Playing out: A study into children's use of public space in 1970s housing estates

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Childhood obesity and inactivity is a growing problem in the UK with impacts on children's health andthe economy. Increasing children's activity through outdoor play has positive impacts but not enoughis known about how to achieve this. This research project aims to investigate the environmental factorswhich can positively influence children's independent mobility and outdoor play. It takes an innovativeapproach to doing this through re-visiting a period in the 1970s when children's ability to use publicspace freely was more widely conceptualised as being important in their development. Taking twopioneering 1970s council estates as case studies, Byker Estate in Newcastle upon Tyne and AlexandraRoad Estate in London, it examines how they were designed to meet the perceived needs of children.It then investigates how different generations of children living there have used public space. Thisenables an exploration of the extent to which attributes of these estates and social attitudes positivelyor negatively impact on children's ability to play out to find out whether there are lessons for theplanning of housing estates today.