Esta pesquisa de mestrado se situa nos estudos de inter-relação do design com a arquitetura, enfocando os equipamentos denominados Academia da Primeira Idade, entendidos como um mobiliário urbano para o público infantil presente e implantado no espaço livre público das áreas de playground, em locais levantados na atualidade na cidade de São Paulo, onde foram realizadas pesquisas de campo com abordagem qualitativa. Com o objetivo de levantar dados sobre como um mobiliário urbano é percebido e entendido por seu público alvo, procurou-se pela visão das crianças usuárias e seus acompanhantes a fim de obter entendimento e diretrizes sobre o espaço e equipamentos para brincar e se exercitar. Foram utilizadas várias ferramentas de pesquisa para captação de dados como: observação não participante, entrevista com acompanhantes no local de uso, storytelling com crianças, além de levantamentos nos órgãos públicos gestores e com especialistas, com enfoque no uso e apropriação pelos seus usuários, verificando aspectos formais, comportamentais e de interação social. Por meio da triangulação de dados foi possível levantar os pontos relevantes na opinião dos stakeholders, agentes envolvidos, gerando conhecimentos para aprimoramento dos espaços e equipamentos existentes, bem como para novos projetos afins. Como principais achados podem ser destacados pontos positivos e negativos citados sobre os equipamentos elencados além de aspectos como proporcionar diversão com segurança, conservação, interação com outras crianças, e outros relacionados às características físicas e de manutenção de espaços bem cuidados, com piso adequado, e dotados de mobiliário complementar, sempre presentes nas narrativas dos pesquisados quanto as suas necessidades e expectativas. Considerando a importância que o brincar tem na formação das crianças, e que experiências e vivências únicas o espaço público pode proporcionar, espera-se que estes dados, considerando a visão e opinião dos usuários, possam servir para melhorar a qualidade dos espaços e equipamentos públicos infantis. / This master\'s research is inserted in the studies of the inter-relation between design and architecture, focusing on what is called Kids Outdoor Fitness Equipment, understood as urban furniture aimed for children and implanted in the public space of playground areas, in places chosen presently in the city of São Paulo, where field research was undertaken with a qualitative approach. With the goal of raising data on how urban furniture is perceived and understood by its target audience, it has sought the point of view of child users and their escorts in order to obtain understanding and guidelines regarding the space and equipment to play and exercise in. Several research tools were used to gather the data, such as non-participant observation, interview with escorts at the site of usage, and storytelling with children, besides collecting data at public agencies and with specialists, with a focus on the use and appropriation by the users, verifying formal, behavioral and social interaction aspects. By means of triangulation of data, it was possible to raise the relevant aspects in the opinion of the stakeholders, the agents involved, generating knowledge for the improvement of the existing spaces and equipment, as well as for new related projects. As the main findings, we can highlight positive and negative features cited regarding the listed equipment, besides aspects such as affording entertainment with safety, conservation, and interaction with other children, as well as others related to the physical features and the maintenance of well cared-for spaces, with adequate flooring, and fitted with complementary furniture, always present in the narratives of the researched as far as their needs and expectations. Considering the importance of play in children\'s growth, and what unique experiences public space can provide, it is hoped that these data, considering the point of view and opinion of the users, may serve to improve the quality of spaces and public children\'s equipment.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston Gibson / Play is essential to the development of children, as it serves as the main platform for a child to begin to explore his or her world and understand their physical and social environment. It is not a frivolous activity, but a method of learning. Despite this recognition, many playground designs are still steered, wrongly so, by unwarranted societal fears of safety. Such playgrounds lack developmental benefits due to their composition of isolated, prefab plastic components on an asphalt field. Despite recognition in the late twentieth century that “childhood itself is in danger of extinction”, many playground are still sterile in nature. The time is now for designers to look critically at playground design trends and intervene to improve the quality of the environments our children are exposed too. The positive development of the next generation, our children, depends on it. In the case of the community of La Chuscada in Chinandega, Nicaragua, economic status presents a major barrier to the creation of beneficial learning environments. This project addresses the hardships of implementing a developmentally beneficial playground, and through the collaboration with the Amigos for Christ philanthropic organization and interior architecture student Aaron Bisch, offers solutions to achieve this goal. Culture-specific influences of play are explored and survey data from the community of La Chuscada reveal strategies for the implementation of a nature playground design that offers developmental benefits for the children of the community.