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Arup and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation release guidance on how better design can help close development gap for most vulnerable children

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Kate Addlington Kate Adlington Global Press Office,London
17 March 2021

The way public spaces, such as a marketplace or footpath, are designed can have a positive or negative impact on the life chances of babies and toddlers in the city – Arup and the Bernard van Leer Foundation have highlighted.   
 
Bringing together child development experts and urban designers, the two organisations have released guidance on how cities can modify the built environment to improve the health, education and security of their most vulnerable young children, aged five or less. The guidance comes amidst warnings about a “vast and widening development gap” experienced by children in deprived, inner-city areas, magnified by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to UNICEF, because of the pandemic, 150 million more children across the globe live in multidimensional poverty – without access to education, health care, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water.

Conceived before the pandemic, the Proximity of Care Design Guide is primarily aimed at improving the lives of the growing number of children living in informal and refugee settlements around the world. It is estimated that hundreds of millions of children are living in informal settlements and many more in refugee camps.  However, the authors have said that Covid-19 has made the guide as relevant to children living in Tower Hamlets in London as to those living in refugee settlements in Nairobi. More children out of school have been pushed into poverty and rely increasingly on their local area for day-to-day needs, stimulation and development. 

The guide provides tangible and measurable principles for city governments, urban practitioners, early childhood specialists, and development and humanitarian professionals to create healthy, supportive, stimulating, and protective urban environments where children can thrive. The guide was compiled after extensive research and fieldwork in refugee and informal settlements in Kenya, Lebanon, Jordan and South Africa, in collaboration with local partners the Kounkuey Design Initiative, Catalytic Action, Civic and VPUU respectively.

The guide provides tangible and measurable principles for city governments, urban practitioners, early childhood specialists, and development and humanitarian professionals to create healthy, supportive, stimulating, and protective urban environments where children can thrive.

Simple interventions given as examples in the guide include:

• The Khayelitsha informal settlement in Cape Town suffers from gang violence and exposure to environmental hazards. A network of play spaces was set up – including the upgrade of existing courtyards throughout the settlement, creating a series of designated play spaces designed to target a different development skill through play.
 
• In Santiago colourfully painted streets and sidewalks have created new areas for play for children and families to enjoy, away from traffic. Shared streets pilot schemes around the world are using light materials and temporary designs to activate temporary car-free spaces – providing more space for people, not cars, and reducing young children’s exposure to air pollution.
 
• With Shanghai experiencing rapid urbanisation, the Knowledge and Innovation Community Garden has shown how small spaces can be used as green spaces where young children can play with mud and plant vegetables, providing a model for other communities. A connection with the natural world is associated with physical and mental health benefits for both children and adults.  

Sara Candiracci, Associate Director, Arup International Development: “While this guidance was conceived before the pandemic, the crisis has shone a spotlight on the vast and widening development gap experienced by children in deprived urban areas. Simple but meaningful interventions in the urban environment can be as life-changing to those in deprived areas of London or New York as they are to children in informal settlements in Cape Town. Interventions to improve the development of children can have long-lasting, transformative effects on cities and we must deploy them now to prevent the pandemic from inflicting lasting damage on already deprived communities.”

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All children deserve a good start in life – but we know that the most vulnerable children and families in informal or refugee settings don’t have access to safe, healthy and caring spaces nor to the services and support they need. When addressing these challenges, we need to work across sectors with actors, like Arup, who play an important role in shaping these environments. The Proximity of Care Design Guide explores in a practical way how this collaboration is possible. While developed specifically for informal settlements, the Guide is relevant for all cities working to address the urban inequalities that have been made even more visible and critical following the Covid-19 pandemic. ” Cecilia Vaca Jones Executive Director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation

Arup has also developed a virtual reality tool allowing users to experience the city at 95 cm tall - the average height of a healthy three-year-old. It is aimed at raising awareness of the challenges faced by young children in cities globally, created in collaboration with the Bernard Van Leer Foundation as part of their Urban95’ initiative that aims to help city planners, urban designers, and other urbanists understand how their work can influence child development. Arup is also working with the Real Play Coalition, including the LEGO Foundation, IKEA, National Geographic and UNICEF to advocate the creation of more child-friendly and playful cities, where the child’s view is considered in the built environment. See the Reclaiming Play in Cities report, and Arup’s Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods report. 

Arup has also developed a virtual reality tool allowing users to experience the city at 95 cm tall - the average height of a healthy three-year-old. Arup has also developed a virtual reality tool allowing users to experience the city at 95 cm tall - the average height of a healthy three-year-old.
Arup has also developed a virtual reality tool allowing users to experience the city at 95 cm tall - the average height of a healthy three-year-old.

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