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Recently, children are no longer considered the passive users of their spaces; they are rather treated as active participants in those spaces design, with their own experiences. The present research aims to investigate the impact of selected architectural variables of kindergartens' design on the child's attachment to the place. It also examines the multi-complex approach in dealing with children in experiments.

Spatial analysis and photographing methods were used to analyse the educational spaces in two kindergartens in Greater Cairo, Egypt. In measuring children's place attachment, the research depended on a complex participatory approach, which comprised interviews with children, story completion, children's drawings and visual questionnaires.

The results of this qualitative study highlight that the design of a kindergarten classroom's details plays a significant role in strengthening the child's place attachment. The results also stress that connection and exposure to nature supports the child's spatial values.

The authors argue that this paper is considered a good basis for including children as the architectural design decision-makers for their buildings, by shedding light on the architect–user relationship and its impact on the design process. It demonstrates how architectural design of child-oriented spaces can promote a child's self-identity and perception.

This chapter describes sociological research on the material and spatial dimensions of everyday family life in the United States, with a specific emphasis on how children’s agency is manifest in the display and use of childhood and parenthood objects in home spaces. Children’s agency is framed as a juxtaposition of individual control and cultural and structural constraint, but also as it positions children in relation to adults, home spaces in relation to not-home spaces, and families in relation to other social realms such as the marketplace, schools, and the digital world. Three research topics are featured, all of which stem from the author’s projects spanning the last decade. These include parenting roles as shown in the taking and managing of digital and physical family photographs, children’s use of technology as a way to tell the story of parent–child connectedness in families separated into two homes, and young adults’ use of objects and spaces to signify role transition into adulthood. The central themes emerging from this research are supported by a theoretical foundation that combines Corsaro’s (2012) interpretive reproduction of childhood alongside Anderson, Moore, and Suski’s (2016) call for material mindfulness in sociological investigations of the home.

The playground is a commonly advised means to integrate children into the public realm of “child-friendly cities”, yet research has tended not to examine it in relation to adjacent public space. This paper aims to understand the extent to which the playground – a socio-spatial phenomenon – facilitates children's integration into the public realm, enabling critical examination of the “child-friendly space” concept.

An ethnographic study was carried out across three sites in Athens, Greece, where typical neighbourhood playgrounds replicate features common across the global north. Methods combined observation (167 h; morning, afternoon, evening), visual-mapping and 61 semi-structured interviews with 112 playground users (including adults and children from the playgrounds and surroundings). Rigorous qualitative thematic analysis, involving an iterative post-coding process, allowed identification of spatial patterns and emergent themes.

Findings reveal perceptions surrounding the protective and age-specific aspects of child-friendly design, limit the playgrounds' public value. However, a paradox emerges whereby the playgrounds' adjacency to public spaces designed without child-friendly principles affords children's engagement with the public realm.

Reconceptualisation of the “child-friendly playground” is proposed, embracing interdependence with the public realm – highly significant for child-friendly urban design theory and practice globally. Researchers are encouraged to compare findings in other geographical contexts.

This original finding is enabled by the novel approach to studying the playground in relation to adjacent public realm. The study also offers the first empirical examination of child-friendly city principles – participation in social life and urban play – in a Greek context, addressing a geographical gap in literature on children's everyday spaces.

The primary objective of this paper is to explore how space organizations can incorporate children and imagination in their accountability-based accounting and decision-making processes.

This study centers on stakeholder engagement with children, specifically examining the drawing competition associated with the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) space exploration mission. We employ a multidimensional research design consisting of both an interpretive approach to the 2,748 space-related drawings submitted by children across Europe to the CHEOPS drawing competition in 2015 and a content analysis of 46 media releases published by ESA and the University of Bern, the key partners of the CHEOPS mission.

Our analysis of the children’s drawings and the CHEOPS media releases indicates that the related organizations account for some of the children’s visions and imaginations, but shortcomings exist in addressing the ethical and space environmental concerns related to space exploration. We explore implications for the space accounting agenda by applying the critical dialogic accountability framework proposed by Dillard and Vinnari (2019), which allows for a discussion on an outline for action by incorporating intergenerational equity (Thomson et al., 2018) and moral imagination (Werhane, 1999).

This study offers a novel exploration of a largely overlooked yet crucial stakeholder group: children. By focusing on their unique perspectives and imaginative capabilities, the paper brings forth the voices of those who will inherit the future of space exploration. Employing children’s drawings as a medium of symbolic communication, this research study offers fresh insights into their perceptions, particularly relevant to space accounting. This innovative approach not only enriches the literature on stakeholder engagement and accountability but also provides space organizations with valuable guidance on fostering inclusivity and ensuring that the interests of future generations are considered in decision-making processes.

Preschoolers and their inter-generational parents are the main users of modern urban residential outdoor space. To design and build appropriate outdoor space, it is necessary to understand the two groups’ psychological and behavioral needs in depth. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

By means of literature reviews, field surveys, questionnaires, and interviews, this study addresses the psychological, behavioral, neighborhood conversation, and space use characteristics of preschoolers and their inter-generational parents in the residential quarters of Haidian District in Beijing. This paper investigates the safety, interests, micro-climate appropriateness, supporting accompanying behavior, and promoting neighborhood conversation as the design strategies for residential outdoor space.

The findings suggest that children’s wills are dominant in choosing activity space, while the duration of stay is decided by inter-generational parents; appropriateness for children’s use is the most significant indicator for evaluating satisfaction of outdoor space; safety is the first rule in outdoor space design; and the design of details in outdoor space and facilities needs to be strengthened.

Some preliminary conclusions have been concluded in this research while some deficiencies still exist. For example, quantitative research method and data processing method need to be deepened and studied continually in the following research; also, the research defines the investigation elements based on literature reading and individual field research, which remains to be verified and deepened in the future.

This research paid attention to usage experience in residential quarters so as to get rid of the pursuit of beauty in form in the planning and design strategies for residential quarters, proper care for youth and seniors, promote community vitality, enhance the shared living environment, and promote community association. This research can arouse the attention to children and the elderly in subsequent residential quarters and urban research. It is a very important field to study the behavior characteristics of children and the elderly and then study the urban space that is suitable for them.

Planning and design strategies for residential quarters should be explored from the perspectives of the correlated group of preschoolers and their inter-generational parents – the group of people who most frequently use residential outdoor space. This research paid attention to usage experience in residential quarters so as to get rid of the pursuit of beauty in form in the planning and design strategies for residential quarters, proper care for youth and seniors, promote community vitality, enhance the shared living environment, and promote community association. This research can arouse the attention to children and the elderly in subsequent residential quarters and urban research.

This research is of great significance, in caring the young and the old, building up communities’ vitality, enhancing living environment, and promoting community association, to explore planning and design strategies for residential quarters from the perspective of the correlated group of preschoolers and inter-generational parents and the group of people who uses the residential quarters’ space most frequently.

Aligned with the United Nations 2030 agenda of leaving no one behind, a project called The Nest was initiated to create an in-house intentional learning space at two public housings in Klang Valley. In a small unit of public housing, most children in these houses sit on the floor in the living room to do their schoolwork or study with the TV switched on. Poor indoor environmental quality and lack of personal space are among the main reasons that lead to children not being able to study at home comfortably.

The research employed a quasi-experimental approach as the research field setting was not randomly assigned. Observation on the change in the quality of space and post-evaluation interviews with beneficiaries were conducted.

The findings show that besides the tangible space that the Nest project has created, it also has created in-tangible space. It has shown that even small spatial changes to existing spaces could improve children's active learning and the participation of parents in their children's learning.

This study focuses on the home learning experience and parental involvement in their children's learning, so perhaps future research can be done to measure the impact of home learning space on academic achievement.

The research outcomes show that a good quality of learning space influences the children's learning experience at home and the parents' involvement. It will also contribute to the development of the building regulation for high-rise affordable housing in Malaysia. Particularly in improving the optimum requirement to achieve better comfort quality for the learning space at the residential unit.

The Nest project will contribute to raising the awareness among all residents of public housing on the importance of in-house learning space and encourage them to build their own learning spaces through the Do-It-Yourself Guidelines.

The research outcomes show that both parental involvement and the quality of learning space influence the children's learning experience at home. It will contribute to the development of the building regulation for high-rise affordable housing in Malaysia. Particularly in improving the optimum requirement to achieve better comfort quality for the learning space at the residential unit.

