The aim with this report is to investigate what influence the way Playgrounds are used throw the case study in Vänersborg, and also to find methods for municipalities to collect information about how Playgrounds are used. The methods were observations, interviews with parents and children, a questionary with questions about what Playgrounds they used, how often and why they used them and what the children used to do there. There was also a demographic investigation and documentary research. The most popular playground, Skräcklan, gets visitors from all parts of the municipality. It is located in a park with a view over the lake Vänern, there is a parking place and a café and it has furthermore a large area and many play equipments. Many of the families make shorter trips and picnics to this place. In exception of this playground, the families almost always go to the playground in their neighborhood and their part of the town.

This study is essentially based on my own questions concerning contemporary Playgrounds. Why are they so unimaginative? What do the children say about them? Is it possible to create Playgrounds less constructed, and with more natural elements? This report starts with references to literature studies, personal references and my personal view, and ends with a suggestion for a physical solution for an actual day care centre. The aim is to learn more about how the natural environment affects children, the importance of playing, and try to use this knowledge in a design of a day care centre. My main theme can be summarized in the following question: Why is natural elements in Playgrounds considered to be healthy for children? I wanted to create a playground with natural characteristics which I myself would have appreciated as a child.

Children's need of a good environment of playing outdoor at schoolyards is, both from a perspective of commonly public's health and from the children themselves, indisputable. Children who have a good and varying playground develop physically, psychologically and socially. As an instrument of pedagogic a playground also is valuable for example in teaching the round, periodical successions and understanding of democratic processes. The conception playground means here in my work the environment outdoor for children at schools up to about twelve years old. What is a good playground then? How is it possible for a landscape architect to contribute improvements? The purpose of my work has been to enlarge my knowledge about Playgrounds, understand more of the profession as a landscape architect and apply a perspective of children in the planning. To sum up, the shaping of Playgrounds has great importance for the activities of the children and if the teachers make use of it, the teaching. A good playground gives the delight, the excitement and the curiosity free spaces and stimulates new challenges.

Which lignoses are suitable for childrens enviroment? There are many aspects to consider when establishment on schoolyards and Playgrounds..

Studies in the recent years have showed that the preschool playground is important for both the physical and emotional development of children. The Botkyrka local government has decided to improve their preschool Playgrounds in order to take advantage of these studies. The administration of childcare and education in Botkyrka is arranging a network between the different preschools where they work together to improve their outdoor environments. The network is arranging workshops and seminars where people from the different preschools can come and gain inspiration for improvements of their own preschools. The administration of properties has created a document where they describe the changes that are supposed to be made to the different outdoor environments. Through the administration of properties and the person who is responsible for the outdoor environments I was introduced to their work with the preschool Playgrounds.

Syftet med denna studie var att jämföra antalet anpassade utomhuslekplatser i Norrlands kommuner sedan 2001, och få svar på de ansvarigas uppfattning gällande tillgänglighet och anpassning, då tidigare studier visat på brister gällande dessa områden. Barn med funktionsnedsättning riskerar att uppleva social isolering och diskriminering om utomhuslekplatsers fysiska miljö skapar barriärer. Enligt funktionshinderpolitiken ska Sveriges allmänna platser och byggnader vara tillgängliga för alla år 2016. Metod: En enkätundersökning med mixad metod genomfördes där enkäter postades till de ansvariga för utomhuslekplatser i Norrlands 54 kommuner. Resultat: Resultatet jämfördes genomgående med en studie från 2001.

For an outdoor environment to function optimally as a playarea requires that it is flexible, that is, contains places and elements that give room for the imagination and for own interpetretations, and also that the children in some way can influence and change their surroundings. It is also important to have variety, both in the sense that the playground has a unique character that distinguishes it from other places, and that it allows many different games and activities. There should for example be room for both wild games of running and moving around where many children can participate, and calm corners to withdraw to for rest or quiet play. A good playground should surprise, challenge and encourage children to discover their surroundings. One way to achive this is to use plants and materials from nature, whose irregular forms and structures can become interesting elements to explore. Vegetation also gives sence-experiences of various kinds, materials like twigs and leafs to play with and a place to play house.

The Civil Engineering office in Skellefteå needs to develop the users' participation in the planning of parks and Playgrounds. In order to get such a procedure to work one have to find a method that can work in the daily activity. My work aims to find such a method and to implement it in practice. Apart from helping the Parks departement to find an functional method I will also develop a deepened knowledge about users?participation wich can be very useful i my future profession. This work can be divided in three stages.

The landscape architect is similar to the moviemaker in that they both want to mediate an experience with their creations. The landscape architect designs Playgrounds and the moviemaker makes movies for children, but how does the relationship between children and nature look like in the landscape formed by the movie maker?s fantasy? The purpose with this thesis is to study how the relationship between child and nature is depicted in a movie as a medium, by analysing ?My neighbour Totoro?, a Japanese animated movie from 1988 by Hayao Miyazaki. The analysis consists of two combined analyses, Experiential Landscape Analysis and Gordon Cullen?s Serial Vision, both of which analyse the relationship between a human being and her environment as well as the emotional changes that occur as she moves in it.

This is a study about how Swedish travel magazines write about tropical islands with a history of colonization. The study investigates how the islands of Mauritius, the Seychelles, Haiti, the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Zanzibar and Guadeloupe are being portrayed in four Swedish travel magazines.Travel articles published in the travel magazines Vagabond, Allt om Resor, Res and Escape 360° during the period January 2004 to December 2009 have been analyzed through critical discourse analysis.The study concludes that the travel magazines tend to idealize and aestheticize the tropical islands. The islands are being presented as paradises on earth. They are described as fairy tales, magical, dreams and as Playgrounds for Westerners. The inhabitants of the tropical islands are being judged by how well they attend to the tourists? needs and wishes.

Often places for children and youth are planned how adults think children and adolescents want them, but we are often wrong. As a result, we find empty Playgrounds while our target groups are building dens in the bushes, hanging around shopping areas, and so on. This report is an attempt to create a place for young people based on the opinions of their needs and their environment to better understand how to design a place that suits them well. To gain knowledge about how it is to be young in Simrishamn, a small township in the southwest of Sweden, I interviewed children and young adolescents. The interviews were all carried out in groups, mostly in larger groups inside where the result differed a lot depending on the settings for the interview. Two walkabouts with groups of three children were also made. Most of the children were eager to participate and tell about their reality, but some preferred not to.

Background Children spend much of their time outdoor at preschool. Preschool's mission is to provide children with a rich environment that is enjoyable, and that arouses their interest to learn new skills. Since motor skills and health are positively affected by the outdoor environment should kids get a good turnout at their preschool Playgrounds as possible.Theoretical perspectives My study is based on theories from a socio-cultural perspective. The socio-cultural context is part of the outdoor environment because we experience and perceive nature depends on the society we live in and how we interact togetherPurpose I want to see what kind of vision teachers and parents have on the outdoor environment when it comes to children's learning and development. I also want to find out how the teachers are using the outdoors environment and find out the parents' reason, when it comes to choice of preschool.Methodology The work is based on qualitative interviews with two teachers and two parents from each preschool.

AimThe aim of this essay is by using a motor skill track to see if there exists any remarkable difference in the motor skill profiles between pupils from our montessori school and the mean score in the "Nytidstest". The questions at issue we had were: How is the motor skill profile on pupils in year 2 and 3 practicing montessori pedagogy? Is the motor skill profile superior or inferior to the mean score in the "Nytidstest"? What factors, if any, concerning the montessori pedagogy affects the results of the test?MethodWe used a motor skill track consisting of 8 stations sellected from the "Nytidstest" adapted for year 3 (the original test consists of 16 stations). Pupils from year 2 and 3 in our chosen montessori school were tested in groups of 4-5 persons each. We made the tests on two occasions each lasting for 100 minutes at the time.

The harbour in Arvika is closed down and the industry that has been established in the area is now beeing wound up. A deepened comprehensive plan for the area is under progress in the municipality. The intentions are for instance that the harbour should be integrated with the city and that Arvika is facing a lake should be more apparent from the city center. The harbour should also contribute to a more attractive city. These intentions have hence been the starting point of my undergraduate theses, which has resulted in a proposal on how to develop the harbour. During the process I have analysed the city image, how the area is used today and the public places in the city centre.

The preschool constitutes a big part of many children's everyday existence. Its contents are therefore of great importance and the environment deserves a well thoughtout design. In this study, surveys in field and literature have resulted in conclusions around how plants can be used in children's play environments, in order to contribute to the experiencerelated values. The aim is to present conclusions to lean on when drawing up designproposals for new Playgrounds, especially where the natural conditions are not so favorable. The first question that is responded to is how plants can be used in order to enrich the children's play environments.