Children as Designers
March 15, 2010
Our youth we can have but today, We may always find time to grow old.
-Chinese Proverb
In the Wonder newsletter that is included in the March 2010 issue of Exchange, Claire Warden, Scottish representative on the World Forum's Nature Action Collaborative for Children Leadership team, gives examples of the many ways you can work with young children in planning outdoor spaces. For example...
"Enclosure of space is another wonderful aspect of the work in creating landscapes with children. The physical size of young children changes their perspective all the time. The first thing we need to do is to put ourselves in the spaces that children show us that they love. Then we can begin to understand what their views are.
"Planning in a tangible way to enclose space can be done with rope, sand lines, pebbles, and other materials so children can move in and out of areas to show the ergonomics of a space. The way children use space will be very different from how adults use it. We need to consider if we are willing to have children change the design of a space. If not, then we should not ask the questions in the first place!
"Our new Centre for Excellence in Perthshire, Scotland, has created 15 landscape features with children as the designers. The documentation of the whole space celebrates children’s thinking. The children asked for a 'mountain 2 metres tall with a tree on top.' It had to have long, wavy grass to hide in and a path going up that had to stop at the top. When questioned about the idea of a pathway just stopping, the little girl of four years replied, 'Well, that is so you have to scramble and trip and find your own way down. It is more exciting that way.' How many times do we make our outdoor landscapes too easy or too simpl e so that all the play affordances of loose materials are removed and the thrill of adventure suppressed?"
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