Research On The Children Outdoor Playing Demand And Space In The Residential Area

With the rapid development of our economic society,faster pace of urban construction,urbanization movement brought fresh new look to China.However,high-density urban constructions combined with the disordered traffic,is severely squeezing and invading spaces for children living in cities to take outdoor activities.Nowadays,it is hard to find grassland for children to play football,and the soil land where they can play on the swings and dig bunkers are being covered by buildings,even the lanes from home to school have disappeared,children are losing their paradise gradually.Even though there exist certain gaps between China and developed countries on the level of urbanization,but given on similar national nature of children and the similarity of the world urban globalization and modernization process,we analyzed the problems related to children outdoor playing space in our country,comparing with and referring to developed countries.It is feasible and meaningful to improve children outdoor playing space in our country.In this study,we studied children outdoor playing space of residential areas in both Shanghai and Tokyo.By means of literature analysis,questionnaire and case study,the investigation focused on two aspects: 800 and 600 copies of questionnaires were issued in Shanghai and Tokyo,respectively.We made research on preferences,satisfaction and demands on children outdoor playing space in both areas;selected six representative residential areas of three types,made field investigation on children outdoor playing space on following aspects: number,scale,distribution,and service behaviors.Based on the survey materials and data,we applied the method of contrasting induction,analytical reasoning,summarized and explained the problems existing in Shanghai and the experience of Tokyo,and came up with some concrete suggestions on optimization of outdoor activity space in Shanghai residential areas.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:(1)There are many things in common between children in Shanghai and Tokyo on preference and satisfaction of outdoor activities: a very high enthusiasm for outdoor activities;in great need of large-scale venues;high standard for venues and the quality and safety of facilities.(2)There are some differences between children in Shanghai and Tokyo on preference and satisfaction of outdoor activities: children in Shanghai have less time and lower quality for outdoor activities than those in Tokyo;children in Tokyo have more autonomy for outdoor activities than those in Shanghai;as for the ability to supply outdoor playing space,Tokyo is significantly better than Shanghai;Tokyo have diverse types of outdoor playing space and reasonable distribution in comparison with those in Shanghai.(3)Features of children outdoor playing space in two residential areas: Tokyo’s residential area have more and larger scale of children outdoor playing space than those in Shanghai;Tokyo are provided with all types of activity space,while Shanghai are in lack of specialized and public activity space;Tokyo have scattered children outdoor playing space,in contrast,Shanghai have relatively concentrated children outdoor playing space and high reliance on urban facilities.(4)Children’s outdoor activities in Shanghai are in face of following problems: security issues affecting children’s outdoor activities;study pressure reducing time for outdoor activities;a low degree of autonomy;in lack of natural active partners;in short of diversity of outdoor activities.(5)Children outdoor playing spaces of residential areas in Shanghai are in face of following problems: in lack of specialized children’s outdoor playground;unreasonable location for children outdoor playing space;not meeting the needs of children of different ages;high degree of landscaping in children outdoor playing space;low satisfaction for outdoor activities.(6)Tokyo has experience in children outdoor playing space building: a reasonable network system of children outdoor playing space;an ideal hierarchy for children outdoor playing space;effective solution to the problem of road traffic safety hazard areas;preventing crime through environmental occurrence.(7)Optimization recommendations are made for construction of children outdoor playing space in Shanghai residential areas: the establishment of systematic network of children outdoor playing space;hierarchical planning and design children outdoor playing space;improving the demand of diversity of children outdoor playing space;to ensure the safety of children outdoor playing space.The innovation of this paper: based on first-hand survey data,we expanded comparative study on children outdoor playing space both in Shanghai and Tokyo.Also,we analyzed and summarized Tokyo’s advanced experience in construction and management of children outdoor playing space.Moreover,we provided recommendations for solving Shanghai existing problems;combining questionnaire survey of the demands of children outdoor playing space with its fieldwork,we focus on exploring how to design and construction management of children outdoor playing space which is based on children’s demands.In this study,we conducted research only for two parts of residential space for children outdoor playing space in Shanghai and Tokyo,so there are certain limitations of geography and time.In addition,not only limited ability of cognitive and expression of children but also author’s limited knowledge and language skills will all affect the quality of research.Thus,the breadth and depth of this research are still insufficient,pending subsequent supplements.