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Thematic Area: Urban infrastructures

Infrastructure usually refers to the built environment or aspects of our surroundings that are built by humans, that is, distinguished from the natural environment. It includes not only buildings, but the human-made spaces between buildings, such as parks, and the infrastructure that supports human activity such as transportation networks, utilities networks, flood defences, telecommunications, and so on (Design Buildings Wiki).

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Child-Friendly Urban Design. Observations on Public Space from Eindhoven (Nl) and Jerusalem (Il)

This report presents findings on urban design solutions for increasing child-friendliness at the neighbourhood level. It reviews the literature on best practices, analyses indicators on the suitability of the public sphere for young children and their parents, presents empirical data on neighbourhoods in Eindhoven (NL) and Jerusalem (IL), and develops recommendations for better design of…
  • Publication year: 2018
  • Content Type: Report

The Potential of Participatory Design to Improve Urban Spaces in the Slums of Caracas, Venezuela

It may be said that slums have become one with Caracas, and so to eradicate them completely would be almost impossible task. A more suitable solution therefore is to rehabilitate these areas, and improve the current living environment. Taking into account the meagre access to construction materials, the prevailing social conditions, and the absence of…
  • Publication year: 2017
  • Content Type: Academic paper

After the Tsunami in Cooks Nagar: The Challenges of Participatory Rebuilding

In the context of post-disaster reconstruction, there is growing awareness of the need for more integrated inclusive processes that allow people to retake control of their lives, and that ensure practical responses to local conditions. Yet, a range of pressures and challenges conspire to make these approaches appear unworkable. “Participation” in this context, if it…
  • Publication year: 2008
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Growing Up in an Urbanizing World

Growing Up in an Urbanising World summarizes the results of an eight-nation UNESCO project that explores these questions and others across a spectrum of low-income neighbourhoods in the industrialized and developing worlds. Building on the pioneering ideas of the Growing Up in Cities project of the 1970s (a four-country effort directed by the influential urban…
  • Publication year: 2001
  • Content Type: Book

Children’s Experience of the Physical Environment in Poor Urban Settlements and the Implications for Policy, Planning and Practice

This paper describes how children’s needs are routinely ignored or misunderstood by urban development policy, plans and practice – and the very high costs this brings for them in terms of ill-health, injury, premature death and impaired physical, mental and social development. For instance, provision for water, sanitation and housing often fails to address the…
  • Publication year: 1999
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Putting the Informal on the Map Tools for Participatory Waste Management

Informal urban infrastructures are a challenging environment for participatory design, both from an organizational and technical perspective. In this paper we reflect on a recent research project involving participatory sensing and design of participatory technologies for informal recycling cooperatives. We collaborated with COOPAMARE, a cooperative in central São Paulo, Brazil, on two goals: to map…
  • Publication year: 2012
  • Content Type: Academic paper

The Influence of the Neighborhood Physical Environment on Early Child Health and Development: A Review and Call for Research

This review examines evidence of the association between the neighbourhood built environment, green spaces and outdoor home area, and early (0-7 years) child health and development. There was evidence that the presence of child relevant neighbourhood destinations and services were positively associated with early child development domains of physical health and wellbeing and social competence.…
  • Publication year: 2015
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Agonistic Participatory Design: Working with Marginalised Social Movements

Participatory design (PD) has become increasingly engaged in public spheres and everyday life and is no longer solely concerned with the workplace. This is not only a shift from work-oriented productive activities to leisure and pleasurable engagements, but also a new milieu for production and ‘innovation’. What ‘democratic innovation’ entails is often currently defined by…
  • Publication year: 2012
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Habitat III Issue Papers

The Habitat III Issue Papers are summary documents that address research areas, highlight general findings, and identify research needs on topics related to housing and sustainable urban development. Through its Task Team on Habitat III, the United Nations system collaborated on the preparation of the Issue Papers. The Papers provided a background on each thematic…
  • Publication year: 2017
  • Content Type: Report

Children’s Participation in Urban Planning. A Comparative Study of Vienna, Copenhagen and Madrid

The first part of this thesis begins by outlining the historical development of pre-sociological and social concepts of childhood. The second part then examines the relation between children and space starting from their private home, child related institutions and in public space. The third part introduces the discourse about the participation of children in urban…
  • Publication year: 2010
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Are We Building Competitive and Liveable Cities?: Guidelines for Developing Eco-Efficient and Socially Inclusive Infrastructure

The guidelines have been developed to inspire change among local governments (and other actors in the field of urban development) in the planning, designing and managing of urban infrastructure. The goal is to encourage an integrated approach, taking into account principles and criteria of eco-efficiency and social inclusiveness. Such an approach will help decision makers…
  • Publication year: 2011
  • Content Type: Report

