Planning for Children and Young People and Intergenerational Futures 

For more than a decade we have been researching with children, young people and adults to understand their experiences of growing up and living in newly built communities.

Large-scale house building has been on the agenda in the UK, with programmes such as the Garden Villages and Towns policy and large scale developments as part of the planned delivery.

Historically, a major population group with distinct needs - children and young people - has tended to be marginalised within the planning and delivery of planned settlements and this is the focus of our research.  You can access our briefing paper (via this website), written in 2018 which summarises major opportunities for the inclusion of children and young people in the planning and design of Garden Villages and Towns in the UK.

More recently, in 2023/24 we asked how future urban places can meet the needs of different generations of residents who live in them.  It is based on the observation that many new urban places neither meet the needs of children and young people, nor do they enable older people to 'age in place' (if they wish to).  Our work, alongside that of many academics, has identified that there are many tensions between residents of different ages in urban places - and that even more recently-planned communities have not managed to address this issue.

Our report published in 2024, available here, is part of a longer-term initiative to shape national and international agendas with the primary aim of creating better places for children, young people and families.  The report outlines our main thematic findings and sets out key recommendations, which were co-designed with a group of 30 professionals from relevant sectors at a conference in Birmingham in May 2024. 

We hope our research and recommendations will be of use to you and your organisation.  If you need any further evidence about any of the themes or you would like to work with us on an aspect of designing / building new communities, please do get in touch.

Report references: 

Kraftl, P., Hadfield-Hill, S. and Laxton, A. (2018) Garden Villages and Towns: Planning for Children and Young People. Birmingham: University of Birmingham Briefing Report.

Hadfield-Hill, S. and Kraftl, P. (2024) Planning For Intergenerational Futures: Conversations with professional stakeholders and residents of new build communities.  Birmingham: University of Birmingham.

ACTIVITY PACK - RESOURCE FREE TO DOWNLOAD

Activity: Building a community in a day (Resource pack for engaging children and young people in planning and design)

Time: 1 day of workshop activities 

Size of group: Max 30 young people (split into groups of 5)

Age: This has been designed for young people aged 9-18 (adapted accordingly)

The reference for this resource is:

Kraftl, P. and Hadfield-Hill, S. (2019) Build a community in a day: Resource pack, Accessed from: https://www.planning4cyp.com/, University of Birmingham, UK.

Download from here:

If you are interested in using a mobile app in your research or participatory work with children or young people - please see the following report:

Hadfield-Hill, S., Kraftl, P. and Zara, C. (2017) App based tools for participation and urban data collection, University of Birmingham.

Key resources from our research:

Christensen, P., Hadfield-Hill, S., Horton, J. and Kraftl, P. (2017) New Urbanism, New Citizens: Children living in Sustainable Urban Environments, Routledge

Hadfield-Hill, S. (2012) Living in a sustainable community: New spaces, new behaviours? Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability (Special Issue: Children, Young People and Sustainability), 18, 3, 354-371.

Horton, J., Hadfield-Hill, S. and Kraftl, P. (2015) Children living with ‘sustainable’ urban architectures, Environment and Planning A, 47, 4, 903-921.

Horton, J., Christensen, P., Kraftl, P. and Hadfield-Hill, S. (2014) ‘Walking … just walking’: everyday pedestrian practices of children and young people, Social and Cultural Geography, 15, 1, 94-115.

Horton, J., Hadfield-Hill, S., Christensen, P. and Kraftl, P. (2013) Children, young people and sustainability: introduction to special issue, Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. 18, 3, 249-254.

Kraftl, P., Horton, J., Christensen, P., and Hadfield-Hill, S. (2013) Living on a Building Site: Young People’s Experiences of ‘Sustainable Communities’ in the UK, Geoforum, 50, 191-199