CHILD’S INFRASTRUCTURE IN CITIES — URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN TO GUARANTEE CHILD RIGHTS

Abstract

This article reviews the concepts of child rights and Child Friendly City at first and underlines that essentially Child Friendly City construction is to protect and guarantee child rights. By examining China’s reality of the design practice for children, the author points out that to build a Child Friendly City, two challenges must be addressed: interpreting child rights in different societal and cultural contexts, and mitigating interest conflicts between the protection of child rights with the current urban construction. In response, the author emphasizes the importance to build child’s infrastructure that is devised to serve varied scenarios, purposes, and childhoods, as well as the fact that this is not a once-forall investment but requires an evolving planning mechanism. Finally, the article states that children’s participation is the key to Child Friendly City construction and the greatest challenge to local implementation, which asks for long-term capacity building for children’s participation and strong support by a top-down management system.