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka lärares uppfattningar om utomhuslärandet som lärandeverktyg i undervisningen och elevers uppfattning om lärandet utomhus. Studien genomfördes i två städer med fem lärare och 113 elever i årskurs ett till sex. Metoderna som användes var kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer och kvantitativa enkäter. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av dialektiken och den hermeneutiska cirkeln. Det mest framträdande i analysresultatet var att lärarna har en positiv uppfattning om utomhuslärandet som lärandeverktyg i undervisningen. Analysresultatet visade också att undervisning utomhus kan vara svårt att bedriva på grund av olika hinder. I analysen av enkätmaterialet framkom att eleverna ser undervisningen utomhus som något som de vill ha mer utav och att de tyckte att det var roligare att bedriva undervisning utomhus. / The study's purpose was to examine teacher’s perceptions of outdoor learning as learning tools in teaching and students conception of learning outdoors. The study was conducted in two cities with five teachers and 113 students in grades one to six. The methods used were qualitative semi-structured interviews and quantitative surveys. The results were analyzed using the dialectic and the hermeneutic circle. The most prominent of the analysis result was that the teachers have a positive perception of the outdoor learning as learning tools in teaching. Analysis results showed that outdoor education can be difficult to conduct because of various obstacles. The analysis of questionnaire data revealed that students see learning outdoors as something that they want more of and that they thought it was fun to teach outdoors. / <p>Godkännandedatum: 2015-06-04</p>

Research suggests that the first five years of life are critical for building the foundation for children’s success throughout their schooling and life. Throughout these first years of life there are a number of essential windows of opportunity during which certain kinds of stimuli are needed to help the brain develop and maintain critical connections necessary for learning. This project is a unification of a Child Development Center and a therapeutic center. This center includes children who suffer from bereavement; a broken home, death of a parent or child abuse. These children are provided with therapy by a specialist, and also given an opportunity to interact with other children as a form of therapy. This thesis therefore explores the following questions. How can design create a place that enhances learning, healing and play through interaction and movement? How can design create a space for the special needs of children without having to bind them in a classroom? How to create movement in a building that itself is static in nature?

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Anne Beamish / The current educational model utilized in the United States focuses on teaching technology, preparing for standardized tests, and training students to be productive members of society. These are all valuable and necessary educational goals, especially considering the fact that the current national trend is to promote citizens’ integration into a more global community and job market—significantly affecting the work opportunities available to our country’s youths. However, one of the most necessary and fundamental aspects of childhood—outdoor learning in nature—is being undervalued. Outdoor learning experiences in the natural environment are exceptionally important in encouraging holistic childhood development because they offer children firsthand experiences with natural processes. Through interactions with nature, children are able to witness the impact that human actions have upon the environment. As Richard Louv asserts in the Last Child in the Woods, “Healing the broken bond between our young and nature—is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demands it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depends upon it” (Louv, 2008, 3). The broken relationship between America’s youths and nature must be healed. Public schools offer a unique opportunity for children to be reacquainted with nature because about 90% of American students below the college level attend public schools. In the year 2009, over 2.3 million students attended public elementary schools; 226,082 of those students were in Kansas (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Garfield Elementary School in Augusta, Kansas is an ideal situation for the development of an outdoor learning environment that promotes student awareness and connection to local nature. The nature-oriented design of Garfield Elementary School’s grounds, described in this Master’s Report, fosters the creation of deep-seeded emotional ties to the natural world in the children who experience the site—effectively combating Nature-Deficit Disorder by encouraging students to become environmental stewards. This is accomplished by using children’s literature to inspire the organization of spatial environment variety and a range of natural elements (such as water) on the school site, which encourage students to engage in five outdoor learning activities: physical, creative, sensorial, solitary and social.