LADYWELL FIELDS
This is a spatial research writing project for Ladywell Fields park in London.
The park was redesigned in 2012 with the intention of incorporating natural elements for children to play with, but despite having features like shallow river areas and climbable trees, no children were engaging with them during observations. This suggests the design might not have effectively engaged children with the natural play concept.
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Year
2023
Project Type
Spatial Research
Location
Ladywell, London
Collaborator(s)
n.a.
Transforming Equipment-Focused Play using Nature
The concept of collective responsibility explores the moral obligations that groups and their members have for the positive or negative effects of their collective behaviour, as well as the nature of these obligations and how they should be distributed. In a nutshell, it is a sense of responsibility shared by everyone in a group of people, such as a community.
Why does children's play fall under shared and collective responsibility? ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. This common proverb has been repeated for a reason: raising a child in a community is arguably a shared and collective responsibility of everyone that crossed path with the child in their lives, not just limited to caregiver, school teacher, and family members.
How can we, as a collective, create environment that encourage nature play, and how does this impact children's development?
Playground in Ladywell Fields, taken from outside the fence.
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Located in the London borough of Lewisham, Ladywell Fields is a 21-hectare park with immediate access to Ladywell Station and Catford Station and is surrounded by residential buildings. It is divided into three sections: the top, middle, and bottom of the park. A river known as the river Ravensbourne runs through the park and is a part of the Waterway Link Network.
Lewisham itself has 36,948 people under the age of ten out of a total population of 299,810 people, or about 12.3% of the population (Varbes, 2023). A lot of schools catering to this population is located near Ladywell Fields, the most notable of which are Gordonbrock Primary School and Prendergast School. Most of the schools are within a 10-minute walk of Ladywell Fields, making it a popular place to relax in nature after school.
During my visits, a lot of dog owners bringing their dogs for a walk are observed, and when the weather warms up, a lot of people are observed running or jogging. There are also many natural elements in the area that visitors can interact with, such as swales, shallow areas of the river, and climbable trees around the site.
BDP redesigned the park in 2012 as part of QUERCUS (maintain Quality Urban Environment for River Corridor Users and Stakeholders), and the transformation was divided into two phases, the first of which was completed in 2007 and the second in 2012. During the initial design process, sketches found in the end of scheme report published by BDP (2012) revealed that they intended to engage children with natural elements on site, such as the swale, but no children were seen engaging with these elements at all during my observation.
What went wrong during the design process so that the nature play concept didn't work out?
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How did the concept of playground come about in the first place? Playgrounds were built to address two major issues that were emerging in major cities: threats from motor vehicles and the perceived threat that children would be corrupted by interacting with working-class adults on the street (Gill, 2021). As a result, children were gradually phased out of the streets, and street play is now a rare sight in many countries, having been replaced by playgrounds with a 'cookie cutter' template with swings, slides, and sandpits that we are familiar with (Gill, 2021).
The choice of placing children in a sterile environment with consistent and standard play equipment has been made all over the world, and also can be found in Ladywell Fields' most popular playground, which also conforms to the consistent template.
Helen Woolley (2003), a Landscape Architecture academic in UK, coined the term ‘KFC + P’ (Kit, Fence, Carpet, and Parents) to sum up the problems with this overly brutalist playground. In his book ‘No Fear’, Tim Gill (2007), former director of Children Play Council, believed that these problems can be rooted into risk aversion attitude adapted by the stakeholders of children play. Risk aversion means to being unwilling to take risks or wanting to avoid them as much as possible (Cambridge, 2023) In short, it’s wanting everything to be 100% safe.
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Why do the stakeholders in the children's playground avoid taking risks? The first reason is a cost issue, such as the city council's desire to cut costs and reduce their budget (Solomon, 2014). The second consideration is liability. The government has a lot of tight and restrictive playground guidelines that limit innovation in playground designs, and there is a lot of suing from playground accidents in the US context. Finally, there is the issue of convenience and upkeep. Uniformed play kits are easier to keep clean, and cleaning mud off children is not a fun activity for parents. The convenience factor raises the question of how many of the barriers to children's adventurous play are motivated by genuine health and safety concerns and how many are motivated solely by adult convenience (Jorgensen and Keenan, 2012).
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Murergaarden Daycare Centre, created by Helle Nebelong in 1998, is an example of how natural playgrounds can nurture children's desire to play. Catering for children aged one to fourteen, Nebelong unified the space and added interesting elements to engage children of all ages. The children requested a varied surface, water play, and hiding spots throughout the ground, which the designer accommodated by changing the terrain and texture. Because of the asymmetrical shape and elements, children are more focused on their movement and do not rely on muscle memory (Solomon, 2014).
During the design process, parents expressed their concerns and stated that the concept was dangerous. However, the children who use it adore the space. The playground has now been open for more than two decades. Throughout the years, none of the children have been seriously injured, and the success of this concept has sparked debate about how far one should go to protect a child (Nebelong, n.d.).
Nature provides a way for children to use their bodies and minds to explore and manage their surroundings
- Helle Nebelong
Murergaarden Daycare Centre by Helle Nebelong
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What could be a better play option for the children of Ladywell Park? According to observations, there are many potential unofficial play areas for children to engage with, such as swales, rivers, and climbable tree branches, but no children are seen engaging with these elements during visits and observations.
Children benefit greatly from outdoor play. There is no such thing as right or wrong play in natural settings. This enables children to explore and experiment without feeling compelled to adhere to a set of rules. Because nature elements are not static, but rather irregular and unexpected, children can assess each step they take rather than expecting every stone path to be the same.
These statements are also consistent with the concept of Wildscape, which refers to any area, space, or building where the city's normal forces of control have not shaped how we perceive, use, and inhabit it (Jorgensen and Keenan, 2012). The book 'Urban Wildscapes' discussed how nature shapes children in children's literature, such as Danny, the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl (1975) and Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (2007). Although these stories are fiction, they can demonstrate the opportunities that nature provides for children's development (Jorgensen and Keenan, 2012). They can demonstrate that children engaging in unsupervised outdoor play must exercise judgement and take risks in unpredictable environments. It also emphasises that the space used by children in the stories is not always intended to be a children's playground at first, and the children are not afraid to engage with dirt, but rather embrace it.
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How can we improve children’s exploration in nature? We can use a section of Ladywell Fields, ideally the middle section due to the river's central location. There are tweaks and adjustments that can be made to make nature elements safe, but not too safe. The project must appear natural and untouched, as if no intervention was made to the site. It is also ideal for the proposal to educate parents on the value of nature play while also encouraging them to bring their children to interact with nature elements.
