With the theme of designing urban spaces with children at the centre, this blog presents children as important members of society and highlights the need for cities to be built with a focus on meeting the needs of children in the hope of creating urban environments that promote their development, safety and well-being. And it is also noted that because children do not play a direct role in politics, their needs are often overlooked in urban planning. However, this neglect does not mean that children do not have a role to play in the city, but rather that children are a central object in urban design.
The blog also emphasises the importance of children in urban design and cites Tonucci and Rissotto, who argue that children are able to identify problems in urban development from different perspectives and are able to propose innovative solutions. The blog also refers to Brown et al.’s argument that a child-friendly and healthy city is a child-friendly and healthy city for all. Since children are a vulnerable group in society, if they are taken care of, then adults can also be well off. This argument is further deepened by the authors’ focus on three key elements of child-friendly urban spaces: Play, Green Space and Mobility, and the authors advocate for the creation of interactive and flexible play spaces that go beyond the traditional design of parks. These spaces help children develop motor skills, understand risk and engage in imaginative play. In turn, the green spaces needed for children’s activities are seen as key to meeting children’s wellbeing, helping to promote outdoor play, natural connections, and behavioural improvements. The article cites Louv’s concept of ‘nature deficit disorder’, which emphasises the psychological and social risks associated with disconnection from nature. The third key factor, mobility, suggests that meeting children’s mobility needs as safely as possible can help to enhance their imagination and skill development (Gill, 2017). The article uses the ‘popsicle test’ as an example of the importance of a city’s accessibility to children. As demonstrated at ARUP (2024), the play spaces promote the development of children’s motor skills, adventurousness and imagination. The blog contains relevant research, case studies and critical insights, and makes a convincing argument that children are vital to urban design, which has given me a lot to think about. However, the blog could have been more persuasive if the author had supported it with more success stories or relevant data.
List of Reference
ARUP (2024) Designing cities for children. Available at: https://www.arup.com/insights/issues/how-do-we-design-inclusive-cities/designing-cities-for-children/ (Acessed: 13 December 2024).
Gill, T. (2017) Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods. Available at: https://cities4children.org/knowledgebase/cities-alive-designing-for-urban-childhoods/ (Acessed: 12 December 2024).
Gill, T. (2024) Tim Gill on Building Child-Friendly Cities. Available at: https://www.resite.org/stories/tim-gill-on-building-child-friendly-cities (Acessed: 12 December 2024).
Why We Should Design Urban Spaces with Children at the Heart
What if our cities were built not just for adults but with the needs of children at their heart, creating spaces where they can grow, learn, and play safely? Today’s blog post will discuss how and why we should be designing for the needs of children in our cities.
Of the world’s children’s population, 60% are predicted to live in cities by 2025 (Christensen and O’Brien, 2003). Bishop and Corkery (2017) highlight that in public policy, the needs of children are often overlooked, and according to Wood (2016), this is because children do not vote, contribute to society, or pay taxes. This, however, does not mean that children are not a valuable part of society.
So what is the importance of children in a city? And why bother designing for them?
Tonucci and Rissotto (2001) state that “It is shown how children’s participation experiences can lead to the acquisition of a fresh sensitivity and competence by city administrators and technicians. […] These proposals confirm the children’s capacity to identify the city’s problems as they emerge and to propose solutions that are often innovative or useful for all members of the population.”
Brown et al. (2019) paraphrase the Mayor of Bogota, Enrique Peñalosa, who states that a friendly and healthy city for children is a friendly and healthy city for all. Children are the most impressionable and fragile part of our society; if we are adequately looking after our children in the city, this should take care of the majority of the city, too. After all, the children of today are our cities’ futures, and to ensure a successful future, we need our children to be successful.
Figure 1: Children in Bogota learning road safety thriugh games (Source: Bloomberg Cities, 2019)
Designing cities for children isn’t just about adding parks. It’s about shaping environments where their imaginations can roam freely, and their futures can thrive.
How do we do this?
I have concluded through research that the three most important factors for children in cities are access to play spaces, green spaces, and ease of independent and safe mobility.
Figure 2: What makes a child friendly street (Source: The CityFix, 2020)
Play
Although play is fundamentally important for children’s cognitive and physical development and well-being (Kemple et al., 2016), designers cannot simply add parks and assume this is adequate design for children. Lack of play will have negative impacts on development, eyesight, allergies, and a lower level of physical activity (Brown et al., 2019). This is why interactive cities are critical for child engagement. This does not have to be a conventional play park but some infrastructure that encourages children to run, jump, climb, and balance. These activities will greatly assist with motor skills and development and, more importantly, understanding risk (Kemple et al., 2016). Understanding risk is a skill that all children must learn. Although, as designers, we can make cities as safe as possible, it is not enough to protect the children of the city; we must also educate them to look after themselves.
Green Space
Safe and healthy space usually comes hand-in-hand with environments with green space. The openness of green space in cities supports the needs of children, such as outdoor play areas and connection to nature. Brown et al. (2019) write that children’s rights are universal and that this means that children’s well-being is a universal concern. They also highlight that children who don’t have as much exposure to nature are more likely to have issues with behaviour and interacting with peers right into their adult lives. Louv (2005, cited in Brown et al. (2019)) describes this as “nature deficit disorder, which is the outcome of an individual disconnection with nature.