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary Catherine (Katie) Kingery-Page / According to Barbara Hendricks, play environment designer and consultant, “If we want children to grow up with a zest for living we need to give them living spaces that express life as a grand experience.” Hendricks emphasizes playtime is important for children to process formal lessons (Hendricks 2011). This applied design research project seeks to facilitate child development through an experiential learning playscape while addressing stormwater management for Bluemont Elementary School. The central research question of this project is: How can school playgrounds be designed to afford children improved social interactions and experiential learning? An exploration of landscape affordances theory (Sanseter and Hansen 2009, Heft 1988) and experiential learning (Kolb 1984), combined with social interactions and cognitive child development (Addo-Atuah 2012), formed a theory base for the project. Playground observations, stakeholder surveys, stakeholder interviews, and site inventory and analysis informed the eventual design. Major factors influencing students’ play include age, playground rules, equipment available for use, and weather. Site conditions, including topography and site drainage, can also influence students’ play. In current conditions, stormwater is a schoolyard liability restricting play and safe site circulation. The researcher gathered insights from student surveys, playground observations, teacher interviews, and site inventory and analysis to complete a comprehensive master plan. The comprehensive master plan and detailed stormwater management plan address the schoolyard over the next twenty to fifty year outlook. The designs resolve practical issues while increasing the variety of site educational and play affordances available to students and teachers for play and learning. A primary goal of the detailed plan is to convert stormwater schoolyard liabilities into amenities and educational tools.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Mary C. Kingery-Page / Children are imaginative, creative, and active. Children of all age groups are influenced by their surroundings, particularly school-aged children (Frost, 2010). School-aged children’s physical, emotional, social, and intellectual developmental characteristics are influenced by their surrounding environments. Today, uniform playgrounds are diminishing the opportunities for youth to develop their personal creativity and imagination through play (Thompson 2007, Solomon 2005). By integrating art into playgrounds, these environments will offer children greater opportunity for developmental enrichment through their interactions with the site. Researched cases of art and play have inspired the development of a typology. The typology is a collection of quintessential ways that settings for play can be visually and experientially enriched by art. This process began with three critical questions; 1) What constitutes a playground? 2) What is art? and 3) How can art be integrated into playgrounds? More than 30 precedents that demonstrate art in a play setting were examined. Noting differences and similarities between the precedents, 12 types were identified. Next, analysis matrices identifying primary and, if applicable, secondary placement of each of the precedents in the 12 developed types, including sub-types, giving art in playgrounds a place. Also classified was type of art, high or vernacular, for each precedent. The research methodology was an iterative process of literature and precedent research followed by the distillation of types, further research, and refinement of the typology framework.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture / Katie Kingery-Page / Encouraging creativity is an important part of a child’s education and often not adequately supported by outdoor school environments. Contemporary playgrounds are designed in response to perceptions of liability and a limited interpretation of child development. Prefabricated plastic constructions and expanses of asphalt are poor initiators of creative expression. This project proposes a more stimulating, artistically crafted alternative to the typical playground. Beginning with documented research of play, the project layers psychology, education and humanities to form an understanding of how formal space affects human experience. More specifically, poetry, land art, sculpture, narrative and character studies inform the design solution for a 6.4 acre site at Northview Elementary School in Manhattan, Kansas. Integrated design provides children a meaningful experience of space and direct contact with nature. This design encourages imaginative and creative play, expanding the experiential quality of a contemporary playground.

The report describes the design of a safe (within EU regulations), ergonomic, attractive, sustainable, versatile and interactive playground toy for children from ages 7 to 11. The product aims to help children develop in different aspects: physical, emotional, social and mental, in a sustainable environment. This was developed from the identification and exploration of the factors that influence the design of playground toys. The design process was divided in the following main stages: an initial research of information, the interpretation of this data, the development of a concept, a test stage and the results. During the research, teachers and parents were interviewed and children were observed. Relevant information was also gathered. For the development, a set of creative techniques were applied and finally tested. Modifications based on the test were made to reach an accurate design. The work done was successful to the extent established initially; although, it can be subject to improvement. The main limit was that no tests were performed on a physical prototype, therefore, there is information not yet gathered and tests that would prove if some of the assumptions were true or false.

