Leikin paikka : Rakennettujen leikkiympäristöjen kehitys 1970-luvun Helsingissä

Sandboxes, swings and slides are considered integral and almost self-evident aspects of the modern urban environment. However, the actual process of building children’s play spaces has been overlooked in Finnish urban history studies. With the rapid urbanization of the 1970s, built play spaces became a topic of public discussion. Child protection advocates and planners raised the issue of children’s right to safe and versatile play spaces. This article addresses the issue head-on by asking how children’s spatial needs and built play spaces were considered in urbanizing Finland in the 1970s. Moreover, the article focuses on public, supervised playgrounds in Helsinki as an illustrative example of urban planning for children. We argue that developing the infrastructure of play spaces caused children to be more visible and taken more seriously in the planning of urban environments.