CHILDREN AS NATURAL PLAYGROUND DESIGNERS

AT SIEKIERKI COMMUNITY GARDEN

(2021 - now)

 

At Siekierki Community Garden half of the space was given to the children, who built a playground according to their wish out of found tyres and branches. During discussions with the neighbours we often looked at the issue of the amount of closed estates in the area with meticulously designed patios looking like concrete-monoculture renders, lacking open spaces created not only for children but mainly by children. In case of such infrastructure, the amount of children’s interactions drops in comparison with e.g. a forest, in which one can find endless loose materials for building and decision making. The non-hierarchical space of Siekierki Community Garden also includes children, therefore we wanted to listen to them and give them leadership believing that their participation in the process of creating the city may result in higher engagement in urban decision making in adulthood.