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Playground in Tirana Created with Kids

30/10/2013

Public spaces in Albanian cities over the past 20 years, have been transformed into parking lots, cafeterias & bars, or piles of uncollected waste. More often than not, they are also transformed into additions to existing buildings, or multistory buildings. Along with the public space, gone are the chances for people to stay in them and socialize, play, or simply watch the world go by. Today, children and the elderly make for two of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to lack of public space.

In order to showcase that community willingness is enough when coupled with commitment, creativity and recyclable materials, Co-PLAN and POLIS University under the City for Citizens, Citizens for city project financed by the EU, decided to build a playground for children and a modest recreational area for the elderly.

POLIS University students, together with architects, urban planners and engineers, with the support and collaboration of the Municipal Unit 11, Tirana, worked for three weeks to produce a multifunctional, colorful playground. The project built on children’s wishes, and suggestions from the residents of the area, which were then transformed into practical games produced by the students and specialists. The project relied on the use of recyclable materials, such as tyres and wooden pallets, all of which are very easy to find.

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Happening in Prague Celebrated Walking

16/10/2013

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„We like walking and we need it as well,“ confessed pedestrians and cyclists participating in a happening organized by the Prague Mothers organisation in cooperation with the organization Krocan in the Klicov forest in Vysocany, Prague. The happening aimed to highlight walking as an alternative for outdoor movement as well as for short distance transport in the city. „Walking has many advantages. Besides being good for body and soul, it also saves you money for tickets - or for the gym,“ Jarmila Johnova from Prague Mothers says.

Families with childrens, who have visited the Klicov forest despite light rain, are fans of walking and of the park itself. As the answers to following three questions proved, both walking and park are interconnected and supplement each other.

Is walking important for you? Why so?
It turned out that most children and adults walk because they enjoy the movement for various reasons: “So that I’m not lazy,” a small girl said. “Because I am a sportsman,” claimed proudly one of the boys. “You get to know people and your surroundings,” the youth wrote. The adults found different reasons, such as that it’s relaxing for them, calming them down, they do it for health or against stress, because they consider it important for their life, or simply because they enjoy it.

What is acceptable “walking distance” for you?
“Our pedestrians” state that the time between 15 minutes to 4 hours and distance of 1 to 5 km is OK for them. It’s worth noting that most of the “inner-city” streets in Prague are shorter than 5 km. Therefore, it would be possible to walk down those streets at least time to time, only if…

What would make walking in the city more pleasant for you?
The trick is that the pedestrians are missing something. Most of them agreed that in order for the walks down the streets to be more pleasant, they don’t want to be disturbed, among others by “cars and noise”. What would they appreciate? “More green areas, cleaner sidewalks, fresh air and fewer barriers.” “If the cars made less smoke, if there was no poo on the sidewalk,” children said openly. Pepik misses several things on the street: “Ice cream, pool and trees.”

To improve pedestrian paths and sidewalks is the mission of the Chodci sobe website (Pedestrians for Themselves). At this website, powered by the Prague Mothers organisation, Prague pedestrians can identify the problems they face. “We found out that citizens don’t believe in effectiveness of this tool, as they do not have the best experience with public administration,” Johnova from the Prague Mothers says. “Thanks to the website, approximately 800 complaints were made by Prague citizens, 120 of which we managed to solve.” We tried to persuade visitors of the Klicov forest not to give up on cooperation with local government and public administration and give it a second chance. “When the citizen wants nothing, he gets nothing,” Johnova says.

The pedestrian happening in the Klicov forest was a part of the Festival of Trees organized annually by the organisation Krocan and visited by many Vysocany inhabitants. The event with the character of an intimate neighbourhood festivity includes fire, roasting and home-made cakes. The visitors took part in a “battle game” within which they fulfilled various tasks. Besides questions with pedestrian topic, they also guessed how long it takes for various artificial materials to fall apart in nature, got to know and recognise types of trees.

Na konec si všichni chodci vystřihli z odrazového materiálu svou stopu, již v Klíčovském parku nechali zářit do noci. „Chtěli jsme tak zviditelnit své přesvědčení, že každý, kdo po městě chodí, zanechá v jeho krajině svůj otisk,“ vysvětluje Dana Balcarová z o.s. Krocan.

At the end of the event, all the participants cut out a shape of their foot out from a reflecting material and left it to shine into the night in the Klicov Park. “We wanted to visualise our belief that everybody walking down the town leaves an imprint,“ Dana Balcarova from the Krocan explains.

Photo by the Prague Mothers

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Interventions on the Playground in Bratislava are Welcomed by Both Grown-ups and Kids

2/10/2013

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Slovak Governance Institute (SGI) along with municipality Bratislava – Nove mesto plan to contribute to positive changes of the playground at the Osadna Street in Bratislava in upcoming months. To know the needs and preferences of the visitors of the playground and reflect these in the planned interventions SGI organized planning participatory event on September, 26 from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm.

We chose comparative method as our research method. Our aim was to compare the individual needs and preferences of the target group at the playground (its visitors), as well as to identify group preferences based on age and gender of respondents, and if relevant, the number and age of their children. In order to gain the data we needed, we chose individual semi-structured interviews with the playground visitors - mothers, fathers, children, seniors, groups of nursery pupils and elementary school pupils from nearby nursery and elementary school at the Česká street.
We asked them questions from a unified questionnaire, but also gave them space for their own suggestions and recommendations.

In general, the playground is perceived in a positive light. The visitors are overall content, especially with its size and amount of green areas. They say they are happy to have it. During the interviews, we did not perceive any latent conflict.
People have suggested several financially non-demanding and easily implemented changes that will make the playground more attractive. When it came to less demanding interventions, they suggested repairing benches, creating a chalk drawing table at the wall, covering for the sandbox and fitting the wooden pallets around the sandbox in the front part of the playground or stocking the tennis table and growing new trees in the back part of the playground. Among more demanding interventions mentioned, a drinking water fountain, roof above the sandbox and new playground elements would be welcome in the front of the playground and a new surface for the ball games pitch and ice rink during winter months would be appreciated very much.

Most interventions will be realized in spring 2014.

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Playground in Tirana Created with Kids

Happening in Prague Celebrated Walking

Interventions on the Playground in Bratislava are Welcomed by Both Grown-ups and Kids

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