Esta dissertação, desenvolvida no campo das interrelações entre o Design e a Arquitetura, apresenta uma pesquisa sobre espaços interativos para crianças, com foco dirigido a projetos de abordagens multidisciplinares e experimentais referentes ao lúdico.São obras implantadas em áreas urbanas de acesso público e ao ar livre, desenvolvidas pelo setor institucional ou público, a partir da metade do século vinte aos dias atuais,selecionadas no Brasil e em outros países. Inicia-se este trabalho conceituando: a criança, quanto ao desenvolvimento integral e suas linguagens; o espaço; o interativo e o lúdico.Adiciona-se a estes, reflexões sobre: a qualidade como conceito no desenvolvimento e implantação destes projetos e as capacidades sensoriais humanas, segundo o arquiteto Victor Papanek. Após contextualização desses espaços na cidade, apresenta-se compilação de projetos selecionados, organizados por período cronológico, localização e autores. Com método de pesquisa qualitativa exploratória e estudos de casos, a organização deste trabalho estrutura-se em tópicos: contexto, percurso, conceitos envolvidos e projetos; apresenta propostas de abordagens experimentais e criativas, em concepções que buscaram novas soluções e foram além do pré-estabelecido e convencional. Após sistematização e análise, elaboraram-se conclusões e considerações em que se almeja auxiliar, com subsídios teóricos, pesquisadores e profissionais de áreas afins no desenvolvimento de novos projetos. Ao identificar aproximações entre o lúdico e a inovação, investiga-se seu conceito e soma-se a este uma reflexão sobre a complexidade e as competências necessárias para os novos tempos, segundo o pensamento de Edgar Morin. Conclui-se o trabalho com um conjunto de propostas nos campos da Arquitetura, do Design e das Artes que unem os conceitos de inovação, lúdico e espaço, em abordagens experimentais, criativas e multidisciplinares. Discutem-se,assim, outros modelos possíveis de relacionamento com o entorno e com os elementos da natureza. Um convite a reconectar-se com as capacidades sensoriais humanas e um caminho para o desenvolvimento de saberes necessários, como listados na obra Sete saberes necessários à educação do futuro, de Edgar Morin: \"As cegueiras do conhecimento; Os princípios do conhecimento pertinente; ensinar a condição humana;Ensinar a identidade terrena; enfrentar as incertezas; ensinar a compreensão e a ética do gênero humano\". / This dissertation, which inhabits the space between Design and Architecture, presents a research on interactive spaces for children, focusing on multidisciplinary and experimental approaches to play. Those spaces are implemented in outdoors urban areas of public access built by the institutional or public sectors, from the first half of the twentieth century up to the present day, in Brazil and other countries. This work starts off with the establishment of key concepts: the child, in light of integral development and its languages; the space; interaction and play. In addition to those definitions, there are reflections on quality as a concept for the development and implementation of those projects; human sensorial capabilities, according to architect Victor Papanek, and the child in the present society. After the contextualization of those spaces in the city, we present a compilation of selected project, organized according to chronology, location and authors. With a qualitative exploratory research method and case studies, this work is organized in topics: context, trajectory, concepts and projects involved; it presents experimental and creative approaches, in conceptions that sought out new solutions and moved beyond the pre-established and conventional standards. After systematizing and analysis, we present conclusions and considerations with the aim of offering theoretical subsidies for researchers and professionals in adjacent areas for the development of new projects. By identifying approximations between play and innovation, we investigate this concept and enhance it with a reflection about complexity and the abilities that are necessary for the present times, according to Edgar Morin. We wrap up the work with a set of proposals in the fields of Architecture, Design and the Arts uniting the concepts of innovation, play and space, in experimental, creative and multidisciplinary approaches. Thus, we discuss other possible models of relationship with the surroundings and with the elements of nature. It is an invitation to reconnect with human sensorial capabilities and a path toward the development of necessary knowledge, as listed in Seven complex lessons in education for the future, by Edgar Morin: \"Detecting error and illusion; Principles of pertinent knowledge; Teaching the human condition; Earth identity; Confronting uncertainties; Understanding each other; Ethics for the human genre\".