OUR PLACE
Young people deserve their own place, their own living room in the house called the public space. And yes, they can dive out of there in their smartphone if they want, but also exercise, move, compete with each other or just chat and meet others. Young people like to have their own place and be seen. And the environment likes it when they can keep an eye on things. Smart design in the outdoor space makes it interesting for the youth to go outside, get moving. And smart design of the space also promotes social liveability and mutual acceptance between space users.
The OUR PLACE design concept offers all the elements to set up the environment for young people in the outdoor area in an appropriate and appealing way.
Young people meet in public spaces, seek each other out, have fun and argue. Young people (no matter how small the group) are often seen as a problem, because they would be inconvenienced by, among other things, the sound they produce and their behaviour. At the same time, young people are hardly involved in the design of public space. It seems doubly: young people are our future, but are considered nuisance and often misunderstood or heard. For young children there are still playgrounds; older youth have to make do with often few attractive hangouts.
Young people are a full part of society and so they deserve their own place – their own place – in public spaces. First of all, we have to ask ourselves who exactly these young people are, what moves them. Find out why they hang out, where they like to meet and what they like to do. This gives us insight into their specific needs and allows the public space to be tailored to this target group.
Not everyone is the same and has the same interests or needs. The same goes for young people. When you set up the environment for different types of young people, it should be attractive for different human types. Who each use public space in their own way based on their own needs and preferences. We look at the 4 human types (DISC) translated into the characteristics and interests of the different types of young people: caresses, enjoyers, peace seekers and explorers. These different types of young people occur in each group. A place that is perceived by the individual types as pleasant to stay there is automatically a place that is attractive for the entire group. The group strengthens and corrects each other. Adolescents raise each other. They learn and accept from each other.
The choice of design of the space by and for the youth, is mainly motivated by its physical and social appearance. Safety and conviviality are central. A place where meeting, performing, discovering and relaxing ‘hanging’ are facilitated in a good and appealing way. A living room, where there are no parents: OUR PLACE.
When you buy a house, in addition to all the amenities and the location of the house, you also look at what the house looks like. Does the architectural style appeal to you? This also applies to the place for young people. They spend a lot of time there, so the place must also be attractive to stay there; good quality, clean, whole and safe. As sloppy and messy as they can sometimes be, they are careful with their stuff and do not sit in a dirty place with their designer clothes or with expensive shoes through soggy or muddy soil. In addition, the facilities and facilities are also important. Both for the creative and the show-off. But also those who just want to relax or chat with others should be able to enjoy themselves in the same outdoor space. When developing an OUR PLACE, CPTED’s design guidelines are applied both in a visual sense (what does the place look like) and in a practical sense (in the range of facilities).
When designing OUR PLACE, the location is initially looked at. Where it stands relative to its surroundings. Is there enough distance to buildings but is it also close enough to travel there by the young people. It is also important to check whether the location is easily accessible, whether they are easily accessible. We are also looking at whether there are sufficient sight lines from the surrounding area so that the young people are seen. A good balance between sufficient privacy feeling and sufficient opportunity to supervise the place. How is the location made attractive, with enough reason to stay there for all human types. For this we use the draft guidelines according to the CPTED approach.
CPTED
This approach 
states that proper and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in fear and prevention of crime and an improvement in quality of life. In order to minimize unwanted situations, BOERplay already takes into account the desired and undesirable use and social safety of local residents in the design. We use draft guidelines, which stem from the internationally accepted CPTED approach.
CPTED stands for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. The methodology sets out clear principles on how to set up a built environment to reduce both objective and subjective crime. In principle, this does not involve heavy security measures. These are natural properties of the built environment that are used in preventing crime. CPTED uses four perspectives for developing a user environment: visibility, clarity, accessibility and attractiveness: ZETA.
ESTABLISHMENT
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an OUR PLACE approach and great to apply this design idea in the outdoor space. But what do we set up this space with? Because what is a house, with living room, without furniture? Or without opportunities to be busy, move or challenge each other a little? OUR PLACE by BOERplay offers a very wide range of possibilities to organize the space for young people in an appropriate way. Our PLACE’s products support and facilitate the design idea. A number of impressions and applications:
