Children's play and nature in an urban environment

Play - as a personal and self-developing activity of children, and urban open spaces - in their private and public nature of design and use, are discussed from the point of view of landscaping for children in urban environments. Regarding efforts of nature conservation and environmental education, landscape architecture and urban design could provide a valuable contribution through a sensitive design of green spaces in our cities. Using Piaget's theory of a child's cognitive development and aspects of the current territoriality discussion in environmental psychology, practices of landscape design are criti- cally evaluated for their possibilities and limitations to provide children with natural play experiences in cities.