oriented offers which allow both, interaction and interplay between active participants and spectators of all generations, thus promoting the process of appropriation and suitability of such spaces.

 

Playing explicitly desired - The basic principles

The playground concept is based on the following principles:

• The principle of "actors and voyeurs" - An interplay in terms of benefitting from urban spaces and the interaction between active participants and spectators of different generations.
• The principle of spatial correlation and a grid of pathways and intersections in order to indicate connections and neighbourhoods.
• The principle of repetition: playing facilities in repetitive and recognisable materials and colours and similar symbolisms.
• The principle of benefitting from existing structures and their surprising reinterpretation: This allows the integration of existing but untypical playing areas and their characteristic features, which nevertheless encourage to play.
• The principle of multi-functionality, because many clearly assigned objects are also useful to play with, such as bollards, bicycle stands or signs.
• The principle of regaining public spaces for playing activities, for instance, through the (temporary) re-zoning of parking areas and roads.

 

The individual components of the 36 playing areas complement each other, both in appearance and content to ensure a high recognition value with the aim to indicate that playing is explicitly welcome. And their playability should be made possible in the widest sense. The overall concept has a modular design which allows a step-by-step implementation. This can be achieved through projects, which will, in any case, have to be implemented or by playground transfers in connection with planning permissions (a successfully practised instrument in Reutlingen). Cooperating with companies and retailers may well be possible.

 

Implementation

Ideas which deviate from the current planning approach for playing are sometimes difficult to communicate to the public and political decision-makers. With regard to inner city development concepts, it is often the retailers who collaborate in individually designed projects because they are convinced that this very project will contribute to a child and family-friendly environment. Regarding the playground concept for the old town of Reutlingen, it was a stroke of luck that, due to some on-going building projects there was considerable time pressure to act. This made it that some important measures for the future implementation of the concept could be realised immediately. In front of the historical Tübinger Tor, three trampolines were integrated into a new open space area - an apparently small intervention. However, nobody in Reutlingen would have expected that the trampoline offer was going to be used in such an intensive way by people of all ages. Children, youngsters and adults enjoy the facilities from early in the morning to late in the evening while they are always surrounded by a large crowd of spectators. This was the best possible start to demonstrate the importance of the basic principles of the playground concept.

Then, some multi-generational play and movement offers were installed  at Nikolaiplatz which is also a historical place in the old part of the town: a climbing wall and slacklines for children and youngsters, a so-called city sandpit for younger children and families. For this, the collaboration of all actors involved was necessary. On the one hand, the neighbouring café benefits from the increased attractiveness of its outdoor area, while on the other hand some extra work must be done to cover the sandpit in the evening before closing time. Nevertheless, the integration of the different persons involved -  residents, citizens and particularly children and youngsters -  is fundamental to the successful and efficient implementation of the concept. For instance, some offerings had been developed particularly for the Weibermarkt in collaboration with the natural history museum by playfully integrating some thematic focuses of the museum into the outdoor area. The redevelopment of two existing playgrounds is also based on the key principles of the playground concept. Apart from barrier-free offerings, the focus was on recovering public spaces for children and youngsters. After intense and controversial debates with residents, for instance, the street adjacent to the Nürtingerhof playground could be included in the concept and is now providing enough space for particularly active sports, such as ball games.

A skating park, water games and other equipment for games and physical activities, including slacklines, swings and exercise equipment for calisthenics are currently installed on a new open space in the City Park near the historical city centre. Formerly, this area was unused industrial wasteland. This attractive place in the middle of the city is not offered to young people alone, because here again, the focus is on cross-generational interaction. The construction costs for creating these playing and movement areas have amounted to approximately 1.1 million euros since 2013, which is a significant amount in view of the means usually available for playgrounds in Reutlingen.

 

Opportunities and challenges

Even if not all proposals of the playground concept can be put into practice, it is worthwhile to try out some new approaches. It requires the awareness that playing is much more than just installing playground equipment and it takes courage to simply implement new ideas although this is the only way how to convey them. Nevertheless, it requires perseverance to discuss about innovative concepts with municipal politicians even though everyone agrees about the importance of soft location factors and the necessity of a children-friendly urban design. In conclusion, the users themselves are always the best advertisers for children and youth-friendly cities.

 

 

Different opinions

From the project managers' point of view

There are not many playground areas in the old part of the town. That is why the few existing places are very popular and heavily frequented. This was clearly and impressively evidenced by the three trampolines installed on the lawn in front of Tübinger Tor. The lawn was not suitable to withstand the high jumping pressure and had to be exchanged for rubber turf pavers. But even this solution was not very satisfactory and we had to exchange the pavers for a moulded impact-absorbing surface in order to cope with the large number of users. (Axel Rieber, Project Manager of the Department for Green Areas).

 

From the beneficiaries' point of view

The trampolines are great. We can meet our friends there and use them together. You can train in the Parkour centre and include the whole environment in your games, even the waste bins. Our lunch is being digested while we are jumping. The location is very good because it is very close to the central bus station. We cross it on our way to school and our way back home. There is always something going on. In addition, it would be very nice to have calisthenics training facilities. (Lorenz (12) and Domenico (14).

 

From the city planners' point of view

Public places as areas where people of all age groups can play and exercise. Social interaction will be strengthened. The playground concept of the historic city centre of Reutlingen simply focuses on the rediscovery of public places away from any consumption-related purposes. To some extent, the implementation of the playground concept re-converts this part of the town into a purpose-free area and thus into an appropriated space. (Dirk Schelhorn, City Planner)

 

Image: Katrin Korth