Affordances of outdoor settings for children in preschool: revisiting heft’s functional taxonomy

Inger Elisabeth Lerstrup; Cecil Konijnendijk  van den Bosch

doi:10.1080/01426397.2016.1252039

Affordances of outdoor settings for children in preschool: revisiting heft’s functional taxonomy

Inger Elisabeth Lerstrup, Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch

Landscape Architecture and Planning

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Heft’s functional taxonomy for children’s outdoor environment based on the concept of affordances was applied and investigated in a Danish preschool context. Affordances here refer to the meaningful action possibilities of the environment. Two groups of children (3–6 years) enrolled in preschool were observed during times for ‘free play’ in their usual outdoor settings: traditional playground and forest (12 visits, respectively). Modified classes of outdoor features are suggested along with new practical class names: open ground, sloping terrain, shielded places, rigid fixtures, moving fixtures, loose objects, loose material, water, creatures and fire. Each class is specified by distinctive and attractive key activities found by observation. Examining each class indicated that important characteristics apart from availability were variation, sizes and change. The concept of affordances emphasises the ongoing user–environment–activity relationship important for planning with children in mind, but clarification is needed when using the term.

Original language	English
Journal	Landscape Research
Volume	42
Issue number	1
Pages (from-to)	47-62
Number of pages	13
ISSN	0142-6397
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2016.1252039
Publication status	Published - 2 Jan 2017

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Cite this

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title = "Affordances of outdoor settings for children in preschool: revisiting heft{\textquoteright}s functional taxonomy",

abstract = "Heft{\textquoteright}s functional taxonomy for children{\textquoteright}s outdoor environment based on the concept of affordances was applied and investigated in a Danish preschool context. Affordances here refer to the meaningful action possibilities of the environment. Two groups of children (3–6 years) enrolled in preschool were observed during times for {\textquoteleft}free play{\textquoteright} in their usual outdoor settings: traditional playground and forest (12 visits, respectively). Modified classes of outdoor features are suggested along with new practical class names: open ground, sloping terrain, shielded places, rigid fixtures, moving fixtures, loose objects, loose material, water, creatures and fire. Each class is specified by distinctive and attractive key activities found by observation. Examining each class indicated that important characteristics apart from availability were variation, sizes and change. The concept of affordances emphasises the ongoing user–environment–activity relationship important for planning with children in mind, but clarification is needed when using the term.",

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