A digital platform for caregivers
Overview Part of the Urban 95 program, Digitaf is a digital platform designed for parents with young children to help them find local facilities, public events, municipal services and discounts from local shops. Since its launch in December 2017, every child born in Tel Aviv has received a Digitaf card that provides access to useful […]
Designing child-friendly public events
Overview Medellin’s Park of Desires (Parque de los Deseos), Colombia, is a public space that focuses on providing a range of free cultural activities and events that are child-friendly. The park’s goal is to create a sense of community among local residents by providing them with an accessible public space where they can participate in […]
Safe road zones around schools
Overview Between 1992 and 2014, the number of children in South Korea killed in car accidents fell dramatically from 1,566 to 53. This positive reduction is considered to be the result of changes in policy and the implementation of local projects focused on child road safety. ‘School Zones’ are spaces within 300 metres of a […]
Adapting a building to be a learning aid
Overview This educational infrastructure program transforms the architectural elements of schools into assets for playful learning resources. The intervention increases the opportunities of learning though built environment resources, improving pupil and teacher motivation and engagement with the learning environment. Location:India Organisation:VINYÃS Centre for Architectural Research & Design Partner organisations:UNICEF Beneficiary:Students, Caregivers Scale of proximity:Neighbourhood Built […]
Engaging children digitally
Overview In Mozambique, where more than half the population are children, urbanisation presents both challenges and opportunities for accommodating children’s needs and influencing their rights. This project explores new ways to promote child engagement in the reflection and design of urban space in Maputo. By using smartphone applications for data collection, children are actively involved […]
Engaging children in city resilience
Overview A resilient city is an open, just, and adaptable city prepared to respond to challenges that might occur while being capable of enabling its citizens, especially children, to thrive. A resilient city demonstrates inclusive decision-making processes, integrated systems, and resourceful plans. Thessaloniki designed a range of action plans aimed at embedding children’s rights into […]
Public spaces for all seasons
Overview In the Zentrum fur Kunst und Urbanistik, an interdisciplinary center focused on exploring the relationship between art and urban development in Berlin, an experiment was initiated that demonstrated the importance of effective design beginning with an understanding of the needs and constraints of project users, including young children, caregivers, and pregnant women. The experiment […]
Connecting communities around new developments
Overview The Knowledge and Innovation Community Garden is a child-friendly community project in a Shanghai neighborhood that aims to create inclusive, sustainable, and livable urban environments as part of new housing projects. The garden has been successful in engaging local children and families through public participation and community empowerment. It provides an open space for […]
Making streets playable
Overview The Playable Streets initiative includes a series of street upgrades designed to give back the streets to children. Small changes, such as wider pavements and greenery, can help regain the normality of playing independently. The interventions adapt street sections to support a richer mix of uses, including seating and play areas that accommodate children, […]
Urban Toys (Juguetes Urbanos) design
Overview The Urban Toys Initiative is a competition in Mexico City that focuses on child-centred design to reactivate underused public spaces through temporary playful interventions. The competition is held in areas with high population densities of children, and winning teams of designers receive a monetary prize and the opportunity to see their design implemented. The […]
Peatoniños play space in Mexico City
Overview Peatoniños, a combination of the Spanish words for pedestrian and child, is a local government program in Mexico City that repurposes street areas as spaces for play. The project aims to compensate for the lack of play spaces in deprived areas by temporarily restricting car access to certain sections of the street. This raises […]
Co-designing Kalobeyei public transport station
Overview Students took an active role in the design of the first public transport station and surrounding public spaces for the Kalobeyei refugee settlement. The settlement is home to refugees from seven African nations, and the new transport infrastructure aims to better integrate them with the local population of the Turkana county. During a five-day […]
Play for recovery
Overview Homelike play spaces have been created to provide psychological support to Rohingya refugee children in Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh, who have experienced severe trauma from persecution in Rakhine state, Myanmar. These spaces feature motifs, objects, and paintings that are familiar to Rohingya children, and playworkers, therapists, and community members use playful learning to […]
‘Emthonjeni’ multi-use early childhood development spaces
Overview Public water taps in Khayelitsha, Cape Town serve as points of connection for a community facing poverty and violence. ‘Emthonjenis’, meaning the place where water originates in Xhosa, are open-air learning spaces designed for young children built around public water taps. These spaces are part of a network of other areas and services where […]
Creating inclusive public spaces in Bar Elias
Overview The creation of visible, accessible and inclusive public space to reduce the vulnerability of the half a million Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Bar Elias, Lebanon. The improvements have made the public spaces more child and family-friendly, increased the use of the space and enhanced integration and connections within the whole of the town’s […]