Research on playground equipment's design and applications in public spaces; Basaksehir case

Play is the most important part of the child's life. Creating an area where child can express himself freely gives an opportunity to help to get to know the child's inner World. Outdoor playgrounds are separated especially for child use by local governments in the city. Children's playgrounds cover a significant part of the time children spend outside and these places are important because of their value of contributing development of children's physical, logical and emotional intelligence. The value of the playgrounds can be understood from child's ability to maximize their emotional, social, physical and cognitive developmental functions while playing in it. (Hyder, 2004). Outdoor playgrounds increases use of play when these developmental functions are completely fulfilled (Heseltine & Hollborn,1997). In order for children to have a healthy and strong development in the urban environment, the design and application of the play equipment within playgrounds must contribute to the development of the child in terms of the play value. The main focus of this thesis is to examine the relationship between the design and play value of child playground's equipment in the Basaksehir over the existing applications. Nowadays, especially in the big cities in the borders of our country, increasing house need, intensive construction areas and heavy traffic junctions make harder to create open spaces where children can play freely in the city. Game is the most important part of child's life. Design and implementation of area that game value is high and playground equipment which not only contribute to the physical development of the child but also contribute the development of creative intelligence should be done by with the participation of designer, architecture, municipality officers, pedagogue and children who lives in the playground. In the Republic of Turkey supplying of goods and services from any sources within the scope of the Law No. 4734 of public institution is carried out according to this. Public procurement law implies that, it is available to procuring services or goods directly or through tender procedure. Therefore, municipalities have to use this method to provide equipment for playgrounds. Here main question is examining that on what ground the municipalities are deciding to buy/supply their playgrounds and equipment and which methods are being used. Today, children's play equipment needs to be research in terms of design, production and selection criteria. Due to the multidisciplinary character of the subject, firstly a wide-ranging literature review which includes different disciplines, the concept of play and the types of design of the children's parks were examined in the light of the related literature, while evaluating the design of the playgrounds, it is aimed to make an evaluation on the value of the game with the thought that it will be weak to make an assessment only on the physical and visual arrangements. The method that used by Helen Woolley and Alison Lowe in the article of 'Exploring the Relationship between Design Approach and Play Value of Outdoor Play spaces' for the research relation between playgrounds and design approach used in this study as well. As a result of the prioritization work conducted in Istanbul due to the size of the research area, interviews with the municipalities participating in the research, included 47 children's playgrounds located in Başakşehir district due to the large amount of green space per capita among the municipalities who have noteworthy studies and participated in the interviews, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the field equipment, design and applications were made and an evaluation was made on the design criteria and game value. A prioritization study was conducted on the European side of Istanbul due to the size of the research area. Municipalities on the European side have been tried to be reached via e-mail and telephone. As a result of interviews that conducted with the department of parks and gardens division of five municipality that participated research, the play areas within the Basaksehir municipality were examined due to the excess of the square meter per person in Istanbul in terms of the green area. There are 101 park in 10 neighborhoods in this district. 64 of them have been identified as a result of several interviews with Basaksehir Park and Gardens divison, which contains children's play equipment. Due to the size of the area and the fact that the names are not clear, only 47 playgrounds were examined. Within the scope of the study, in the first part; the purpose, importance and scope of the study, in the second part; child- game relation, the role of game types in the development of the child's development, factors and the contribution of the play areas to the development of children are examined. In the third part; children park design criteria in the world are examined under the projected titles of projects, age groups, playground types and projects that may be exemplary, designed for the development of children in different age ranges. In the fourth section; the parks where the playground equipment of Basaksehir district, which was determined as a result of the interviews with the participating municipalities and the study area, were examined within the framework of the literature investigated in the 2nd and 3rd section, and the evaluation of the design of the play areas was evaluated only by the physical and visual arrangements. It is aimed to make an evaluation based on the value of the game. In the last section, it is aimed to find out the results and suggestions. The method that used by Helen Woolley and Alison Lowe in the article of 'Exploring the Relationship between Design Approach and Play Value of Outdoor Play spaces' for the research relation between playgrounds and design approach used in this study as well.