The secret of long life and legacy…?
I find it can be unsettling when you feel like you don’t have a place in your local community. It can be difficult to lay down roots, which can lead to you feeling lonely. Whether that’s your local park, local pub, community group, school or town for example, sometimes it’s devastatingly difficult to integrate. This is why place making is so important, but in particular to give people the power over designing the spaces they live in themselves, whilst leaving space to welcome new people to contribute in the future as the community grows.
Here in the South Cliff Gardens we want to welcome everyone, but we’ve noticed that our children and young people do not have a place to call their own. It is the law that when building a certain number of new houses, developers have to provide a play area within the new settlement, however we did not have this law back when the houses on South Cliff were built so children missed out. This could give the subconscious message to our children that they don’t belong or in true Victorian fashion “seen but not heard”.
Play areas were originally produced to try to keep children from playing on bomb sites following the war and keep them safe, but today they are much more sophisticated. Play areas today are not just about building a space to give children somewhere to go; they are about improving and maintaining their mental/physical health and emotional wellbeing, creating a place that increases their self-awareness, self-esteem and self-respect and allows them to increase their confidence through developing their dexterity and new skills for the future. Designed well, play areas today have the power to shape a healthy future society of strong independent people who have the confidence to assess risks, be kind to each other, build healthy relationships and work collaboratively and creatively together.
We would like to demonstrate how important our young people are to us by investing in them and building a brand new play space in the South Cliff Gardens to support a strong future for our community.
Last year we set up a Youth Steering Group made up of children and young people who live in or regularly visit the South Cliff area. This group worked with our team of architects to design the play space they would like. Natural features that blend into the landscape took centre stage along with a focus on quiet reflective space, wildlife, art and a sense of physical challenge. Designed by our local children, our new play area will offer opportunities for children of all abilities and backgrounds to play together, develop their social skills and learn whilst promoting their imagination and independence. Drawing our young people closer to their heritage will help them respect and protect it, whilst feeling more rooted and grounded in a more relevant landscape that will become an important part of their identity and their children’s identity.
My 94 year old grandma tells me the secret to long life is to be playful, have as much fun as possible and not to take life too seriously; a strong message from someone who’s seen two wars, trialled the first iron lung and fought off devastating diseases. I’m very much looking forward to seeing more people having fun and families playing happily together in the South Cliff Gardens.
Vicky Thompson