Little houses and huts: Children’s “own” places arranged by children of Saint Petersburg

Abstract

In the geography of childhood, places for children are traditionally contrasted with children’s places. The formers are created by adults, while the latter are made by children themselves. For the former, the main guideline is the safety of children, while for the latter it is mystery, creativity and children’s community. The article examines children’s “own” places: houses and huts. The sample is represented by eight places built by children aged from 8 to 11 who are all residents of Saint Petersburg. The empirical materials for the study included transcripts of interviews with children and photographs of children’s places. We analysed the houses and huts in terms of the interaction of children and adults in the process of creating children’s places, the purpose of places, and types of places according to the degree of their mobility.

Among the functions of houses and huts, there are distinguished the function of emancipation from adults, the protective and the educational functions, the function of privacy, individual recreation, communication and play.

The study made it possible to identify (so far very tentatively) the features of the houses and huts built by children from Saint Petersburg and the possible influences of a big city. Therefore, children’s house-building is either displaced to the country houses and cabins or confined to the inside of city apartments.

The article concludes that most of the considered cases are not children’s places created or rebuilt by children for themselves: there is no secrecy of places, there are fewer opportunities for self-reliance, and there is a great participation of adults who can give these places a certain functional significance.