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INTRODUCTION Today, Amsterdam is the place where around 170,000 children grow up. It’s the city where they make friends, learn how to ride the bicycle, build their first hut, break their leg, and go to school. The place where they play, discover and learn. A significant part of these experiences is gained in public space. However, children are much less visible in the street scene than before. Developments like pre-school education, child care, the attraction of computer and tv screens, and a sense with the parents of not being safe, limit the presence of city children in public space. At the same time, we build our cities with higher density and traffic intensity. From children playing to ‘bootcampers’, from residents to tourists – the urban public space is utilised by more people for a growing number of purposes.
and the best places to hide. Do we, as adults, wish to acknowledge the power of public space, and start moving and exercising more ourselves, then we only have to look at the way children play for inspiration. This inspiration is what this publication aims to offer everyone who is professionally engaged with the topic of play and exercise in public space. It shows the whole city can be a playground, now and into the future.
The city of Amsterdam aims to create public space that is welcoming to all its users, in the full range of their diversity. Including children. By meeting different users, residents – children and adults alike – can encourage each other to move, discover together, learn from each other, and play together. Play is a topic that over the years, has been studied extensively and from many perspectives. This publication centres around the idea that a good use of public space elicits play, and makes the city healthier and more attractive to everyone. Moreover, for children, this use influences their motor learning and cognitive and social development. This book pools knowledge about the why, the what and how of playing in the city. Also, it provides insight into the critical factors for successful spatial planning of the city, that stimulate and activate the three forms of development of the child. Based on international cases and examples from Amsterdam, this publication shows how children use play areas and which (design) elements and opportunities are exploited to elicit this kind of use. If we not only consider designated play areas when we look at ‘playing’, but also at the importance of play in public space, then we will discover how play can contribute to the quality of staying in public space, and vice versa. In the end, playing is possible everywhere, and not strictly within the allotted square meters. Children know this the best: the fringes beckon the most substantial amount of opportunities for playing,
On various places in this book you will discover colored dots – these dots connect written or drawn content with each other. Look for the dots with the same color to continue reading.