Reinstating Play Grounds: Reintroducing Children to their Urban Environment through the Repossession of the Street

Abstract

For children around the world, patterns in their daily lives are solidifying their relationships with their environment and society. This thesis reimagines the role of the street as a medium for children to engage with their communities. A human-scaled approach to community design that focuses on children’s independent mobility and street-based community life allows children to play an active role in the developing character of a community. A fractured community in the North End of Halifax, Nova Scotia that has been demolished by a car dealership provides a testing ground, allowing children to reclaim the street and giving them the mobility needed to use the community as play grounds. Design principles provided within can be applied at the community scale, building scale, and child scale and all contribute to the street’s potential to be a place for movement, daily life, play, and event.