Growing up [now in the urban modernity] free play along the way

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how public space can support the fundaments of children’s rights and impact a child’s development. The proposal seeks a way that allows a play that goes beyond a fenced ‘protective’ playgrounds which are alienated from the surrounding, other people and usually guarded by parents who set up rules and control the play. The Czech Republic is a small country in the middle of Europe that is still recovering from the Soviet Union regime, that endured until gaining independency in 1993. This period of socialistic rule left tons of grey panel high-rise housing estates all over the area and the country is still struggling to find the right approach for their development. Nevertheless, people got used to this urban typology and even like living there. This fact makes them an interesting area that allows an opportunity for experiments. Mainly for its particularities such as -outskirt or suburb placement, greenery, not heavy-load traffic and especially a big urge for transformation. Growing up in this world means being watched all the time. It starts in early childhood, when the first restrictions occur -you cannot touch, don’t do this, you can hurt yourself! Such a typical quote is heard almost every day during youth times. Parental fear is natural, but how can a child learn to be an independent and actively developing human being when not allowed to explore by their own way? Missing this natural ability and overprotection, children tend to become more fragile both physically and mentally. By recreating public spaces -streets, parks, court yards in our cities -making them safer and child friendly, can emerge a potential for shifting parent’s mindset, that not everything is a death trap for their infants. Let’s give children more independency through not restrained -free play and experience of environment in the city that assure learning outcome and a tighter attachment between them and the natural world.