Susan Herrington

Over the past decade the outdoor play spaces designed for children in Canada have been largely shaped by fear and profit, rather than by what we know about children's play and development. Since the early 1980s the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has played an increasingly important role in this transformation as their technical standards for children's outdoor play spaces have

Key criteria, called Seven Cs, identified from phase one of a five-year multidisciplinary study, are described. This study asked, what are the precise outdoor physical factors that contribute to early childhood development and quality play at child-care centres, and to what degree do these factors currently exist at the centres under study? The child-care setting provides an instrumental context for understanding children and landscape interactions. The Seven Cs criteria were derived from a comparison of 12 sample outdoor play spaces at child-care centres in Vancouver, Canada, with findings from a review of the literature concerning landscapes designed for children. Landscapes designed for children's use should consider developmental and play needs, and the unique contributions that landscapes can offer on a daily basis. Seven Cs earmark important physical dimensions of designed landscapes for children that can potentially enrich future designs at child-care centres. The goal is to provide a set of criteria that will allow the city of Vancouver Community Service and Social Planning Department to evaluate landscape design proposals for new child-care centres and to inform the existing set of Design Guidelines which the city is revising.