Childhood is the first period in which an individual begins to make sense of life and gives direction to his character. Passing this period in a healthy way is important for both the individual and the society. Needs must be met for a healthy city. For this reason, the design of children's playgrounds is a necessary step for a healthy city. In the context of healthy city criteria, children's playgrounds were examined through Eskişehir city center. As a qualitative research, it is within the scope of the case study in the context of descriptive research. There is a study (Uz and Çabuk, 2006) about children's playgrounds in Eskişehir in 2006. Between 2006and 2020s playgrounds in the city center were discussed. It has been observed that the existing traditional playgrounds are for simple physical activities only. It has been determined that children are not in diversity, diversity and adequately equipped to meet their creativity, exploration and experience needs. As a result, children's playgrounds in the city center of Eskişehir were analyzed, and their compliance with the ideal design criteria according to the concept of "Healthy City" was examined, and suggestions were presented for the development of these areas.

Cities are open spaces where people exist together, socialize and perform the actions of encountering and meeting others. Urbanites carry out their socio-cultural life through their activities in exterior space within the construct of the urban physical environment. Social structuring emerges in open public spaces, in which the relationship between the individual and society is reinforced by the physical environment. Nevertheless, today, the rapid growth of the uncontrolled urban development in a complex pattern increasingly renders it difficult for the urbanite to detect and easily scrutinize exterior spaces in the city. The environmental image acquired by the individual gives them the feeling of being emotionally secure when bearing this image in mind. The elevated qualities of legibility and wayfinding in the cities are of the most important "urban design principles". Urban legibility means that an environment is discernable and is perceivable within continuity. The more rapid a city can create an image in mind, the more legible it becomes. In this study, the city of Eskişehir, which is located in the northwestern part of Turkey and has a history that dates back to Phrygian civilization, is scrutinized. Apart from being an industrial and commercial city, Eskişehir has been a university city since the 1950s. Currently, university students comprise 10% of the urban population. In this study, reading the city was carried out via the cognitive map of the university students who experience the city for a while.

Informal education contributes to the development of the student's design skills and the performance of architecture education by addressing subjects that do not fall directly into the curriculum. This study is mainly about the development of students' design thinking skills in informal education. In order to make an assessment, a case study was conducted on the Bademlik Design Festival (BTF), which can be described as an important example in the field of informal education. By adhering to the method, surveys were applied to the instructors and students participating in the BTF. The concepts obtained according to the survey results are based on a detailed conceptual framework. Then, by interpreting this conceptual framework, students' learning outcomes are revealed. As a result, it is observed that the students in the workshops conducted at the BTF gain design thinking skills such as “interaction, free and original thinking, innovation, communication and dialogue”.