Child Friendly Cities
and Gardens
The creation of human/baby scaled
immersive environments within the
babies’ garden was realised through
intertwining grass lawns, swaying grass
and perennial beds with crawling paths,
colourful taller shrubs and hidden gems
for the children to discover.
Movement, colour and sound provided
young ones with the motivation to
crawl and totter around each corner,
leading to encounters with ride-on
sheep, giant Allium woodlands, sweetly
tasting tiny strawberries and willow
hidey-holes large enough for the baby
and their main carer.
Playful Active Landscapes
Flower Forest, Babies Garden
Last year, I was asked to design a
nursery garden and set upon the task
joyfully with a copy of Mary Sheriden’s
seminal book ‘From birth to 5 years:
Children’s developmental progress’ by
my side. I’ve always been a ‘method
designer’ and wanted to discover what
kind of environment my young clients
needed me to create, what my design
looked like through their eyes and how
that knowledge might be translated
into reShaped's public realm designs.
Human Scale Detail
The babies garden was for children
from six months to competent
walkers and we particularly wanted to
understand what the space looked like
from a baby’s height.
30 Landscape & Urban Design
In Liverpool, the Anglican Cathedral
makes me feel small, both, within it
and from Chinatown and the Baltic.
Inside the Cathedral, the architect has
immersed the viewer in the grandeur
and scale of the space.
Outside, the scale is less controlled
and the nearer the ground you are,
the more perspective makes surfaces
more expansive, the Cathedral taller
and wide open spaces more bland
and uncomfortable. Dense detailed
environments, however, humanise the
scale of the Cathedral and its sudden
‘discovery’ around a corner is exciting
and makes me feel like I’ve just seen an
old friend.
The tweenies garden was for
competent walkers under two years
old. The nursery staff and I decided
that it was important for the children
to have a lot of opportunities for role
play and encourage development of
their running, jumping and climbing
skills. Our budgets precluded the use
of catalogue equipment and therefore
we needed to develop a more ‘playful’
approach.
Over the past few years, I have been
working on a number of vacant land
co-design projects, building furniture
and creating playgrounds that children
designed for themselves.
These playgrounds, typically contain
play equipment integrated with their
natural setting and are described
based on how everything will be used,
colours, who they are with and the
character of the environment that
they are creating. Every element of
their design is full of opportunities for
play, adaptable and can be used in a
multitude of scenarios.