A knowledge node for children and young people's outdoor environments at SLU Landscape

Page reviewed:  21/08/2025

The Forum for Children and Landscape is an interdisciplinary platform within SLU Landscape that aims to strengthen research, education and collaboration around children and young people's outdoor environments.

The forum brings together researchers, teachers and external actors from different parts of SLU as well as from the public, private and idea-driven sectors.

Children and young people make up over a fifth of Sweden's population and belong to the part of society that is particularly dependent on their physical surroundings. At the same time, their needs tend to be overlooked in contemporary planning and management processes. Research shows that access to [MJ4] stimulating outdoor environments of high quality is of great importance for children's development, health, learning and social participation.

The forum brings together researchers and teachers from across SLU Landscape who work in various ways with children's and young people's outdoor environments, an area where SLU has long experience and several strong profiles. The aim is to build a common platform for collaboration, visibility and continued development, in research, teaching and in contact with practice. We see children's outdoor environments as an important social issue, not least at a time when children's freedom of movement is shrinking and green spaces are decreasing, despite knowing how important contact with nature, free play and participation in the design of the environment are for children's health and development.

Background and needs

Sweden has a long tradition of planning for children – for example through generous schoolyards, playgrounds, construction play and traffic-separated residential areas. In recent decades, this tradition has weakened. Outdoor environments for children are becoming increasingly limited, fragmented and hardened, despite research showing that children need freedom of movement, contact with nature and opportunities for self-organized play.

The forum is a way to collect and further develop SLU's contribution to this work. We want to ensure knowledge transfer, subject progression and infrastructures for continued academic development.

1. Explore and make knowledge visible within SLU

We map and make research, projects and educational initiatives within SLU Landscape that concern children's encounters with outdoor environments and landscapes. By highlighting ongoing work, we also want to open up for new questions, collaborations and knowledge tracks in the area.

2. Identify future research and development areas

We conduct workshops to formulate research questions and areas of collaboration with relevance to children's place in future societies.

3. Establish networks with other higher education institutions and actors

We organize activities and seminars in collaboration with other research and educational environments to strengthen joint project initiatives, applications and strategic collaborations.

4. Strengthen progression within SLU's education and research

The Forum supports long-term subject development and knowledge transfer between senior and younger researchers, as well as between research and teaching[MJ3] and in dialogue with external actors.

5. Contribute to the development of child-friendly cities

A strategy is being developed for knowledge implementation in policy, education and practice – including collaboration with teacher training institutions, municipalities and various

Purpose of the forum

The overall purpose of the forum is to establish SLU Landscape as a national node for knowledge development about the designed living environments of children and young people. This is done through the following target areas:

Contact