The discussion on the topic "Children's space in an urban environment" took place on May 14 and was initiated by the UNK project bureau, in whose practice spaces for children are far from the last place. For example, the architects of this studio, headed by Yulia Tryaskina, were co-authors of the new interiors of one of the iconic Moscow buildings - the Central Children's Store on Lubyanka. The event was also organized by speech: magazine, the next issue of which is dedicated to the theme "Architecture for Children". The children's topic has become very popular in recent days - recall that we recently talked about the reference schools in Finland. But first things first.
The discussion was moderated by Anna Martovitskaya, editor-in-chief, speech:. She emphasized the breadth of the "children's" typology in modern architecture and explained that for discussion, out of all the variety of buildings for children, it was street and off-street playgrounds that were chosen as the most massive and demanded spaces in any metropolis.
The introductory presentation by Anna Martovitskaya was devoted to examples of the design of children's play areas in world practice, capable of giving an answer to the question of how a city should be convenient for children. Among the successful ones were the Teardrop Park in New York, whose dignity lies in the variety of scenarios for active games and child development, and the Interlace playground of the Carve Bureau in Singapore. World practice offers solutions aimed at involving children in social and fantasy games, creating fertile ground for the development of thinking and an active "author's" position. In Russia, the typological set of this genre is still very limited. Bright children's areas that appear at shopping centers, fitness clubs, hospitals and cafes can entertain children while their parents are busy, but to what extent do they take into account the interests and age characteristics of the child? Anna Martovitskaya proposed to discuss these, as well as other problems of children's spaces.
Voluntary certification and its standards
The first of the invited guests took the floor Elena Semenkova, Deputy Head of the Department of Architectural and Artistic Appearance of the City of the Moscow City Architecture Committee. She said that mandatory certification of all equipment for sports and play areas appeared only in the early 2000s. Gradually, the department has formed a classification of equipment for various age categories: from those intended for active entertainment to those involving a more relaxed pastime and even with an educational bias. The developers tried to take into account not only the physical characteristics of a child of a certain age - say, the size of the hand, on which the thickness of the handrails depends - but also his psychology and interests. When developing the classification, officials paid special attention to the safety of children - they calculated the reliability of structures, the height of the steps, and even the speed of a child of a certain mass sliding down the hill.
According to Elena Semenkova, if SNIPs rather limited the development of the typology of a children's playground, then the voluntary certification, which most manufacturers now use, on the contrary, opened up new opportunities.
Among the disadvantages of voluntary certification, Elena Semenkova called the recommendatory nature of all comments regarding the appearance of sites - only their user characteristics are required.
Now the designer independently determines the set of elements, color and configuration of volumes. And the designer is also responsible for safety - not counting, of course, the operating organization.
Therefore - this is how the representative of the department concluded her story - so far it has not been possible to regulate the architectural appearance of children's spaces, except perhaps for the iconic sections of the city. The developer most often makes a choice in favor of overly bright, flashy colors and shapes, and in the space of parks they look like foreign objects.
Need for a game
When asked how justified such bright color solutions are, I tried to answer Maria Sokolova, psychologist and employee of the center for examination of games and toys, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education … She recalled that a child's basic need is play. On the street, children should not only walk and actively move, as most parents think. The space of the city should provide a small resident with a variety of opportunities for play - an activity thanks to which he can develop and learn about the world.
A small stream where paper boats can be launched, according to the speaker, will bring more benefits and joy than bright and bulky structures. A study of playgrounds in the Volkhonka area was devoted to the study of the demand for certain game elements by children. Maria Sokolova told how the main sites of this area were monitored for two months, and as a result, statistics of their popularity were compiled, according to which three of them were constantly empty, several more were in demand, mainly among adults and students, and only a few playgrounds attracted children.
When it comes to equipment for play areas, research has shown that it still lacks variety today.
The need for children to play is now met by less than 40% - and even then by such elements as a house or a sandbox.
Functionally closed objects do not allow the child to create his own play scenario, transform the environment, make it “his own”. The absence of at least some kind of landscape also significantly limits the possibilities of children. Added to all this are low-quality materials from which the equipment is made, an abundance of fragile plastic, many sensory stimuli, which include combinations of bright colors. In fact, the child, according to the psychologist, does not need these flowers, he will always find a playground, even if it merges with the trees in the park. Moreover, bright objects can even be dangerous, as they provoke errors in movement.
Maria Sokolova suggested, drawing attention to all the listed mistakes and misconceptions of adults, to create a kind of model of a well-organized space for children. It combines opportunities for movement, creativity, communication, experimentation, exploration and risk. Recreation areas coexist with privacy areas. The objects are made as open and varied as possible, and the spaces are devoid of visible fences. The site takes into account the interests of the smallest visitors, teenagers and their parents. The latter should not be indifferent observers, but full-fledged participants in the game process: for this it is necessary to create objects for joint activities of an adult and a child. Of the most successful examples from her own practice, Sokolova cited the Eco-Village in the Olympic Sochi Park, where the authors tried to create a very variable gaming environment.
