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Within Växtvärket, there is a Gatulabba team working for more child-friendly streets! Gatulabba is about increasing children’s freedom of movement in our cities by identifying important streets for children and redesigning them from car roads to playable and safe streets. Read more about child mobility and playable streets.
Creating child-friendly streets requires a child’s perspective – for mapping but also for concept development. In Gatulabba, we let children and young people explore, conceptualise and build their own versions of child-friendly streets. The three processes carried out so far have spanned six months with weekly meetings, giving children a genuine opportunity to understand the project and develop their own ideas. After the design and prototyping processes, we invite the public and local politicians to experience the children’s visions during street parties. The prototypes have been left for the summer to be evaluated.
In Gatulabba, we have so far worked with full-scale prototypes. Prototyping is a good method because it enables fast processes with immediate results. Concrete results, which make children’s participation meaningful for themselves. Full-scale prototypes provide elaborate results, which really show the competence of adult children. In addition, it is easier to understand the value of an idea when it is prototyped and experienced in real life, rather than just presented on paper as a hand-drawn concept sketch.
We know that the option of building full-scale prototypes is not available in most contexts – it is time-consuming and costly. Moreover, it may not even be necessary in some processes. Then there may be other ways to create meaningful child involvement.
For inspiration on approaches and methods for different participation processes, see our Tool Kit, Process Tips and Child Involvement.
If you want help putting together a programme, don’t hesitate to get in touch! The Gatulabba team has extensive experience in facilitating child participation processes as well as design. Read more about how to hire us here.
Gatulabba started as a Swedish Inheritance Fund (Allmänna arvsfonden) project in the autumn of 2021. It is run by Växtvärket in Malmö, with the aim of increasing children’s freedom of movement and developing methods for including children in urban planning processes.
Gatulabba’s method bank is the result of the design processes carried out, combined with the knowledge Växtvärket has about working co-creatively with children and young people.
Växtvärket is a group of designers, landscape architects, garden engineers and educators, who work for a child-friendly and co-created urban development. We in Växtvärket usually call ourselves a collective of DOERS. We design and build shared outdoor environments, such as playgrounds, residential gardens, neighbourhood gardens and, as in the case of Gatulabba, temporary street installations. In addition, we activate green meeting places in the city and carry out valued activities in site development, construction play, urban farming and outdoor education.
We work with site development in its entirety, from idea and concept development and consultation to design, implementation and activation. Our goal is to create environments that promote meetings, play and activity while creating ecological added value.
If you’re curious about how creative minds around the world are working to make our cities better for kids, you’ve come to the right place. The podcast is your ticket to a journey through the world’s most innovative urban developments.
Fascinating interviews: Listen to conversations with thinkers and doers from both Sweden and other parts of the world. We dig deep into their thoughts and ideas on how cities can be more playful, safe and rewarding for children.
Global perspective: Explore child-friendly city projects from different corners of the world. Discover how different cultures and societies are adapting their cities to create meaningful environments for children to grow up in.
Creativity and debate: Learn about the most creative solutions in urban planning, child involvement and child-friendly environments. We’ll explore ideas that make cities places where children can flourish, but also discuss problems, obstacles and meet opponents.
Gatulabba’s Kid city podcast isn’t just for urban planners and architects; it’s for anyone who cares about creating a better future for the next generation. Join us and be inspired by those already at the forefront of child-friendly urban development and let their ideas guide and inspire you.
- Project Manager & Child culture Designer sara@vaxtvarket.se
- Landscape Architect sofie@vaxtvarket.se
- Environmental scientist gretha@vaxtvarket.se
Human Rights liza@vaxtvarket.se
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