Neighbourhood design

The needs and perspectives of children are largely overlooked in urban development, in spite of children forming a significant proportion of population and having particular needs. We believe that employing an approach to designing for children and young people based on the rights they have is a more effective way of meeting their needs than historical and current urban theories, which can be problematic and even detrimental. In this chapter we provide an overview some of the challenges posed by current approaches to urban development and detail the conceptual underpinning of our approach necessary to deliver child friendly cities. This includes adopting a rights-based approach, building an understanding of the nature of play and its importance to children’s well-being and development, and enabling children’s independent mobility. We start the chapter with an outline of why we are working in Hackney and a description of the De Beauvoir Estate which has been the focus of the project.

Hackney – setting the foundations for a child friendly borough
In late 2016, Policy Studies Institute and ZCD Architects convened ‘A Vision for 2026: Hackney the Child Friendly City’. This agenda-setting summit, held at the Haggerston Community Centre, brought together decision makers, professionals, community-groups and NGOs involved in urban planning and development, transport, education, child development and health. With a focus on what the concept of child friendly neighbourhoods might mean for the borough the event concluded with a challenge to the Mayor of Hackney to make the borough child friendly by 2026. The event laid the groundwork for the current project and the focus on the De Beauvoir Estate. It also built on recent work undertaken both in
the Hackney and further afield. For example, the Islington Fair Futures Commission (starting at the same time and publishing its recommendations in 2018) recently called on Islington Council to use its next Local Plan to set out a vision of how the borough will become child friendly (Fair Futures Commission, 2018). The Commission recommended achieving this partly through ensuring all major developments include consultation with children. As is shown later in the report our work points to important questions around who is consulted and how. Hackney isn’t approaching this issue from a standing start. It is building on a history and culture of innovative and risk-taking investment. Most recently, the 2018
local election manifesto of the lead political group in Hackney states ‘we want to work with the community to ensure that Hackney becomes a fully child friendly borough and maximise the opportunities for safe play and outdoor activities across our streets, estates, parks, adventure playgrounds, new developments and open spaces as children and their families explore and discover the world around them.’ (Hackney Labour, 2018)

source:

https://www.zcdarchitects.co.uk/_files/ugd/143b8c_7c7d71aee1a44245ba2c3ad2428cb8f2.pdf