Every place is a stage where people interact. The nature of the stage and its scenography to some extent shapes the interaction.
Considered as a place, the school ground gives rise to many varying expectations. Lower school pupils often have clear ideas of how they are expected to behave and how they are expected to use the place. But as the pupils age, the purpose of the school ground grows less obvious. This presents the planner with a challenge as well as creative freedom. Obviously, the basic functions of the school grounds remain the same whether children or young adults are using it; windows should offer a pleasant view; pupils should have ready access to a place for gathering during breaks. The grounds should offer pupils a chance to relax from the demands of the classroom and fill their lungs with fresh air and their heads with new thoughts. In the best of worlds, the school ground can become an extra class room and a pedagogical resource for the school.
But whereas school grounds present younger children with ample room for games and play, an activity void appears as pupils age. The identity and usage of place is no longer determined by games and play. Something else must fill the void: the school ground can become a place where you can set tracks.
Since adults create school grounds, they express an adult perspective. They are by and large shaped by adult values, adult’s readiness to delegate responsibility to children, and adult’s faith in children’s judgement. Our personalities are partly formed the physical environment in which we develop. People shape places that in turn shape people. The school ground is then a space that not only influences the physical health of sub-adults, but also their personality. Consequently, the best of school grounds embraces the tracks set by the pupils By allowing someone to shape their own environment, you allow them to shape their own self. The school ground then becomes a place that belongs to the pupils, a place to which they can belong.
There are two ways to set tracks. One is to effectively change the physical situation. The other is to instruct someone who is involved in the planning process. In this work I have examined various ways of designing school grounds in collaboration with its users. It has been my intention to use the visions that students of the upper secondary school have of their outdoor environment. The work has allowed me as a landscape architect to examine how I can create external places based in part on students’ inner worlds. The work also includes a proposal to renovate the school ground at Alströmergymnasiet, an upper secondary school in the south of Sweden. My aim has been to rely on user participitation both for creating an inventory of the grounds and as a method for real...
