Children's Play Dreams: Cities or Powerhouses of Play for Children

The book focuses on the study of the environment and people using those environments, specifically the residential built environments and the appropriateness of its design to the children. The concepts of neighborhood in the residential built environment, child friendly environments, variety of play provisions and their accessibility to children in the neighborhood are brought out. The concern for children in the residential environments with adequate and appropriate opportunities for play is being researched upon.

The residential built environments  are studied objectively and subjectively on their quantitative and qualitative parameters. The urbanization trend in Asia and its pace in the various population sizes of cities are studied and the need of the research for the case of Nagpur city is established. The comparative study of the cities in India helps in understanding the increase in urbanization and the reduction in the per capita green, open spaces. This eventually shows a marked decline in the parks and open spaces for children to play in the cities. The conclusions bring forth the typical characteristic features of the urban neighborhoods in Nagpur.

The research output is in the form of matrix generating the children’s needs and parameters in residential built environments. The theoretical model of research created and finally the regression model with its best fit condition makes it appropriate for application to any other city showing similar characteristics as the case example selected in the research. The research thus concludes with a set of recommendations for stakeholders and policy makers at the city level to design and plan cities for future which can best meet the needs of our future, our children.