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Wickramasinghe, Pasanthi (2026) Designing child-friendly water features within urban public spaces. Masters thesis, University of Gloucestershire.
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Text (Final thesis © Pasanthi Wickramasinghe (2026))
16614 Wickramasinghe (2026) Designing child-friendly water features thesis.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only (3rd party copyright). Available under License All Rights Reserved. Download (17MB) |
Abstract
Although water features hold an important role within public spaces and provide numerous benefits to children, there is a prevailing tendency to eliminate them in contemporary public space designs and to redesign existing urban areas, leading to the removal of water features. Therefore, this study aims to promote the effective utilization of water in the creation of child-friendly urban public spaces in the United Kingdom by highlighting the significance of water features, exploring different design aspects, and assessing their impact on fostering welcoming urban public spaces for children. The research was conducted as a qualitative study, with a focus on Bristol City, United Kingdom. A mixed-methods case study approach was employed, integrating naturalistic observations and photographic documentation conducted on-site at four case study locations, alongside the draw-and-write technique as an off-site methodology carried out in two nearby primary schools. This research’s focus is on children aged 4 to 10 years, with the research sample for off-site data collection comprising 102 child participants. The results of the study suggest that in general, water features positively influence children’s experience in public spaces, and this impact is contingent upon four important factors as proximity to the other common child spaces, availability of amenities, usage patterns, and five design factors of the water feature. These findings were employed to produce evidence-based design guidelines for the creation of child-friendly water features in urban public spaces. The findings of this research can serve as a valuable design tool and guideline for professionals in Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, and related fields to advance child-friendly city planning. Additionally, they offer implications to foster active engagement and participation of children in urban planning and design processes.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) | |||||||||
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Water features; Children; Urban public spaces; Urban planning | |||||||||
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races N Fine Arts > NA Architecture |
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| Divisions: | Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment | |||||||||
| Depositing User: | Rhiannon Goodland | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 28 Oct 2026 12:42 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 28 Oct 2026 12:42 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/16614 |
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