Preference 6. Inviting and engaging green and play spaces
Access to open spaces for play, relaxation and exercise is fundamental for health and wellbeing, but those spaces are not universally liked. Green, by itself, is not enough.
Public green and play spaces are most pleasing when seen as flexible, cared for, and functionally engaging.
Kidbrooke Village replaces the concrete deck-access Ferrier Estate. Both have (or had) green space at their core, but while the former spaces were barren green swards, the replacement is a rich and fun landscape of parklands in which well over double the number of homes will be situated. Here, during the summer (left) and winter (right), the green, blue and play spaces off-set simple architecture, and rather than the buildings, it is the landscape that is the star of the show.
Segregated, neglected, barren and overly manicured green areas are unappealing.
Too often the design of open and play space seems to be an afterthought: relegated to the edge of developments (top left), located on otherwise unusable land, or simply part of the traffic infrastructure (top right). Likewise, token play spaces or overly formal public spaces (bottom left and right) can seem barren of purpose and meaning and therefore inherently unattractive. In all these circumstances, where play, leisure, social and ecological value is minimised, so is aesthetic appeal.