Including young people in the design and planning of our cities Young Urbanist, Simeon Shtebunaev, considers how different initiatives around the world incorporate the youth perspective into urban planning.
Adultcentrism denotes the bias that our society places on the views of adults in comparison to those of children and young people. In social practice, the term is closely related to the exaggerated egocentrism of adults in relation to youth. In a system where the adult’s views carry more weight, young people’s perspective is often dismissed or restricted. Indeed, one’s citizenship rights and privileges are closely related to one’s age – we acquire the right to drive, drink, tattoo, buy cigarettes and most importantly, participate in democracy, at specific time intervals of our lives. Our right to participate in the planning and design of our cities is often derived through our citizenship rights. Yet, we use, alter and appropriate the built environment all throughout our lives. Youth are not passive recipients but active shapers of our urban environments, yet are often seen as an external force to the planning process. Since the 1989, the United Nations in Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, stipulate: “Children and young people have the right to say what they think should happen when adults are making decisions that affect them and have their opinions taken into account” (UN, 1989). However, there has been almost no systematic progress in involving young people in urban planning, arguably the policy aspect of most relevancy to them. So, why don’t we include young people in the planning and design of our cities? And if we did, how? Co-design and education Historically, the discussion about children and young peoples’ participation in the built environment, has focused on two main areas – the design of facilities of direct relevance to them, such as schools, kindergartens and youth centres; and the 28 Here & Now | AoU Journal No. 14 | Winter 2019
education of young people about architecture and town planning. Participatory design with children and young people has a long tradition in architectural discourse. Researchers such as Dr Rosie Parnell have discussed the benefits of a constructive dialogue between architects and children in the design of their immediate environment. The online anthology Designing with Children showcases a wide range of initiatives. Architectural practitioners, such as Chiles, Evans and Care Architects (CE+CA) are an example of practices which actively research and publish their participatory design activities with children, ranging from kindergartens to secondary schools. Beyond the physicality of educational buildings, teaching youth about the built environment is another way of promoting youth participation. The received wisdom states that the more youth know about their city and the processes which drive it, the better equipped they will be at taking action when they have the ability to do so. Box City is one initiative spearheaded by the Center for Understanding the Built Environment (Cube), a Kansas based organisation. Box City is a curriculum in which young people can engage with a city plan and learn how to negotiate their individual building designs using a framework of grids and boxes. My own experience of co-running a youth summer school in architecture and design for the past four years has shown that when presented with an understanding of the system, young people can successfully come up with ideas for the wider benefit of the place they are designing. The pioneering RIBA National Schools Programme takes a similar approach, connecting young people