Children’s participatory design for sustainable development and community planning

Abstract

The urban developments have been carried out by only professionals for a long time because of efficiency and safety. However, most residents are ordinary people. Therefore, it is necessary to change the awareness of sustainable living environments, not only on the construction side but also the residents. In recent years, the number of cases of residents’ participation in planning, maintaining, and repairing increased. However, sometimes youths and children, who might spend a lifetime longer than adults in a city after the developments have been done, are not included in this “Residents”. Concerning youth and children’s participation, CFC (child friendly city) is one of the good practices for sustainable development. It was launched by UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) and UN-Habitat in the Habitat II in 1996. City governments, especially in European countries, started to view CFC as their key concept for preservation and/or sustainable development. CFC means not only being “Children” friendly but also “All people” friendly. Various effects have been reported since the Historic Cities/districts included CFC in their city planning as a common concept, especially in education, community re-development, and operation and maintenance by the community. It is expected that better city planning in preservation and sustainable development can be achieved by adding CFC concept. In this research, an ideal way of city planning involving resident participation and the possibility in the future are analyzed based on case studies. Then a strategy of sustainable development and community planning involving youth and children’s participation is proposed.