🖍 I took 3x of children’s proposals literally and visualized them (proposals for a park):
– A giant ice cream machine that shoots ice cream to people
– A Pyramid climbing net goes up to planet Mars
– A drone to bring a ball back to the football field
It’s super inspiring and fun to have conversations with children about making places. Sometimes it’s a challenge to understand what children fully mean when they give a proposal. As adults, we need to read between the lines to understand what is their point. Because some proposal makes no sense (in an adult’s mind) if we take them literally as how children tell them.
What helps me to understand children’s points is by putting together different perspectives (like putting together pieces of a puzzle):
– Children’s perspective
– Stories from their teachers & caregivers
– Reading and doing research on the place
– My own understanding & experience as an urban planner
Let’s take the 3x proposals:
– Ice cream machine: children wish there could be a little ice cream kiosk/booth so they can get ice cream during summertime in that park.
– A Pyramid climbing net: children want playground equipment where they can climb, and stand high to feel like they are flying and watching the place from above. They want playground equipment that is higher than the ground level.
– A Drone: because the football field has no fence, when they shoot the ball, it goes far away. Children spend a lot of time going after the ball and bringing it back. They thought a drone could be very fast in bringing the ball back to the field. They want to enjoy their time playing football instead of going after the ball to bring it back and wasting a lot of time.
💡 I put 10x pieces of advice in the comments below that might inspire your work of making #childfriendlycities
📧 Behöver du hjälp med BKA, genomföra dialoger med barn/vuxna, bolla ideer mejla gärna mig
mustafa.sherif@afry.com
Keep up the good work
Keep loving cities
Mustafa Sherif 