COMMENCED
1 July 2024STATUS
OngoingPARTNERS AND SPONSORS
Tote Board (Singapore)

PI: Dr Belinda Yuen (LKYCIC, SUTD)
Co-PI: Dr Xin Yang (LKYCIC, SUTD)
Team: Mr Luis Jimenez (LKYCIC, SUTD)

The need for planning and design for all ages is increasingly recognised. Yet, child-friendly neighbourhoods are relatively little discussed. More alarmingly, Singapore’s children population (under age 18) has been gradually declining since 1980; in 2023, Singapore’s TFR dropped to below 1 for the first time in the nation’s history. While there is growing literature on child-friendly cities since 2000, no empirical research has examined Singaporean children’s perceptions and preferences for child-friendly neighbourhoods. There is yet no study on how built environment professionals approach the concept of child-friendly neighbourhoods in Singapore. Adopting a built environment-health lens, this pilot study seeks to establish the first empirical evidence on perceptions and preferences for child-friendly neighbourhoods in Singapore through both the perspective of children and built environment professionals.

Publications and Presentations

  • Yuen, Belinda., Yang, Xin., Chan, Francine., Nearing, Cristina., Jimenez, Luis., & Wang, Jiaxuan. (2025). Youth Outdoor Recreation Space Playbook. Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design.

  • Yang, Xin., Yuen, Belinda. (2025, December). Sensing youth-friendly neighbourhood development in Singapore: A focus on youth outdoor play spaces. State of Australasian Cities Conference (SOAC) 2025.

Discover children playgrounds in Punggol and Sengkang

Do you know where are the outdoor children playgrounds in Punggol and Sengkang?  

Our study team1 has developed an online data dashboard on the location and features of 291 children playgrounds in Punggol and Sengkang towns. These two towns have the highest share of children (under age 18) in Singapore.

Simply choose a neighbourhood, and discover the outdoor playgrounds in Punggol and Sengkang.

Punggol

Sengkang

Our dashboard is filled with up-to-date photos taken as of June 2025, so you can take a virtual tour before you visit. With just a few clicks, children, parents, and caregivers can zoom in, filter, and browse through all the playgrounds to find your favourite. Curious about how many playgrounds have your favourite play equipment (e.g., swings), or which ones are made for children of certain age (e.g., age 2-5)? It is easy to search and learn all about playgrounds on our playground dashboard.  As far as we know, this is Singapore’s very first playground dashboard. Explore and discover.

We invite you to visit the playgrounds with your children.

Did you know children today are not spending enough time outdoors2 and will miss out on the positive effects of time in the outdoors and nature?

More green time, less screen time. Playing outdoors encourage exploration and imagination, which is particularly  important for the brain development of young children.3 Research suggests that nature play improves children’s physical and mental health, social competence, resilience and learning.4

We love to hear your playground use experience!  Email us: agecity@sutd.edu.sg

The above data dashboards, features and photos are under the copyright of © Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design. All rights reserved.

1 Dashboard technical lead: Ms Wang Jiaxuan

2 UNICEF. (2025). The importance of outdoor play (and how to support it). https://www.unicef.org/eca/stories/importance-outdoor-play-and-how-support-it#:~:text=But%20even%20as%20the%20amount,their%20concentration%20and%20school%20readiness.

3 Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority. (2019). Babies and outdoor play. https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-02/QA3_InfoSheetBabiesAndOutdoorPlay.pdf

4 Li, M., Lanca, C., Tan, C. S., Foo, L. L., Sun, C. H., Yap, F., Najjar, R. P., Sabanayagam, C., & Saw, S. M. (2023). Association of time outdoors and patterns of light exposure with myopia in children. The British Journal of Ophthalmology, 107(1), 133–139. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-318918; Tsuge, T., Matsumoto, N., Takao, S., & Yorifuji, T. (2025). Outdoor playing during preschool was associated with a reduced risk of school-age obesity in Japan. Acta Paediatrica, 114(2), 303–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.17441; Arola, T., Aulake, M., Ott, A., Lindholm, M., Kouvonen, P., Virtanen, P., & Paloniemi, R. (2023). The impacts of nature connectedness on children’s well-being: Systematic literature review. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 85, 101913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101913; Australian Institute of Family Studies (2024). Nature play and child wellbeing. https://aifs.gov.au/resources/policy-and-practice-papers/nature-play-and-child-wellbeing#references