Habitat III Issue Papers 18-Urban Infrastructure and Basic Services, Including Energy

The prevailing understanding of infrastructure has been typically based upon a limited view of infrastructure as discreet sectors which contain physical structures and facilities. Over the last decade, infrastructure has evolved to a more increasingly system based understanding which consists of networks of assets, knowledge and institutions.
  • Publication year: 2015
  • Content Type: Report

Cities Alive. Designing for Urban Childhoods

This report highlights why and how city stakeholders should start to create child-friendly urban environments. It begins by highlighting the changing urban context and sets out the five core challenges of urban childhoods. It goes on to articulate two fundamental concepts for the development of more child-friendly approaches: ‘everyday freedoms’ and ‘children’s infrastructure’. It then…
  • Publication year: 2017
  • Content Type: Report

Regional Action Plan for the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean 2016-2036

The Regional Action Plan for the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean (RAP) seeks to be the regional expression of the New Urban Agenda (NUA). It promotes evidence-based policy making, setting out potential actions and interventions as well as relevant and priority policy guidance for all Latin American and…
  • Publication year: 2018
  • Content Type: Report

The Future of Cities: Opportunities, Challenges and the Way Forward

This report identifies challenges influencing the future of cities in Europe and beyond. It also presents several perspectives from which to look at resolving these issues. The main aim is to raise open questions and steer discussions on what the future of cities can, and should be, both within the scientific and policymaker communities.  It…
  • Publication year: 2019
  • Content Type: Report

Beyond the Networked City: Situated Practices of Citizenship and Grassroots Agency in Water Infrastructure Provision in the Chamazi Settlement, Dar Es Salaam

The paper argues in favour of newly emerging forms of citizenship within participatory spheres that enhance access of the poor to urban services through direct participation aimed at socially equitable outcomes. It develops principles of inclusiveness and social justice, contributing to long-term improvement. Concept: infrastructure deficit is not solely a technical problem of extending pipe…
  • Publication year: 2017
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Inclusive Urban Infrastructure Investments: A Guide for Municipalities

This publication is intended as a practical guide for mayors, local government officials, sector specialists, planners, and other decision makers involved in the programming and design of urban infrastructure projects in medium-sized cities. The guide aims to: – facilitate understanding of concepts and issues related to the design of infrastructure projects that will directly or…
  • Publication year: 2016
  • Content Type: Report

Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth: A Manual for Participation

This book is a practical manual on how to conceptualize, structure and facilitate the participation of young people in the community development process. It is an important tool for urban planners, municipal officials, community development staff, non-governmental organizations, educators, youth-serving agencies, youth advocates, and others who are involved in the community development process. It offers…
  • Publication year: 2002
  • Content Type: Book

Re-Imagining Participatory Design: Reflecting on the ASF-UK Change by Design Methodology

This article aims to reflect on the ASF-UK Change by Design methodology in participatory informal settlement upgrading, positioning it within ongoing debates about the conceptualization and practice of participatory design. The first part of this article draws on key literature exploring the relationship between participation and architecture and participation and design to identify the trends…
  • Publication year: 2016
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Don’t Just Listen- Do Something! Lessons Learned about Governance from the Growing Up in Cities Project

Eight practitioners in the Growing Up in Cities project of UNESCO reflect on what they have learned in terms of how to move government officials and leaders of civil society to view children and youth as partners in creating livable cities. They describe their experience in participatory action research with children and youth, how they…
  • Publication year: 2005
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Block by Block

Block by Block is a global initiative that uses the popular video game Minecraft to involve youth in the planning process in urban areas by giving them the opportunity to show planners and decision makers how they would like to see their cities in the future. The project is a collaboration between Mojang, the creators…
  • Publication year: 2012
  • Content Type: Other document

La Obsolescencia como Oportunidad Para una Infraestructura Social: Torre David

Latin American case of a neglected infrastructure reconverted into ‘social infrastructure’. For its scale and diversity as well as its unfinished state, its inhabitants found an exceptional urban condition to rebuild a new identity as citizens. A set of 5 open systems that transformed that obsolescence into an alternative part of the city; a social…
  • Publication year: 2015
  • Content Type: Academic paper

Visioning as Participatory Planning Tool: Learning from Kosovo Practices

This sourcebook draws from the experience of several successive programmes implemented by UN-Habitat in Kosovo, which used visioning as a participatory planning tool. The toolkit explains a) the role of visioning in participatory planning; b) the methodology of visioning; and c) learning from the experiences in Kosovo. The goal is to explore ideas and tools…
  • Publication year: 2012
  • Content Type: Toolkit

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DeCID: Co-designing social infrastructure with children affected by displacement is a project led by The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (UCL) and CatalyticAction, and funded by UKRI through the Global Challenges Research Fund.

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