There is a gap in most communities, and it is not hard to spot once you start looking for it. The younger children have their playgrounds. The adults have their fitness equipment, their walking tracks and their sports courts. But for the 12 to 17 age group, the outdoor built environment often has very little to offer.

In our experience working with councils, schools and landscape architects across NSW, QLD and NT, this is one of the most common gaps we encounter. Teenagers tend to outgrow traditional playground equipment well before adulthood, and most outdoor spaces do not bridge that transition well.

Research supports this observation. Physical activity among Australian teenagers is a recognised public health concern, and the design of outdoor environments is increasingly understood as part of the solution. This article sets out what the evidence tells us, what we have seen work in practice, and how Austek Play approaches briefs aimed at activating older youth.

Why teens disengage from public space

The withdrawal of teenagers from public outdoor space is not simply a cultural shift or a screen-time problem. Research in environmental psychology and youth development points to the built environment itself as a significant contributing factor.

Brunelle et al. (2018), writing in the Oxford Handbook of Adolescent Development Research, describe teenagers as a distinct landscape user group with specific spatial needs that are frequently overlooked in public space design. Their research finds that a sense of belonging, the perceived ability to contribute to an environment, and a sense of personal control are important factors in adolescents’ engagement with public space. Most standard playground and park designs do not deliver on any of these.

From our own experience in the field, most playgrounds send an implicit message to teenagers: this space is not for you. The equipment is physically undemanding for a 14-year old, the amenities are positioned around younger children and families, and the social design does not accommodate the way teenagers actually want to gather.

The activity data reinforces the concern. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 83% of Australian teenagers aged 15 to 17 did not meet the physical activity guidelines in 2022 (AIHW, 2024). Research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that moderate to vigorous physical activity drops by up to seven percent per year between the ages of 9 and 15 (Lonsdale et al., 2013). The environments available to young people are part of that story.

What the research says about teen activation

The evidence base on outdoor space design for teenagers has grown considerably over the past decade. A few consistent themes emerge from the Australian and international literature.

Challenge and progression: Research suggests that teenagers are drawn to environments that offer genuine challenge, the possibility of failure, and visible evidence of improvement over time. This helps explain why activities like street workout, bouldering, parkour and skating tend to attract and retain older youth in ways that conventional playground equipment does not. The self-directed, progressive nature of these activities aligns with what research identifies as adolescent motivational priorities (Brunelle et al., 2018).

Social design matters: Australian research using walk-along interviews with teenagers aged 13 to 18 in Melbourne found that teenagers consistently rated social factors above physical design features when describing what makes a park appealing. Spaces that offer seating and gathering areas adjacent to activity areas, and that allow for both participation and spectating, generated better outcomes with this cohort (Rivera et al., 2020). Separate research confirmed that sport and fitness features, paths, playgrounds and open space foster physical activity, while picnic areas, seating, events and shade promote social use of parks (Rivera et al., 2022).

Visibility and autonomy: Brunelle et al. (2018) note that teenagers want to socialise in public but that typical park designs include seating scattered along pathways that does not encourage gatherings or group conversation. Research consistently finds that teenagers prefer spaces where they can be seen by peers without feeling monitored by adults. Design that allows natural visibility without the feeling of supervision tends to generate better uptake from this cohort.

Inclusive design: Research from VicHealth and the Australian Sports Commission highlights the importance of designing for mixed activity types to achieve broad participation. Spaces that skew toward strength-based or high-intensity activities can inadvertently exclude significant portions of the teenage population, particularly girls and younger adolescents.

Bouldering and climbing for teens

Bouldering is an area where the research and our practical experience align closely. Low-level climbing structures that do not require roping or harnesses offer a combination of physical challenge, self-directed progression and natural social interaction that tends to work well for teenagers.

The Apostle range from IBN, available through Austek Play, is an example of this kind of equipment. Bouldering walls at accessible heights with varied routes allow beginners to develop competence progressively while giving more experienced users room to push their limits. In our experience, the social dynamic that forms around bouldering walls, spectating, coaching, shared attempts, is one of the reasons these installations tend to be well used over time.

