Future Planners: Urban Design for Young Global Citizens

Young voices matter in planning for the future!  Kids are citizens too, and more cities are starting to include children and teens in their plans for streets, green spaces and transportation. Students will learn how to look at and think critically about urban spaces, learning new terms and how to express their ideas effectively.  These are important skills kids can gain in order to participate fully in community life, and even to propose changes they wish to see in their communities.  

In this class we will study urban planning for places that are healthy, inclusive, safe, appealing and inspiring, especially for kids. We will explore a topic- an element of design- and then look to cities around the world that are doing things differently and solving problems, with success.  The main topics are open spaces, transportation and access to healthy food.  

We will look at how each choice of planning leads to a more healthy city- or not!- and what happens down the line from making that choice.  Through lecture, slides, video, discussion/debate, and drawing/sketching we will explore the good and bad of urban design.  

Week 1 - Intro to urban planning 
Week 2 - Urban open spaces, green space, community parks
Week 3 - Transforming urban rivers and the water's edge
Week 4 - Public transit, cities built for bikes & pedestrians
Week 5 - Streets for kids
Week 6 - Growing food in the city: community gardens, urban agriculture, composting, permaculture

Course Project:  
The course project will bring the inspiring global cities we learn about closer to home.  The project guides learners through a careful consideration of their own environment and poses the question of how they would like to improve it.  
Learners will be asked to identify an area or plot of land in their town/city/neighborhood that is underutilized.  They will make a map and create a design proposal to transform that space into something new.  Sharing their progress each week with the class is encouraged but optional.  Learners are also welcome to send their work to me privately. (see homework section below)