Examples of
The discussion moved smoothly from theory to practice. Co-founder of UNK project bureau, architect Yulia Tryaskina told about several projects for young "users" at once. The largest and most important update can rightfully be called interiors of the "Central Children's Store" on Lubyanka, the opening of which all Muscovites have been waiting with excitement for many years. Having acted as co-authors of the interiors, they tried to preserve their historical appearance as much as possible. The space created according to the project of Alexei Dushkin comes to life at the entrance to the hall - the same square, the same clock … - said Yulia Tryaskina, - but the higher, the more noticeably the interior changes, acquiring modern features. This, according to Tryaskina, was the idea. Closer to the dome, in the new atriums, there are interactive zones where you can play and draw cartoons. Nearby is a large library. A little off to the side is a space food court under colorful stained-glass windows. There is also a children's cinema, and places for joint creativity of children and their parents. True, as Yulia admitted, the concept of children's stay in the store has not yet been finalized, but it will develop further, taking into account the identified interests and requests of children.
Another implemented project created by UNK - children's food court in the Grad shopping center in Voronezh … The store was built a long time ago and initially did not provide for a separate room for children, but the owner turned to the architectural bureau with a request to supplement the adult interiors with children. The architects proposed a very unconventional solution - a fabulous food court offering exclusively baby food. Its central counter looks like a carousel - bright and colorful, visible from the first floor. The areas located around are designed in natural, more restrained colors. The main accent is a fabulous tree, which spreads its branches widely, and under them there are tables of bizarre shapes, small houses where you can hide, and even a mini-theater.
Another UNK children's project is being done in Ryazan - family entertainment center in Ryazan takes into account the interests of children of different ages and does not forget about their parents. Yulia Tryaskina noted that the creation of non-overlapping zones for toddlers and adolescents was one of the main tasks of the project. Thus, a Panda Park, a bowling alley, a climbing wall and a special pride of the project - the Innopark scientific and educational center - appeared inside the complex.
An unusual project for children in every sense was presented founder of the Masterslavl project Vitaly Survillo and Executive Director of PRIDEX Sergey Kudryavtsev, engaged in the implementation of the plan. "Masterslavl" or the City of Craftsmen is 7 thousand m2 areas for the education and development of children. This is the first such project in Moscow, and, as its founder emphasizes, it primarily has an educational function, although it is positioned as an entertainment center. Outwardly, the entire two-level space of the center resembles a fragment of a small historical European city with winding streets, facades of houses, a city square, bridges, wooden benches and street lamps. The space has been recreated with amazing precision, it does not look like a props. For reliability, the developer used exclusively natural, very high-quality materials, strove for a high level of detail, avoided standard solutions: each pavilion received its own individual design. Inside the pavilions, the child is presented with a variety of play scenarios and tasks that contribute to his development. The set of workshops is quite large, so everyone can find something to their liking and even decide on the choice of a profession.
The center has been operating for six months and during this time it has become quite popular. But, as Vitaly Survillo said, during this time the main difficulties faced by all children's spaces in Russia have been exposed. The first obstacle is related to the particular climate. The constant cold and precipitation do not allow the use of open areas all year round. That is why already at the initial stage of designing "Masterslavl" it was decided to hide this space under a roof. However, there are now not enough open-air areas, where one could go freely in case of sunny weather. Another problem is creating equally comfortable conditions for children of different ages. Children of different ages do not mix with each other, they try to communicate exclusively with their peers. Providing each individual group with an interesting and comfortable stay is, as Vitaly notes, an extremely difficult task. In addition, the environment must be safe and vandal-resistant. But still, the main problem, in his opinion, is the parents, who either do not know what to do with themselves while their child is playing, or interfere with him, or completely relinquish responsibility for the child, completely shifting it onto the teachers.
Summarizing the speech, Vitaly Survillo said, that the rules and requirements are getting stricter every year and in fact ruining children's spaces.
Thinking, according to the entrepreneur, should be about the essentials. And on the issue of regulation, it would be nice to turn to Western experience, where the child himself determines the quality of a particular environment: he simply will not go to an uninteresting platform.
Anton Grechko, chief architect of the architectural and design bureau "CITY", by his own admission, came to the meeting with questions rather than answers. Until today, there was no place for children in the MIBC: after all, the project did not even provide for full-fledged public areas. At the same time, the needs of office workers and residents of the City for them are huge. According to the figure voiced by Anton Grechko, currently the number of people with children under the age of 6 working and living in the territory of "Moscow City" is 8,000 people. The city is changing every year, now it has finally come to the improvement. According to the speaker, a project for the development of embankments, the creation of new green zones is being developed, the possibility of connecting the complex with a park on Krasnaya Presnya is being considered. It is also planned to create a day care children's development center in one of the MIBC towers.
At the end of the discussion, representatives of the PSN Group spoke. They talked about an already implemented project of a similar a children's center, built in the heart of the large business district "Novospassky Dvor". After conducting a marketing research, the owners of the complex came to the conclusion that the employees are in dire need of a kindergarten right on the territory of the quarter. We must pay tribute to the company - on a seemingly unsuitable territory, they managed to create quite a comfortable space for the daytime stay of children, including their own walking area and a sports complex.
