Mònica Ubalde: “School playgrounds and parks must be designed to promote health, development and equity”

School playgrounds and children’s parks are not prepared to cope with increasingly frequent periods of extreme heat such as those we are experiencing and, in many cases, they are not designed to encourage free and diverse play either. Hard surfaces, little shade and very limited contact with nature make many of these spaces unsuitable when temperatures rise, despite children spending a significant part of their day in them.

Mònica Ubalde, a biologist and public health epidemiologist and researcher at ISGlobal, argues that rethinking these spaces is not an aesthetic issue, but a public health intervention. Ubalde contributed to the Equitat.org report ‘Calor a l’escola. Com adaptar els centres educatius al nou clima del país’, which warns that heat in educational settings has already become a structural problem and calls for buildings and playgrounds to be transformed according to criteria of health, learning and equity.

She is also co-author of the article ‘Cuatro claves para crear un patio vivo en la escuela’, which stresses the importance of an integrated approach, co-creation, evaluating interventions and designing spaces with life in mind. We speak to Ubalde about all these issues, as she explains why concrete needs to give way to shade, water and nature, why children and communities need to be listened to, and why play spaces should be understood as essential infrastructure for tackling heat and inequality.

How do you currently see school playgrounds and children’s parks in the face of increasingly frequent periods of extreme heat?

In general, school playgrounds — particularly those in public schools that were built many years ago — were not designed as welcoming spaces for learning or for cognitive and psychomotor development. They were conceived more as places where children could go outside for a short break between lessons before quickly returning to the classroom. The materials used also do little to help these spaces adapt to rising temperatures or provide enough opportunities for play, interaction and contact with nature.

These spaces can also play a role beyond school hours.

These playgrounds could be opened up to the community and function as refuge spaces, helping to create a more equitable city. To achieve this, we need to reduce concrete and limit hard-surface sports courts, while creating renaturalised spaces with greenery, different substrates and types of ground that encourage play, retain water and improve thermal comfort. It is not simply a question of adding trees and plants, but of building genuine green infrastructure.

Does this apply to both school playgrounds and children’s parks?

Yes. When we look beyond schools, we see that many play areas have been placed in locations that are highly exposed to the sun, with materials that retain heat and without enough shade or access to water. They are often not particularly welcoming spaces either, nor do they encourage contact with nature, despite the benefits this has for children’s physical and emotional health and development. Fortunately, more and more projects are now transforming these spaces, both in schools and in public areas.

Children are particularly vulnerable to heat.

In public health, when we design interventions with the most vulnerable people in mind, we also protect the population as a whole. Children are not small adults; they are developing human beings whose physiological, respiratory, immune and cognitive systems are still maturing. That is why everything we do during childhood to promote and protect health can have positive effects throughout a person’s life.

What specific risks does heat pose to children?

We need to bear in mind that heatwaves are arriving earlier, lasting longer and becoming more intense. Children have greater difficulty regulating their body temperature because their system is still developing. They also often do not feel thirsty, so particular attention must be paid to hydration and signs of discomfort.

The way we design cities shapes these risks.

Factors such as heat, pollution, noise and the lack of green spaces are closely linked to the way we plan cities. They are not separate issues. The urban heat island effect, for example, depends on the structure of the city and the materials we use to build it. This is why renaturalising cities brings many benefits at the same time. Green and blue infrastructure helps reduce heat, noise and pollution, while contributing to healthier environments.

Where should we start when it comes to school playgrounds and children’s parks?

The first step is to carry out a proper assessment, because there is no single solution that works everywhere or for everyone. From there, the priority should be to provide shade in the areas where children play and where families spend time, both in school playgrounds and children’s parks.

There are different ways to create that shade.

Trees are one of the most valuable elements because they provide shade and help cool the surrounding environment, but simply planting trees is not enough. We need to think in terms of an entire green infrastructure that creates cooler places where people can spend time. School playgrounds can also include wooden pergolas with vegetation to shade play areas or even the school building itself. Awnings can also be useful, but they should be combined with natural elements and designed to allow good air circulation. Water is the other key element, not only through drinking fountains or places to cool down, but also through surfaces that retain water and help this green infrastructure function and provide cooling.

Have outdoor spaces such as playgrounds and parks been neglected?

Yes, for a long time they were treated as secondary spaces. Many schools were built in the 1960s and 1970s, with greater emphasis on protecting people from the cold than from the kind of extreme heat we experience today. They were also designed at a time when the most intense heat usually arrived in late June or early July, once the school year had already ended. Today, however, high temperatures begin increasingly early and overlap directly with the school calendar. Playgrounds were not conceived as living classrooms or educational spaces either, but simply as places for recreation.

Is that approach beginning to change?

Yes. There are more and more projects, both locally and at European level, aimed at transforming these spaces. We are moving in the right direction, but we need to accelerate the process and make it a priority when allocating resources. Adapting playgrounds and parks is an investment with an economic return and, above all, a return in health, because it provides many benefits and helps reduce pressure on the healthcare system.

What, then, should a children’s park designed for a future of heatwaves look like?

It should have shade and water distributed throughout the space so that children can move around freely rather than being confined to one particular play area. But these spaces also need to be designed through the eyes of the people who will use them. Co-creation with children, families and the community is essential to decide what we want to happen there and how the space should be organised.

So it is important to rethink how these spaces are designed.

Exactly. It is not enough to install a slide and a couple of swings. We need to encourage free play, movement and exploration, with natural elements such as stones, water and less rigidly defined routes. Everything should be designed in a naturalised, equitable and accessible way that accommodates different needs and realities. This transformation cannot be approached from a single discipline or by just one or two professional profiles either. It requires an interdisciplinary perspective, with people from different fields working towards the same goal and in dialogue with those who will use the space.

What are the consequences of failing to adapt these spaces?

The consequences can be felt across many areas. In terms of health, there can be immediate effects such as dehydration or heatstroke, which can even be severe, because children may continue playing without realising that they are too hot or thirsty. Discomfort can also lead to irritability, behavioural problems and greater conflict in the way children interact with one another.

We are also missing an opportunity to promote health.

Yes. We are missing the opportunity to promote health and healthy development through the way these spaces are designed. There is also an issue of equity. Not every family has a garden, a swimming pool, an air-conditioned space or the possibility of leaving the city, nor does everyone have a cool place near home that they can reach on foot.

School playgrounds and parks must be designed to promote health, development and equity. This is not a decorative issue or a luxury, but an investment in quality of life for the population as a whole, and particularly for children, who live in very different socioeconomic circumstances.