Game control planning
The game master plan is a municipal planning tool developed in 1999 by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate .
It is a sustainable and environmentally friendly development plan for cities and municipalities that places a special focus on the needs of children and young people. It should contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the living and living environment of young people.
As a result, the game master plan creates a set of plans that can guide future community development towards a community that is child and youth friendly . Concrete projects and measures are developed and cooperation between the actors in politics, administration and citizenship is strengthened. The instrument of game control planning was developed and tested in several municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate and has been used increasingly nationwide since then.
Reason for a game master plan
With increasing building density, there is less and less free space for children and young people to playfully appropriate their surroundings. The leisure activities are now often reduced to their domestic environment or to restricted and pre-structured spaces. Playing outdoors or acquiring nature is rarely possible, especially in cities, for children and young people.
In addition, it has been reported and warned for years that children and adolescents are increasingly having difficulties with physical coordination and mobility, as well as showing considerable weaknesses in mental concentration.
The game master plan is seen as a suitable instrument to counteract this tendency and to enable a city design that is more suitable for children and young people.
Special features of the game master plan
Game control planning significantly distinguishes two elements from comparable instruments for child- and youth-friendly planning:
Ensuring that planning and implementation are binding: The aim of game mastering planning is the consistent cooperation between political decision-makers, planners and those involved in child and youth work in order to make a qualified and structured contribution to the creation of suitable leeway. The main thing here is to ensure the binding nature of the game master plan, in which the process itself and the developed game master plan are decided by the local decision-makers. The municipal representation binds itself and its administration to the goal of a child and youth friendly urban development and the concrete way there.
Understanding children and adolescents as experts in their own living environment: The main goal of game master plan is that the needs and interests of children and adolescents are taken into account in spatial planning. However, it is not politicians and planners but the children and young people themselves who can best judge what their needs and interests actually are. Therefore, the consistent participation of boys and girls in all important planning, implementation and decision-making steps represents a further essential core component. The children and young people evaluate the situation of their living environment themselves and develop their own recommendations that flow into the municipal planning. This is an integral part of the game control planning process. This not only gives children the necessary appreciation as experts for their own situation, but also gives them the right to participate and shape their environment.
Creation of a game master plan
At the beginning of the procedure are the establishment of basic quality goals for the child and youth-friendly development of the community and the methodical and planning preliminary considerations for the procedure and the area.
This preparatory work forms the basis for the following inventory, which is based on three essential pillars and thus different perspectives - the survey by the planning specialist, survey through interviews with local stakeholders and a detailed inventory by the children and young people themselves.
In the next move, the results of the surveys will be evaluated with regard to the local quality goals as well as with regard to the individual play, adventure and recreation areas and summarized in the context of an overall spatial evaluation.
On the basis of this knowledge, the game master plan can be designed, which then creates binding force for the authorities through the decision of the local decision-makers, also for future planning within the scope of the plan. The game master plan is then also relevant for projects that z. B. concern traffic or green space planning.
literature
Jan Abt, Children and Urban Renewal. The instrument of game control planning. in: Uwe Altrock, Ronald Kunze, Gisela Schmitt, Dirk Schubert (eds.): Yearbook Urban Renewal 2011