Forming City Images From the Perspective of Children

ABSTRACT Children have an essential place in the world population which we can’t regard. On the contrary, as the most special group of the society, by being the residents of the future cities, they are excluded from the urban life and the planning process. This situation makes the questionable togetherness of city and children become more of an issue. Before getting in action, in order to find solutions to the problem, the aim of this paper is to understand how children perceive their cities and form the image of their urban environment. Accordingly, three case studies (sites of Powisle, Sathyanagar and Enschede), which fosters the participation of children by using the methods of one-on-one interviews, focus groups, peer-interviews on video, participant- taken photographs, mapping of roaming range, participant-led guided tours, photo-grids and community surveys, have been reviewed in this study from the perspective of children. The form of the cities were examined by using the urban elements of Kevin Lynch (paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks) as a common frame. The results show major differences in perception of children and adults which empowers the studies made on city and children including children’s participation. Keywords: urban image, children’s perception, Kevin Lynch, urban elements, children’s participation