The purpose of this study is to explore the design of outdoor play spaces in Cairo that provide an enjoyable play experience, along with opportunities for enhancing child social and cognitive developmental skills through play features incorporated in their play spaces to achieve this goal.

The study adopts a qualitative methodology to examine the effectiveness of natural, customized and elevated features on social and cognitive play behaviors of 6–8 year-olds. Data were gathered in three different play settings; a play space inside a social club, a park and a schoolyard. Data gathering relied on observations, written descriptions of play patterns and recordings of children's conversations. Additionally, the researcher utilized sketching diagrams to illustrate children's preferences for play with each feature.

The results of the study indicate that incorporating natural, elevated and customized play features into children's play spaces can enhance their environment and provide opportunities for fostering their social and cognitive skills.

This study reports the occurrence of indicative behaviors and not the exact measurement of skill development. Research involving children can have limitations in terms of reliability of results due to slight variations affected by unmeasurable circumstances.

The study makes a valuable contribution towards enhancing the quality of children's play spaces in Cairo by emphasizing the significance of providing opportunities for social and cognitive in addition to physical play.

The relationship between the child and his/her physical environment is an area of interaction that includes social, psychological and cultural factors along with the spatial experience, perception and behavior of the child. This study is based on the effects of spatial perception and behavior of the child within the physical environment of primary schools. In this direction, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how spatial and physical characteristics of primary school typologies affect the spatial perception and behavior of the child. Also, the parameters affecting spatial perception and behavior are examined.

The question to be investigated is how the spatial and physical characteristics of the school’s physical environment affect the child’s spatial perception and behavior in primary schools with different typologies. Within this scope, Istanbul’s Kagithane region is selected as a case study. Schools are chosen for their similar spatial and dimensional features and similar socio-economic environment. The methodology of the study consists of a literature review, an observational study carried out to discover the interaction between the child and his/her school building and the analysis of the student’s cognitive maps. These maps were evaluated according to topological, projective, metric and imaginative parameters.

The results show spatial organization and physical characteristics of primary school buildings with a structure that allows for change and transformation, and contributes to the physical and cognitive development of children.

This study will provide an opportunity to develop the design of future primary school buildings that can support the spatial perception and spatial experiences of the children.

This chapter draws on data from a qualitative study examining the extent to which children and young people age 7 to 17 are able to participate and influence matters affecting them in their home, school, and community. It was commissioned by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in Ireland to inform the National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-Making, 2015–2020. Utilising Lundy’s (2007) conceptualisation of Article 12 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Leonard’s (2016) concept of generagency, this chapter will examine children and young people’s everyday lives and relationships within the home and family in the context of agency and structure.

In the study, home was experienced by children generally as the setting most facilitative of their voice and participation in their everyday lives reflecting research findings that children are more likely to have their initiative and ideas encouraged in the family than in school or their wider communities (Mayall, 1994). Key areas of decision-making included everyday consumption activities such as food, clothes, and pocket money as well as temporal activities including bed-time, leisure, and friends. This concurs with Bjerke (2011) that consumption of various forms is a major field of children’s participation. Positive experiences of participation reported by children and young people involved facilitation by adults whom they respected and with whom they had some rapport. This locates children as relational beings, embedded in multiple overlapping intergenerational processes and highlights the interdependency between children’s participation and their environment (Leonard, 2016; Percy-Smith & Thomas, 2010).

Library provision for children in specially furnished areas of the library began in the United Kingdom in the late 1890s although this early provision was sketchy. Where they did exist, children′s facilities were often provided in a separate children′s room, often resembling a “cut‐down” adult library. The advent of open‐plan libraries provided areas specially designed and furnished for children of all ages. The influence of Scandinavian and North American children′s library design has been evident for some years. A library′s appearance is now recognized as an important factor in marketing services to children. Despite the problems caused by old and unsuitable buildings, library staff often take considerable care to provide a welcoming environment for children. However, children′s work in the 1980s ad 1990s has had to face cuts in expenditure, staffing levels, hours of opening and in some cases compete with new “priority areas” – services to ethnic minorities; housebound services; business or community information. The children′s librarian with a knowledge of children′s reading needs and library design needs would seem to be a dying breed.