cities for children

Urbanism Through Children’s Eyes: Building Cities for Autonomy and Play

Urban Childhood in the City of Cars

According to Tim Gill, an international expert on childhood and urbanism, in his book Urban Playground, the major changes in urban childhood are driven by new approaches to urban planning:

"Over the last hundred years, traffic has become a deadly threat to children and a justified fear for their caregivers. The shift to car-centered neighborhood planning has reinforced a logic of lost freedoms for children, leading to more sedentary, indoor lifestyles."

The evidence is clear: globally, road accidents are the leading cause of death among young people. Air pollution has increased respiratory diseases in children, and fewer and fewer children and adolescents meet the minimum physical activity requirements recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In Chile, the statistics are just as discouraging. Among children aged 1 to 14, road accidents are the leading cause of external death (CONASET). Nationally, only about 20% of children and adolescents meet the physical activity targets set by the WHO, and just 15% use active transportation modes to travel to and from school (Aguilar-Farias, et al. (2018). Results from Chile’s 2018 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth). Additionally, Chile has the highest rate of deaths attributable to air pollution in South America.

The current paradox of our cities and childhood is that we have created spaces so sanitized from risk that any mistake becomes fatal.

To drive these transformations, it is crucial that experimentation leads to permanent changes in our streets and public spaces, addressing the needs of children, adolescents, and their caregivers. This requires building social capital to encourage decision-makers to prioritize child-focused policies and invest in permanent projects. To achieve this, methodologies and interventions should follow these three stages:

Building by integrating children’s perspectives: Using drawings, photographs, conversations, or other methods, it’s essential to understand how children perceive their surroundings and how they would improve them.
Measuring with community involvement: Demonstrating the impact of a project to authorities and the community helps build momentum for change and motivates replication in other areas. Simultaneously, data on how the transformed space is experienced and used can be gathered.
Learning from results and experiences: Local authorities are particularly interested in understanding how a project positively impacted their communities. The data and experiences collected from these interventions can also be leveraged for future funding or to strengthen policies and permanent public spaces aligned with the project’s objectives.

Cities for Children

Internationally, organizations like Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) and ARUP, through initiatives such as Streets for Kids and Proximity Care, are focusing on fostering children’s mobility and independence in urban environments.

They explore how design and data can improve decision-making and transform cities into more comfortable, safe, and inspiring spaces. Nationally, Ciudad Emergente has brought these international approaches to projects across Chile in municipalities such as Valdivia, Antofagasta, Independencia, Lo Espejo, and Cerrillos. These projects actively involve children in the design process, emphasizing the creation of safer and more playful environments.

What Would a City Look Like from 95 Centimeters High?

This is the challenge posed by programs like Urban95 from the Bernard van Leer Foundation. What would happen if we started viewing the city as if we were a 3-year-old, an 8-year-old, or a 14-year-old? What would we change?

You don’t need to be an expert in public policy or urban design to start questioning how we are planning our cities and for whom. Nor do you need to think about the entire city; you can start with your neighborhood, the street in front of your house, or the nearby park. Some simple actions might include walking or biking to school for a day, closing the street with your neighbors to invite children to play, or even collaborating with your community to create proposals for your local government.

Imagining a neighborhood—or an entire city—designed for children isn’t about ensuring every neighborhood has a playground; it’s about turning the city itself into a playground. A city where children have the freedom to move around and explore at their own pace. Planning cities that enable the holistic development of children is key to improving everyone’s quality of life.

That way, the next time we wonder whether we’d feel comfortable letting our children play in the street, the answer will be a resounding YES!