Improving Children’s parks in Kumasi.
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Date
2010-07-20
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Abstract
Parks form a very valuable part of community space. Literature suggests that well-maintained parks contribute greatly to the value of a neighbourhood and that restoration of poorly maintained parks can provide a focus for urban regeneration. Despite the growing importance of parks as vital components of urban environments, very little value is placed on parks in Ghana. This lack of value placed on parks is manifested in wastelands of gravel, mud and hard surfaces often void of greenery with no interesting places for children to play and socialize. There is therefore the need to focus attention on the declining quality of parks in Ghana. This research was carried out in Kumasi and focuses solely on parks that have been specially designated as play areas for children. The principal research objective was to investigate the development of children’s parks in Ghana, identifying the barriers to their development and develop new approaches to the design of such parks in Kumasi. By way of a case study, an appraisal of the Kumasi Children’s Park was conducted and the results showed that considering the current trends in children’s play areas today, the facility is woefully inadequate. These findings contributed to the development of a design proposal for a children’s park for the city of Kumasi to provide a safe environment for children’s play. This thesis advocates that parks are an extremely important part of urban environments and its main contribution is the development of a design proposal to solve the problem identified.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Architecture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture on November, 2010.