Children Are Natural-Born Urban Planners!

Abstract

Based on the dozens of interactive workshops that the author has facilitated with children, he has discovered that children are more knowledgeable about the natural and the built environment than typically accredited. Due to this discovery, he believes children should be part of the community engagement for planning projects, developments, and policies. James Rojas developed an interactive workshop method for parents, teachers, architects, urban planners, and others to understand the spatial needs of children in the built environment. The method is based on Design-Based Learning (DBL) developed by Doreen Nelson, which teaches K-12 grade students math, science, history, and other core subjects by the students' recreation of the world around them. By engaging students' motor skills, DBL promotes and inspires the learning and creative processes. The exercise described in this article lets children investigate, discover, and explore their relationship with the built environment by arranging nonrepresentational objects. They create small vignettes of their urban life or attachment to it. Children gain satisfaction from this process because they are able to translate memories, experiences, and ideas from their mind into a physical form.