Introduction to Design for Play and Urban Childhoods is a workshop that seeks to foster a general understanding of the value of play and its impact on the holistic development of children, while reflecting on how this directly relates to the way cities and their respective public spaces are designed, planned, and built.
Design for play and urban childhoods is an emerging field. It advocates for a coherent and systematic approach to urban planning and design where children and adolescents are central to the public sphere. It recognizes the fundamental importance not only of independence and play but of the built environment as a whole, challenging the traditional creation of isolated children's play areas. In other words, it represents a commitment to creating places for everyone: nodes for building more inclusive communities; settings for social interaction and coexistence; platforms for exercising the right to play; and methodologies for integrating child and community participation, among others.
