Making the red dot on the map - bringing children’s perspectives to the city planning agenda through visible co-design actions in public spaces

ABSTRACT

A co-design process can bring children into the design and development of public neighbourhood spaces as a way to ensure that their perspectives are represented in the design. The co-design process itself can also create resonance beyond the actors immediately involved and form a discursive forum for how visions and perceptions for public spaces are defined and vocalized in the wider community. Our argument is that children’s involvement and perspective produce better and more informed public spaces which benefit entire neighbourhoods; in short, we claim that a child-centred city is also a healthy city. In this article, we will present a co-design process with children involved in the collaborative design and construction of a full-scale mock-up of a playscape in a public green space. We will examine how the process and outcome are not only beneficial for the children, but are also instrumental in engaging a broad range of local stakeholders in the discourse around the future design of the site. Through the notion of ‘matters of concern’ and with a design-anthropological approach, we will trace how the process and the design interventions proved to be vital for aligning a multitude of local actors and interest groups towards integrating a children’s perspective in the planning agenda for the future site transformation.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Co-design
• design anthropology
• public space
• healthy city
• children
• public hearing
• matters of concern

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City Know-How

Acknowledgments

We thank the APEN/Move the Neighbourhood research team that have collaborated on the overall research setup and provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the project: Rene Kural, Kamilla Nørtoft & Sidse Carroll, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Bettina Lamm, Anne Wagner & Laura Winge, University of Copenhagen and Jens Troeslen, Charlotte Skau Pawlowski & Tanja Schmidt, University of Southern Denmark. This research was supported by Områdefornyelsen Sydhavnen, The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities, The Velux Foundations, and TrygFonden.

Disclosure statement

All research and filming was carried out with consent from the children and their parents.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Lokale og Anlægsfonden (DK); Områdefornyelsen Sydhavnen (DK) (areal renewal plan); TrygFonden.

Notes on contributors

Laura Winge

Laura Winge, Senior Design Anthropologist and Ph.D. student at the Division of Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen. She holds a degree from Institute of Visual Design, from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Design. In her research Laura investigates co-design methods as a way to include citizens in the political agenda and the transformation of urban public spaces. She has many years of experience as an independent designer and consultant on the involvement of citizens in social design projects, co-design processes and public innovation. Winge is part of the practice-based research project. Move the Neighbourhood that explores co-design processes of urban environments with children.

Bettina Lamm

Bettina Lamm, Landscape architect and Associate Professor at the Division of Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen. She holds a degree in landscape architect and a Ph.D. from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Architecture. Lamm’s research addresses the interaction between the urban environment and the lived life in the public realm.  She studies through practice and theory how temporary interventions, play design and art installations can facilitate spatial practices and social interaction in public space. Lamm is project manager of the practice-based research project. Move the Neighbourhood that explores co-design processes of urban environments with children.