Märit Jansson

Attractive playgrounds: some factors affecting user interest and visiting patterns.

Abstract Public playgrounds are often criticised for not corresponding to childrens needs for outdoor play areas. However, some playgrounds appear more visited and interesting to users than others. This study reviewed the literature on playground qualities and then explored some well-functioning practical examples in order to identify factors affecting playground attractiveness. Interviews and questionnaire surveys with users and observations of playgrounds in two towns in southern Sweden revealed that playground interest can be created by the presence of particular pieces of play equipment, but that the frequency of visits depends on more than equipment; on the context, placement and place-specific qualities.

The meaning of participation in school ground greening: a study from project to everyday setting

Abstract School ground greening has many acknowledged benefits for play, learning and health, but less is known about the outcomes of such projects from children’s perspectives. This study aims to investigate the process, and children’s participation, at two Swedish schools over four years of planning, planting, management and maintenance, using short interviews and observations. There was a large general interest among the children to participate in the development and maintenance of their school grounds, but different participatory and pedagogical approaches were used. The participation of children in the planning stage appears to be of specific importance for the functionality of school grounds, while long-term participation in management and maintenance can affect children’s experiences from, and perspectives on, greening areas and projects positively over time. The results point to the large impact that greening projects with continuity in participation can have on children’s activity and meaning-making.

The governance of landscape management: new approaches to urban open space development

ABSTRACT The concept and practice of urban open space (UOS) management is becoming increasingly influenced by varying governance arrangements for participatory co-development. These varying arrangements generate multifaceted approaches to UOS management as well as to landscape architecture more broadly. Governance and management constitute two central themes within UOS development, but their combination has so far been little addressed, despite its potential in addressing different desired values and processes. This paper uses a secondary case study approach to highlight and analyse this combination in different contexts and discusses conceptual use and knowledge gaps within landscape architecture, critically rethinking current process logics, reflecting on new tendencies for co- and self-management and discussing consequences for theory and practice. The conceptual understanding of governance approaches in UOS management presented may be useful for sustainable long-term development of UOS.

A New Method of Random Environmental Walking for Assessing Behavioral Preferences for Different Lighting Applications

Accurate assessment of people’s preferences for different outdoor lighting applications is increasingly considered important in the development of new urban environments. Here a new method of random environmental walking is proposed to complement current methods of assessing urban lighting applications, such as self-report questionnaires. The procedure involves participants repeatedly walking between different lighting applications by random selection of a lighting application and preferred choice or by random selection of a lighting application alone. In this manner, participants are exposed to all lighting applications of interest more than once and participants’ preferences for the different lighting applications are reflected in the number of times they walk to each lighting application. On the basis of an initial simulation study, to explore the feasibility of this approach, a comprehensive field test was undertaken. The field test included random environmental walking and collection of participants’ subjective ratings of perceived pleasantness (PP), perceived quality, perceived strength, and perceived flicker of four lighting applications. The results indicate that random environmental walking can reveal participants’ preferences for different lighting applications that, in the present study, conformed to participants’ ratings of PP and perceived quality of the lighting applications. As a complement to subjectively stated environmental preferences, random environmental walking has the potential to expose behavioral preferences for different lighting applications.