A Participatory Process: Creating Child Friendly Environments

Abstract

Cities compose of heterogeneous populations with different needs. Needs of the “children” portion of urban populations has not been examined enough, according to study at hand, in Turkey. Popularity of the cities seems to be increasing and people tend to move to urban areas rather than suburban. The case happens to be the same in Turkey, like elsewhere in the world. Especially in İstanbul Turkey, after 1950s there happened a rapid migration ending in rapid urbanization. İstanbul got the biggest piece out of internal migration combining into factors that end in an environment not friendly for children. Over the last 10 years or so, interest in the child friendly cities has increased in Turkey along with the rest of the developed world for two main reasons: (1) 2008 was the first time more people started to live in urban areas; and (2) there is a worldwide trend towards government decentralization. However, local authorities were not prepared to respond due to limited resources. This chapter explores children’s existing environment in a specific locale in İstanbul, in order to transform it into a child friendly one. There are some aspects that are elaborated such as; mobility of children in city centers, everyday life of children, children’s involvement in planning decisions. In the guideline of these issues, a design proposal is introduced in the end, which was discussed with the residents of Akkirman Street in the Şişli district of İstanbul. The experiences and desires of children do have much to offer in planning practice and in turn it has much to teach children about citizenship, responsibility and participation.