Research also suggests bouldering may be more gender-inclusive than many other outdoor recreation activities. Evans and Anderson (2018) found that competition climbing, including bouldering, is characterised by an ethos of competing against the route rather than against other climbers. Dilley and Scraton (cited in Evans and Anderson, 2018) concluded that climbing provided “a collective and social space where women felt that their difference was accepted.” For councils seeking broad community activation, this is worth considering in equipment selection.

Street workout and calisthenics

Street workout and calisthenics installations have grown significantly in Australian parks over the past decade, and the uptake from teenage users has been a consistent feature of spaces we have been involved in delivering.

Pull-up bars, dip stations, parallel bars and functional training rigs offer a range of activities accessible to beginners while providing genuine challenge for stronger users. The aesthetic connection to urban gym culture appears to matter. In our observation, equipment that feels relevant to the visual and social world teenagers inhabit is more likely to attract initial use and more likely to become a regular destination.

Placement and social design matter as much as the equipment itself. Activity areas positioned near natural social thoroughfares, with adjacent seating and sightlines that allow for spectating, tend to generate more sustained use than isolated installations. Austek Play can assist with site assessment, equipment selection and layout design for street workout environments.

The case for outdoor fitness equipment in teen activation

Outdoor fitness equipment sits at a useful intersection for this cohort. It offers more physical challenge than traditional playground equipment and more accessibility than a commercial gym. In our experience, well-placed fitness equipment is among the most consistently used infrastructure in parks that serve a mixed age range including teenagers.

The appeal tends to rest on a few factors. The equipment is self-directed, requiring no instruction, membership or supervision. It allows users to define their own goals and progress at their own pace. And it carries none of the social associations that can make traditional playground equipment feel embarrassing for older users.

Austek Play supplies outdoor fitness equipment from leading manufacturers including HAGS and Denfit. We work with councils and designers to develop integrated outdoor fitness spaces that combine equipment, social seating and challenge elements in a cohesive layout.

Sport England’s Active Design guidance (2023) provides a practical framework for creating environments that support physical activity across all ages. The guidance emphasises that well-designed places and spaces, where activity is easy, attractive and safe, are fundamental to increasing community-wide participation. This principle applies directly to the design of outdoor spaces for teenagers.

Designing spaces that work for everyone

Teen activation does not require teen-only spaces. In practice, some of the most successful installations we have been involved in are spaces that work across multiple cohorts: older children, teenagers, young adults and fitness-focused adults using the same precinct in ways that suit each group.

This requires deliberate thinking about zoning, equipment mix and social design. A well-considered outdoor fitness precinct might include bouldering for challenge and social interaction, fitness rigs for progressive workout capability, seating and shade for gathering, and lower-intensity balance or flexibility elements that widen participation without reducing the challenge available to stronger users.

The Everyone Can Play guidelines, which Austek Play contributed to developing, provide a useful framework for ensuring these spaces are genuinely accessible across ability levels. Inclusive design and challenging design are not opposing goals. The research and our experience both point in the same direction: the best outdoor spaces for teenagers are places where every young person can find something, and where the most capable users are still being challenged.

If you are working on a project aimed at activating an older youth cohort, we would welcome the conversation. We offer a free initial site consultation and work with landscape architects, councils and schools across NSW, QLD and NT.

Key References

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2024). Physical activity. AIHW, Australian Government. aihw.gov.au

Brunelle, S., et al. (2018). Teens in Public Spaces and Natural Landscapes: Issues of Access and Design. In Lansford, J.E. & Banati, P. (eds), Handbook of Adolescent Development Research and Its Impact on Global Policy. Oxford Academic. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190847128.003.0018

Evans, A. & Anderson, E. (2018). A structural model exploring gender differences in perceived constraints to competition climbing. Annals of Leisure Research.

Lonsdale, C., et al. (2013). A cluster randomised trial of a school-based intervention to prevent decline in adolescent physical activity levels. BMC Public Health, 13, 232. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-232

Rivera, E., Timperio, A., et al. (2020). Critical factors influencing adolescents’ active and social park use: A qualitative study using walk-along interviews. Landscape and Urban Planning. DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103987

Rivera, E., Veitch, J., et al. (2022). Outdoor public recreation spaces and social connectedness among adolescents. BMC Public Health, 22, 163. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-022-12558-6

Sport England, Active Travel England & Department of Health and Social Care (2023). Active Design Guidance. sportengland.org

VicHealth (various). Participation in sport and physical activity. vichealth.vic.gov.au