ABSTRACT
The author offers the opportunity to reflect on her thirty years of landscape architectural practice in Australia, much of which has focused on the specialized design of outdoor environments in public places for children and young people. She discusses the context in which public domain playgrounds and design takes place, and why authentic, effective participatory design with children and young people can be elusive to achieve. The author then articulates recommendations for what she consider to be best practice principles for participatory design practice with children and young people, illustrating these with a case study of a school grounds project in a suburban area of Sydney, Australia. The advantages of a coming in from the side (CIFTS) approach are that the process of involvement is tailor-made for a specific client and project and very often the direct and delightful results are motivating for everyone.
