Exploring with Children What Makes a City Child-Friendly

Abstract

In light of the 30^th birthday of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we explore what makes a city child-friendly. This question is often answered by adults rather than children themselves. Moreover, designing child-specific places tends to bring children out of view. With an eye to designing cities as places for everyone, including children, we explored together with them how they experience their city. Findings suggest that they find physical boundaries exciting and are curious about what lies behind them; transitory zones (places passed through in the course of daily public life) are relevant to them in terms of independent mobility and affordances like play and social interaction; adults do not always see what places afford children and children themselves are not always aware of them. Societal challenges important for child-friendliness today include population aging, safety, and the environmental impact. Finally, children often do not seem to be aware that the physical environment can be improved, which is why participation remains important: it can teach children that they can do something about their environment. The fact that children have a different knowledge about the urban environment than adults, can only enrich participation processes.