Designing Self-Produced Cities with Children: Participation and Urban Citizenship

2014

Faculty:

Ignacio Cardona, Cheo Carvajal

Participants:

Juancho Pinto, Josymar Rodríguez, Oscar Rodríguez, Rodrigo Guerra, Santiago Rizo

Consultants:

Gerardo Zavarce, Artistic Curator; María Izquiel, Community Processes

Institutions:

AC Caracas a Pie; Arepa Arquitectura Ecología y Paisaje; Public School in Petare

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This participatory teaching initiative explored how children can become active participants in the transformation of self-produced environments. Developed in Petare, the workshops connected children’s everyday needs—places to play, dance, walk, and gather—with broader questions of pedestrian mobility, public space, and the reuse of vacant and disconnected urban spaces.

Drawing, physical models, happenings, and other participatory tools enabled children to imagine and represent alternative urban conditions. Among these methods, the “Handy-Shop,” a device constructed from recycled materials, allowed participants to draw their desired city directly onto the surrounding landscape. Positioned between participatory design and citizenship education, the project explored how engaging children in urban design can simultaneously produce spatial ideas and strengthen their understanding of themselves as active participants in the city.