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How to design a play-friendly living environment
Civil servants, project developers, and urban planners involved in housing construction often find themselves embroiled in debates about balancing affordability, return on investment, and the need for adequate housing. Architects, on the other hand, tend to focus primarily on issues such as floor plans, private outdoor space, and sunlight exposure. Often overlooked in these kinds of design processes is the (semi-)public outdoor space surrounding and between the homes, which determines the play …

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Children’s geographies
The book ‘Children's geographies’ gives insights into the contemporary sociological understandings of children’s competence as social actors and how they reconfigure their living environment in their own favour. It illustrates children’s knowledge of the geographic environment and contribute to debates about spatiality in the social studies of childhood. In this article a summary of this interesting academic book.A few decades ago there was almost no geography research on children. Of cours…

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My daughter and me
When my daughter was born eleven years ago, many new worlds opened for me. In addition to the world of diapers and sleepless nights, my use and perception of public space changed. The width of the sidewalk and loose paving stones suddenly became important. First through my walks with the pram and a few years later when my daughter stumbled down the street (on foot or by bicycle). In her early years the walk to the local supermarket was a great adventure, because everything was interesting to he…

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Play-friendly cities: first results
Fortunately, more and more municipalities are working on play-friendly public spaces. However, many policy visions and investments are still based on assumptions made by municipal officials or suppliers of play equipment. This is partly because good evaluations and effect measurements of existing and new play spaces are scarce, especially where informal play spaces are concerned. And when children are involved, they are often asked about their theoretical wishes rather than their concrete actio…

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Girls and outdoor play: looking for more equality and equity
How public is the public space? Less than we often think. Children have their own protected areas – we call them playgrounds - where they are separated from adults. If you look further, you also see a spatial segregation between boys and girls. Girls play at different spots and play differently than boys. And also important: girls play outside less frequently. What are the underlying causes of this and how can we solve this? 

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Urban playground: a review
What type of cities do we want our children to grow up in? Car-dominated, noisy, and devoid of nature? Or walkable, playable and green? The answer to this question will be clear. The book 'Urban playground' looks for ways in which you can achieve the latter by describing different projects, principles and tools. 

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Playing outside: who, where and what?
Fortunately, more and more attention is being paid to a play-friendly public space in both research and policy. Yet there is still little insight into very basic questions. For example, do boys play more outside than girls? Where do children play? And what are they doing there? New research answers these questions.

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The child in the city: an extensive summary
In 1978 Colin Ward wrote the widely read and much quoted book 'The Child in the City'. The book is an attempt to explore the relationship between children and their urban environment. It asks whether it is true that something has been lost in this relationship and speculates about the ways in which the link between city and child can be made more fruitful and enjoyable. More than forty years after its publication, we pick up the book and look for similarities and differences with the cu…

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Playable cities: Why?
When we think about child-friendly public spaces, we usually start with the wrong questions. We tend to focus on the question which playing attributes we should add to existing playgrounds, but we should start at the other end of the spectrum with the question: what is our ultimate goal? In short, the purpose is to stimulate outside playing for children, because it improves their health, it enriches different skills and most of all it gives them pleasure.

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Playable cities: a model and a toolkit
Children's daily lives are affected mostly by decisions made by parents, teachers and urban planners. Together they influence where, how and how long children play. In recent years, children's outdoor play has declined. For health and pedagogical reasons, it is important that we stimulate outdoor playing. To realize this we need a new approach on public spaces for kids. This approach doesn't start with picking some elements from catalogues of play equipment companies or landscape a…

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Playable cities: How?
In the previous chapter we learned WHY it is important to make child friendly cities. Now we can use these reasons to identity the conditions to realize playable cities. Based on an extensive literature study I come to ten main criteria. Principal factors that influence where, how and how long children play. Ingredients for policies, design and programs to stimulate outdoor activities. The principles that differentiate 'normal' cities from playable cities and that make a place work.

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Playable cities: What?
Now that we know the reasons (WHY) and conditions (HOW) for playable cities we can zoom in on the specific actions that we can undertake to create vibrant places. The underlying goals and criteria for child-friendly spaces help us to remember that we have to operate on multiple levels. In this chapter you will find a lot of actions and efforts that can make a difference if you want to create safe, entertaining and enriching learning spaces for kids.

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Playable cities: sources
The model and the chapters for 'Playable cities' are based on an extensive desk research of international literature and websites about public spaces (for kids). Using the work of for example, Mikael Colville-Andersen, Jan Gehl (Making Cities for People; Gehl Institute), Tim Gill, Jane Jacobs, Kaboom!, Kevin Lynch, Project for Public Spaces (PPS), The Bernard van Leer Foundation (Urban95), The City at Eyelevel, and William H. Whyte. But also using the results from scientific research…

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Placemaking week 2017: the highlights
It felt like a kid in a candy story. So much inspiration during Placemaking Week 2017 in Amsterdam. With more than 400 attendees from 46 countries the key conditions were fulfilled. Besides the wonderful opening speech of Fred Kent ("We have to turn everything upside down, to get it right side up") and a lot of other interesting presentations and discussions these are my favorite candies.

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Playable cities
Well-designed and well-maintained public spaces stimulate social encounters, physical exercise, a sense of community, cultural and economic development. Also for children public spaces are of great importance. Playing outside improves their health, enriches social skills (sharing, collaborate) and puts their brains at work (cognitive development). But how to make a playable city? There are a lot of checklist with do's and don'ts that can guide you. But the most important things for play…

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