Mobility
Freedom of movement, in this sense, can be thought of in two senses. First, a lot of city spaces these days are over-specified. This kind of design can really contain a child’s imagination and restrict them from using spaces as they want, rather than how it is intended. Freedom of movement is also important to children so they can feel safe and navigate their cities with minimal supervision. Although this is currently ambitious, if children can roam themselves, their cognitive, motor, and social skills will develop more quickly. The main way we can get closer to this goal is by improving safety in cities. In the 1990s, Terry Kahn developed the popsicle test to gauge how accessible a city is for children. The test was a hypothetical question: “Would you, as a parent of a 8 year old, let your child go to the shop on their own to buy a popsicle, and could they get it back home before it melted?”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, designing cities with children’s needs in mind benefits everyone. The elements mentioned above aim to foster healthy development, independence, and a connection to nature. We should aim to design with children in mind to ultimately improve the quality of life for all residents.
References
Biggs, S. and Carr, A. (2015). Age- and Child-Friendly Cities and the Promise of Intergenerational Space. Journal of Social Work Practice, 29(1), pp.99–112. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2014.993942.
Bishop, K. and Corkery, L. eds., (2017). Designing Cities with Children and Young People. Routledge. doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315710044.
Brown, C., de Lannoy, A., McCracken, D., Gill, T., Grant, M., Wright, H. and Williams, S. (2019). Special issue: child-friendly cities. Cities & Health, 3(1-2), pp.1–7. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2019.1682836.
Christensen, P. and O’Brien, M. (2003). Children in the City. Routledge.
Churchman, A. (2003). Is There a Place for Children in the City? Journal of Urban Design, 8(2), pp.99–111. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13574800306482.
Ginsburg, K.R. (2007). The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. American Academy of Pediatrics , 119(1), pp.182–191. doi:https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-2697.
Kemple, K.M., Oh, J., Kenney, E. and Smith-Bonahue, T. (2016). The Power of Outdoor Play and Play in Natural Environments. Childhood Education, [online] 92(6), pp.446–454. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2016.1251793.
Martin , C. (2019). Child-Friendly Cities | | UDG. [online] Urban Design Group. Available at: https://www.udg.org.uk/publications/articles/child-friendly-cities.
Pitsikali, A., Parnell, R. and McIntyre, L. (2020). The public value of child-friendly space. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 14(2), pp.149–165. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/arch-07-2019-0164.
Riggio, E. (2002). Child friendly cities: good governance in the best interests of the child. Environment and Urbanization, 14(2), pp.45–58. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/095624780201400204.
Tonucci, F. and Rissotto, A. (2001). Why do we need children’s participation? The importance of children’s participation in changing the city. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 11(6), pp.407–419. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.641.
UNICEF (n.d.). Building a Child Friendly City | Child-Friendly Cities Initiative. [online] www.childfriendlycities.org. Available at: https://www.childfriendlycities.org/building-child-friendly-city.
Wood, J. (2016). Space to participate : children’s rights and the Scottish town planning system. Hw.ac.uk. doi:http://hdl.handle.net/10399/3401.
List of Figures
Figure 1: Children in Bogota learning road safety through games (Source: Bloomberg Cities, 2019)
Figure 2: What makes a child friendly street (Source: The CityFix, 2020)
With the theme of designing urban spaces with children at the centre, this blog presents children as important members of society and highlights the need for cities to be built with a focus on meeting the needs of children in the hope of creating urban environments that promote their development, safety and well-being. And it is also noted that because children do not play a direct role in politics, their needs are often overlooked in urban planning. However, this neglect does not mean that children do not have a role to play in the city, but rather that children are a central object in urban design.
The blog also emphasises the importance of children in urban design and cites Tonucci and Rissotto, who argue that children are able to identify problems in urban development from different perspectives and are able to propose innovative solutions. The blog also refers to Brown et al.’s argument that a child-friendly and healthy city is a child-friendly and healthy city for all. Since children are a vulnerable group in society, if they are taken care of, then adults can also be well off. This argument is further deepened by the authors’ focus on three key elements of child-friendly urban spaces: Play, Green Space and Mobility, and the authors advocate for the creation of interactive and flexible play spaces that go beyond the traditional design of parks. These spaces help children develop motor skills, understand risk and engage in imaginative play. In turn, the green spaces needed for children’s activities are seen as key to meeting children’s wellbeing, helping to promote outdoor play, natural connections, and behavioural improvements. The article cites Louv’s concept of ‘nature deficit disorder’, which emphasises the psychological and social risks associated with disconnection from nature. The third key factor, mobility, suggests that meeting children’s mobility needs as safely as possible can help to enhance their imagination and skill development (Gill, 2017). The article uses the ‘popsicle test’ as an example of the importance of a city’s accessibility to children. As demonstrated at ARUP (2024), the play spaces promote the development of children’s motor skills, adventurousness and imagination. The blog contains relevant research, case studies and critical insights, and makes a convincing argument that children are vital to urban design, which has given me a lot to think about. However, the blog could have been more persuasive if the author had supported it with more success stories or relevant data.
List of Reference
ARUP (2024) Designing cities for children. Available at: https://www.arup.com/insights/issues/how-do-we-design-inclusive-cities/designing-cities-for-children/ (Acessed: 13 December 2024).
Gill, T. (2017) Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods. Available at: https://cities4children.org/knowledgebase/cities-alive-designing-for-urban-childhoods/ (Acessed: 12 December 2024).
Gill, T. (2024) Tim Gill on Building Child-Friendly Cities. Available at: https://www.resite.org/stories/tim-gill-on-building-child-friendly-cities (Acessed: 12 December 2024).