Design for the young and you design for everyone?
Brendan Gleeson made a presentation at the Institute of Technology Sligo yesterday on Designing Child-Friendly Cities. Not to be confused with the Irish actor, this Brendan is Director of the Urban Research Program at Griffith University in Austraila. At Crayola we never addressed the concept of the child-friendly city, though we certainly agreed with the necessity of “places for wild, unstructured play” in child development.
The talk was introduced as less about “how” and more about “why.” The imperative is pretty clear when you begin to consider how the built environment affects child well-being, particularly within urban areas, where devoid of enlightened planning, gobble up green spaces, as well as market-driven compaction of housing plots. The cult of materialism and individualism has produced wealthier, yet fatter, sicker and less happy kids.
The conversation was dense with the forces that conspire against our most dependent and vulnerable citizens, yet there was enlightened commentary around how child-friendly societies are designed to be more caring and civil to all, and have longer-term outlooks around solutions. We also need to consider the benefits of getting older people together with younger people, as opposed to segregating them into specific spaces.
