Being for nature: Exploring the design of pedagogical greenspaces to support children’s connection to nature in the urban context
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Author
Date
2020
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Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
87
Series
Abstract
Children today are born into a complex and contradictory world of entwined social and ecological problems with increasing levels of uncertainty. As the number of plant and animal species plummets in what scientists describe as the sixth mass extinction, the flow of people to urban areas continues to rise. Simultaneously, the decline of children’s routine experience of nature is widely reported with direct impacts on health, wellbeing and the development of positive environmental attitudes. In the nexus of these interrelated problems lies an opportunity for urban design which promotes both ecosystem and human flourishing. The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine how the design of pedagogical green spaces, namely school yards and urban parks can enhance children’s connection to nature. For the main research component, I conducted a five-week observational study of outdoor schools in Stockholm. The purpose of the study was to record the relation between the qualities of various significant nature situations and the physical properties of the spaces that they occurred within. The results suggest that it is possible to determine which physical elements are frequently part of significant nature situations. By including these elements within the design of pedagogical greenspaces, it is likely that a high potential for nature connection could be provided. Furthermore, the results show the qualities of significant nature situations can be divided into 5 key categories: restorative experiences, creative experiences, sensory experiences, physical free play and nature school which were recorded alongside the physical properties present in each situation. The results show that the first four categories are linked to specific physical attributes while nature school activities utilised a combination of different properties. Consequently, there is a potential to design greenspaces which support specific types of nature situations. The results can be utilised by urban planners and designers as a guide for designing and evaluating pedagogical greenspaces based on the development of different types of significant nature situations. An important implication of the study is the finding that many of the physical properties that enhance the likelihood of human nature connection, occur within healthy ecosystems and as such is a powerful motivator for development of urban greenspaces that simultaneously enhance ecosystem resilience with human health and wellbeing.Description
Supervisor
Berglund, EevaThesis advisor
Giusti, MatteoKeywords
human-nature connection,, urban planning, urban greenspace, social-ecological urbanism, regenerative design, regenerative compatibility
