How do nature and landscape dialogue within spaces designed for children? How are architecture and urban design capable of shaping natural atmospheres that integrate practices of play, participation, and exploration? From participatory projects that involve children in the design process to built environments that incorporate furniture adapted to their needs, the conception of spaces for childhood entails the creation of places for encounter, learning, and coexistence. At times, these spaces are able to strengthen the relationships between interiors and exteriors, connecting their users with nature and the surrounding environment. Depending on their cultures, customs, and histories of attachment to place, several contemporary projects deploy tools and strategies that integrate architecture, nature, and pedagogy to form broad experiences of learning, play, and discovery.
Toward the end of the 20th century, cities and societies worldwide underwent a profound structural historical transformation marked by a technological revolution. This revolution was organized around information technologies and the globalization of the economy and communication, which continues to this day to transform the ways of producing, consuming, managing, informing, and thinking. Various professionals in architecture and urbanism, together with institutions and organizations, have devoted themselves to considering how to design spaces suited to the needs of young children. For example, within the framework of the 1998 Rosario Strategic Plan, the Municipality of Rosario, together with UNICEF Argentina, set out to launch “The City of Children.” This project, based on a proposal by the Italian pedagogue Francesco Tonucci, envisioned a new way of thinking about the city on a child’s scale. Under the premise that the more a city adapts to children, the better all its inhabitants live, it involved the planning of public spaces for play and encounter, the historical recovery of neighborhoods, and the protection of the rights of pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, among other factors.
Aiming to create better social conditions for children and thereby improve the city, the approach sought to create public spaces for shared learning from a playful perspective. Presented by the Secretariat of Culture and Education of Rosario, the Tríptico de la Infancia consolidated itself as a project of social action and transformation developed from childhood for the whole community. Through public spaces of coexistence, it aspires to reaffirm the importance of play as a basic strategy to support the process of socialization and to contribute new tools to the learning of children and families. It is composed of three spaces: El Jardín de los Niños (The Children’s Garden), which recovers a traditional city promenade combining the enjoyment of nature with play; La Granja de la Infancia (The Childhood Farm), which fosters the relationship with nature, becoming part of it and responsible for its changes; and La Isla de los Inventos (The Island of Inventions), an open space for sciences, arts, and technologies through languages, designs, media, and formats.
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Now, how can different architectural spaces connect children with nature during their process of learning and exploration of the world? What design strategies regarding infrastructures, parks, or educational centers allow for transforming the experience of childhood into a bond with the natural environment?
Recovering Urban History through Connection with Nature
At a global level, numerous professionals in architecture and urbanism are making great efforts to consolidate places of encounter, education, and civic participation where children can connect with nature through the historical past of their cities and the heritage value of their buildings. Just as La Isla de los Inventos in Rosario rises over a former railway station and represents part of Argentina’s history, its recovery provides a cultural center for childhood accessible to citizens of all ages, backgrounds, and social experiences. Tainan Spring by MVRDV also reclaims an obsolete infrastructure, but in this case through the historical relationship of the city of Tainan with its old canals. In this way, a new public square is created, incorporating a small waterway into the project amid a series of gardens, children’s playgrounds, meeting rooms, and a stage for community events. As Winy Maas, founding partner of MVRDV, declares: “Tainan Spring is a place where people can immerse themselves in the history of the site. A space where children can play to discover the ruins of their city’s past – isn’t it fantastic?”
Integrating Learning into the Landscape and Its Natural Topography
The integration of nature into collective learning demonstrates benefits and opportunities in the development of educational centers, enabling, not only connections with the natural environment but also the incorporation of activities linked to various disciplines. In Uruguay, for example, Rosan Bosch Studio has designed a new campus and learning environment immersed in a dense eucalyptus forest, fostering a unique connection with nature. Thus, a design concept was developed that integrates learning indoors and outdoors, promoting curiosity, exploration, play, and self-expressionThus, a design concept was developed that integrates indoor and outdoor learning, promoting curiosity, exploration, play, and self-expression. By applying principles of biophilic design and positioning nature as a guide for the architectural premise and material selection, the goal is for learning to transcend traditional boundaries by considering nature as both a complement to learning and as the classroom itself. On the other hand, the African Flow Kindergarten by Urbanitree in Cameroon has reinvented educational spaces by fostering an emotional connection between children and the spaces that shape their daily activities in a fluid and intuitive way. Organized as a continuous system of ecosystems (mountain, savanna, village, and forest), it seeks to connect children with their origins and culture, engaging them in activities that adapt to the spaces that host them.
La Granja de la Infancia in Rosario, led by the project team of Paula Fierro and Lucas Berca, seeks to create a poetics of quality of life, making people responsible for nature in order to build ecological thinking. It presents an integration of nature and culture through a series of spaces for learning different trades, experimenting with aromas, pigments, and plants, among others. On this 5-hectare site, the goal was to design a territory that contains activities with freedom, shaping the site’s topography with hills that divide rather than enclose. Bringing together concepts of play, non-formal education, and multiple models of participation in harmony with the landscape, the project aims for architecture to accompany nature rather than dominate it. Meanwhile, the FK Kindergarten and Nursery in the city of Fukahori is located in a region full of slopes, where houses are built along the roads. The proposal seeks to translate the way Fukahori has coexisted with the land into the daily lives of children, merging indoors and outdoors so that play flows in every direction. On land with a drop of nearly 7 meters and steep slopes, the architecture takes advantage of these conditions to minimize environmental impact and maximize children’s play areas. Seeking for children to grow in interaction with nature and the urban landscape, the buildings are situated following natural contours while the slopes themselves become play areas.
Designing Public Spaces for Children with Environmental Awareness
Understanding that the creation of public spaces for childhood is evolving through contemporary approaches that embrace diversity and inclusion, the impact of the natural environment on children’s daily lives also demonstrates its capacity to evolve. Several design proposals for parks, squares, and other recreational areas aim to instill not only social skills but also life values related to independence, species conservation, respect for nature, environmental care, and more. While projects such as Kid Cabin in Chonburi, Thailand, consolidate a refuge adapted to children’s proportions and embrace simplicity, connection with nature, and play, there are also larger-scale interventions such as the Playgrounds in Jaworek Park in Tychy, Poland, which combine the natural landscape with modern recreational solutions. In a fusion of recreational, educational, and social functions, the proposal includes a water play area and a natural play area. A natural playground features games and educational elements made from natural materials, arranged along winding paths with vegetation and complemented by rain gardens that contribute to the natural water cycle and foster biodiversity.
From the design of public spaces and recreational gardens to the reuse of infrastructures or the conscious adaptation of educational centers to their natural surroundings, there are numerous contemporary architecture and urbanism projects that focus on improving the quality of life for children. Whether by strategically recovering their urban history, integrating learning practices into the landscape, or introducing greater awareness about environmental care, among other possible approaches, the strategies seek to incorporate more inclusive and creative design solutions that blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, enabling the development of their cultures, uses, and customs. As a reflection, we may then ask: how can contemporary design inspire new practices of exploration and formation in new generations? In what ways should professionals in architecture and urbanism project the future design of learning spaces while addressing the changing environmental conditions of ecosystems and landscapes?
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Shaping Spaces for Children, proudly presented by KOMPAN.
At KOMPAN, we believe that shaping spaces for children is a shared responsibility with lasting impact. By sponsoring this topic, we champion child-centered design rooted in research, play, and participation—creating inclusive, inspiring environments that support physical activity, well-being, and imagination, and help every child thrive in a changing world.
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