Designing out Children’s Loneliness
The loneliness epidemic is far-reaching, affecting the oldest and youngest members of our society. It has been reported that children as young as 8 are experiencing loneliness, with loneliness being more prevalent amongst young children (aged 8–12) than their teenage counterparts. According to the Office for National Statistics, a devastating 11.3% of children aged between 10–15 reported they “often” felt lonely. Loneliness appears to thrive in cities where 19.5% of children reported “often” feeling lonely, compared with just over 5% of those living in towns and rural areas.
There are many challenges faced by urban children in the contemporary world. Some of these include pollution and density of traffic; high-rise living and urban sprawl; crime, social fears and risk aversion; isolation and intolerance; and inadequate and unequal access to the city.
Think back to when you were a child and try to imagine yourself living in a busy UK city today. You’ve just arrived home from a hectic day at school and want to go to the neighbourhood park with your best friend, who lives a few streets away. But how are you going to get there? Your parents are too busy working, and the roaring traffic on the road outside your home means they won’t allow you to go alone. Instead of an afternoon in the fresh air, playing around the park and exploring with your friend, you spend the next few hours looking at a screen alone in your room. This is the case for many urban kids today and one of the reasons why we are currently seeing a steep rise in levels of child loneliness.
So, what can be done?
Thankfully, the European Network of Child Friendly Cities are putting their hearts and minds to the task. I attended the first of a series of conferences taking place around the world, building on a growing international movement for the world’s cities to step up and do more to promote the health and well-being of their youngest citizens and to protect children’s rights in the urban environment.
5 Things I learnt from ‘Towards the Child Friendly City: Advancing Children’s Rights in the Built Environment’:
Children are citizens within their own right
Children represent a quarter of the population and should be viewed as citizens within their own right, with their own civic voice and agency, not merely passive extensions of their parents and the school system. Children’s voices are vital as they experience and see things that adults overlook, and often cut through to what is truly important in our society, as the recent wave of climate activists have shown. It is important that society does not underestimate the power and importance of children.
Children are the Generators of Community life
In the words of Enrique Peñalosa: “If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for everyone”. Cities need families. A city without a healthy young population- without its life blood being replenished- will struggle to sustain itself in the future. There is a positive correlation between children’s rights and wellbeing and the economy, demography and sustainability of a city.
Building Cities Fit for Children
Building a child-friendly city involves child-friendly planning, housing, and neighbourhood environments; enabling child activism and listening to children’s voices; children’s mobility, travel, and transport; and play and play-work. Children don’t really live in cities, but neighbourhoods. Tim Gill, the author of ‘No Fear: Growing Up in a Risk Averse Society’, argues that neighbourhoods should become the new unit of analysis, as the roaming range of children has diminished drastically over the years. Fostering family-friendly neighbourhoods with an emphasis on safety and mobility- thus increasing the ‘everyday freedoms’ of children- should become the priority.
Architecture is a social act
There is a direct relationship between how thoughtfully a place is designed and the wellbeing of the community that uses those spaces. There is often a blind spot when it comes to what makes a place work for children, and there needs to be more focus on the lived experience of children in design processes.
There are 4 main principles of child friendly design
1. Car-free- lack of traffic to create safety and quiet.
2. Connections- safe crossing points, shared surfaces and play-areas to allow independence and to encourage play.
3. Access- easy access through dwellings to encourage freedom and friendships.
4.Overlooks- balconies and visual connections to foster a positive sense of community.
Some cities are already beginning to take these insights on board. Here are some examples of exciting developments taking place around the world:
Albania: In Tirana in Albania, after a survey revealed that the city’s parents spent more on their cars than their children, the city’s mayor successfully used these statistics as moral leverage to change the cities priorities.
Businesses have since sponsored the transformation of kindergartens and nurseries from run-down places resembling “prison cells” into attractive and child-friendly spaces, with new projects on the way thanks to positive public-private partnerships.
Vancouver: Another example is Vancouver’s family-friendly housing policies, established in the 1990s, which specifies design features such as communal storage space for buggies, play areas and family homes on lower floors, natural light and opportunities for play. Location is also extremely important to these developments- proximity to schools, day-care centres and grocery stores, and safe connective walking routes being some of the major priorities.
UK: And closer to home, schemes such as London Play and Playing Out enable residents to request that their streets be temporarily pedestrianised, typically on Sundays, allowing locals to go outside and meet other members of the community while creating a safe playing-out space for children.
These examples are only some of the positive movements taking place in cities around the world. The amount of time children spend playing outdoors, their ability to be independent and move safely around the city, and their level of contact with each other and the natural world all reflect how well a city is performing. It is vital that we continue working towards the creation of cities which allow our children, and therefore ultimately us all, to prosper.
Some useful links:
Playing Out- a grass-roots movement cultivating child-friendly cities:
https://playingout.net/about/what-is-playing-out/
This publication explores various design interventions and policies from around the world which aim to improve the lives of children and their families in urban environments:
https://www.citiesforplay.com/child-friendly-neighbourhoods
A chat with Madi- from Room13 Hareclive, an independent art studio run by children in South Bristol, UK:
Tim Gill’s re-thinking Childhood:
https://rethinkingchildhood.com/
Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods:
https://www.arup.com/perspectives/cities-alive-urban-childhood
