Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Natural playgrounds—playground sites emphasizing natural materials, form, and play—have gained increasing popularity since the late 1990s and early 2000s in many western industrialized countries, including Canada. Although natural playgrounds have largely emerged from a growing trend to bring urban children back into nature, these sites are often a more designed and regulated space than a perceived conception of “wild” nature. Natural playground sites are also often motivated by the benefits for children and child development that have been associated with natural playgrounds; for example, studies have shown increases in the diversity of play that occurs on natural playground sites, as well as greater prosocial behaviour and increases in physical activity. As part of ongoing research on natural playgrounds, this study explores several natural playground sites in Calgary, Alberta and describes emerging findings related to diverse concepts of nature and sustainability within natural playground development and usage within these sites. This review investigates how perceptions of nature and sustainability shape and are expressed within site development and explores how these concepts interact with aspects of the playgrounds including siting, materiality, and form. Analysis and discussion explore multiple sources including researcher observations, case site photography, document analysis, and emerging insights from an interview-based study.