Street for kids in cerrillos
The "Streets for Kids" project in Cerrillos, Chile, encouraged play and physical activity among 350 children at Pedro Aguirre Cerda School. This pilot demonstrated how a densifying neighborhood could benefit from child-centered interventions that create better streets for everyone.
Ciudad Emergente partnered with GDCI, the Municipality of Cerrillos, and Universidad Mayor to pedestrianize a 70-meter-long street, reclaiming 820 square meters of public space for children and their caregivers to socialize and play. Over 200 children, caregivers, community members, municipal employees, and architecture students participated in a four-month process that contributed to the design and implementation of the street transformation.
The implemented project featured playful furniture, vegetation, signage, and vibrant pavement art, creating a sense of place for the school community to gather and play.
The project’s outcomes were immediate:
Pedestrian volumes: +562%
Caregiving activities: +100%
All survey participants felt safer and supported permanently pedestrianizing the street.
Following the project, the school community—including more than 100 children, staff, and families—collected signatures and wrote a letter to the mayor, requesting that the street remain closed to cars and open for everyone to move and play freely.
