5 Reasons to Bring a Youth Lens to the City-Making Process

Take a moment to consider how you experienced place when you were young. Do you remember climbing trees or being in nature? Did you feel safe walking to school? What were some public places you loved to spend time?

Now think about when you first realised that you wanted to take a role in creating places. As professionals in the built environment industry, ‘youth’ is commonly becoming a tick the box demographic we engage with. And rightly so. Not only because this is a stage of life we have all passed through, but because more often than not, the decisions we make now, will affect the next generation more than they will affect our own. At Fourfold Studio, youth engagement is central to many of our projects. The youth are our future. These young people will live with the consequences of the decisions we make today.

Students take part in the award-winning ‘My Woodbury’ project

Here are our top 5 reasons why youth engagement matters:

1. Youth today are seeing the unprecedented, interconnected global challenges of climate change, inequality, social disconnection and mental health crises. In the face of all this, it is unsurprising that young leaders like Greta Thornberg have stepped up. While the new generation of youth leaders are incredibly passionate, powerful and determined, they won’t be able to solve these challenges alone. Today’s adults must be the co-collaborators alongside youth leaders if we are to design cities that are equitable, resilient and foster connection.

2. Kids deserve to grow up in safe neighbourhoods with intergenerational communities. In the 90s, many Western societies started to see increased ‘stranger danger’ fears as the city became more de-personalised, leading to kids spending more time in the home. By involving youth in designing cities, we can address issues of safety and foster intergenerational connection. While no longer functioning, Urban Food Street in Buderim, where neighbours came together to grow food, saw the local kids take on roles of leadership and coordination, and foster relationships between youngest and oldest in the street. These powerful childhood memories will be the foundations of a more connected and resilient society. 

3. Civic responsibility starts young. Placemaking projects such as Play Streets can redefine our relationships with place by challenging how we interact with streets and places. Are streets simply movement corridors, or could they be places of play? Successfully run all over the world, play streets see neighbourhood roads become temporarily closed to traffic to encourage old-fashioned street play and every-day exercise. By encouraging youth today to actively engage with their surroundings and shape the places around them, we can raise a generation of place custodians.

4. Play is an important tool for discovery and learning for young and old. As the Childhood Summit 2021 reiterated, play is not a nice-to-have, but critically important for children’s development and wellbeing. It’s also a key component of adult health, with research showing that more playful adults rank higher on indicators of wellbeing. By prioritising play in our lives and cities, we increase the wellbeing of people of all ages. More can be found about forms of adult play here.

5. Seeing the world through a child’s eyes can transform us. In a recent project in Springwood, QLD, Fourfold Studio asked school students to come up with ideas for a new ‘town square’. Their ideas were unique, creative and inclusive. One high school student wanted to see furniture which could be repurposed at night for people experiencing homelessness, while primary aged kids envisioned complex moats, bridges, fountains and lighting systems that amazed the adult town planner who joined the session. When we engage with youth, we open ourselves up to entirely new perspectives and worldviews.

We’re looking forward to seeing cities where youth are seen not just as a stakeholder group, but as active, engaged citizens with creative worldviews to share. Through collaboration and learning with young people, we can bring creative and play-based approaches to the design of cities, benefiting everyone.

Keep an eye out for our youth-focused projects over the next few months!

Fourfold Studio has loved working collaboratively with the youth of Logan to co-design a new youth space at Wilbur Street, Logan Central. The aim of the project is to design a new space for youth by youth. Our process saw 307 people aged 12-24 and 30 youth service providers provide unique insights on the gaps in youth spaces in Logan. The strength of this project has been the diversity of the young people who have joined us and the depth of knowledge we were able to draw upon from the wider South-East Queensland network of practitioners working in this space.