Playground program

The playground program is part of the city's strategy and its goal is a versatile, safe, easily accessible and sufficiently large network of playgrounds with available resources. Riihimäki's playground program serves as a support for decisions about playgrounds and as baseline data for evaluating child effects, which is part of Unicef's Child-Friendly Municipality development work.

The program includes playgrounds located in parks and public areas, of which there will be a total of 2022 in 41. During the program period 2022−2030, it is planned to fundamentally improve 25 playgrounds, build 2−4 playgrounds, and remove three playgrounds. Yards of schools and kindergartens were not included in this review.

The goal of the playground program is to examine the situation of playgrounds both from the point of view of things to be taken into account in planning, as well as in terms of the need for construction, basic improvement and renovation, as well as from an economic and social point of view. In addition, the goal is to outline the existing playground network and examine future playground needs.

The program's initial data was a user survey (June 14 - July 2, 2021), which received 356 responses. The most used playground in Riihimäki is the Jukka Jalonen Park playground, the second most used is the Itsenäisyydenpuisto playground, followed by the Pohjankorvenpuisto and Messupuisto playgrounds. The most used playgrounds also turned out to be the most popular playgrounds. From the survey responses, it can be concluded that the opportunity for diverse play, activities and leisure for people of different ages appeals to playground users and that a playground is an entity whose comfort is affected not only by the play equipment itself but also by the comfort of the playground and the area surrounding it.

The playgrounds of Vainionpuisto, Ilomäentie loop and Tellervonpuisto are proposed for removal. With regard to these playgrounds, there is either overlap in the affected areas, or the use of the playground is low and due to the location, it is not considered a public playground.

A new playground was built in the autumn of 2022 in Piikinmäenpuisto and the Kanervapuisto playground opened in Huhtimonmäki in 2023. The Jokipuisto playground will be completed as part of the Jokikylä area. Other possible playgrounds are coming to the Herajoki city center and the garrison area. The construction of new playgrounds depends, among other things, on the progress of the planning process and the development of the areas.

With the construction of new playgrounds and the basic improvement of existing playgrounds, some of the playgrounds are intended to be targeted to a certain age group. The purpose of targeting is to profile and theme playgrounds, to diversify the service offering and, among other things, to take better account of user groups that received less attention in the past. Accessibility and accessibility are also taken into account: In terms of playgrounds, the purpose is to enable everyone to participate equally in outdoor activities, exercise and play.

In connection with the basic improvement or construction of playgrounds, the aim is to take into account the consequences of climate change and sustainable environmental construction. It should be noted that the additional construction of the urban structure will affect the playground network, playground services and their maintenance. With a higher population density, the number of users of playgrounds will increase, as a result of which the need for renovation and repair of the most popular playgrounds, as well as the basic improvement cycle, will probably accelerate.

Riihimäki's first playground program 2022–2030 was approved as a guideline by the technical committee on April 12, 2022. The technical committee decides on the renovation of individual playgrounds presented in the program and the construction of new ones annually as part of the municipal engineering investment work program.