Cultural park for children: one step toward child friendly Tehran

In urban programs, a little attention is paid to children. Therefore, thè most cities are designed and built for adults.

As Unicef organization defines, a Child Friendly City is a city, or more generally a system of local governance, committed to fulfilling children's rights.

Some of thè rights mentioned by Unicef can be achievable through convenient urban design and urban planning, in which children, their needs and their expectation of city are considered more than before. This will be as an idea to be followed in order to reach a child friendly city.

Several factors are involved to achieve thè Child Friendly City and its features. Several measures can be taken in thè field of urban designing and urban planning in order to improve thè urban environment for children. it needs to identify thè problems and deficiencies of children's lives in urban areas and then seeking to remove thè shortages as well as solving thè problems.

Since paying attention to all aspects of Child Friendly City cannot be included in this article, we sought to meet thè children's spatial needs and respond to their expectations of city in thè field of urban design and propose thè simplest available way in order to make thè city and neighborhood, where, despite being simple,

satisfies thè children's basic needs as thè need for appropriate urban spaces.

The children's leisure time makes their greatest hours a day and should be utilized exclusively in thè field of their activities and interests. Children are interested in playing, sports, poetry, music, reading, drawing, feeling of self-confidence, story reading, watching thè wildlife, open and green spaces, and meeting thè peers, watching thè movies and spending their leisure time which is covering their major time.

Children are willing to find a place for fulfilling their interests in each of activities. If these spaces are not found inside thè family or school, they may seek to meet their needs in public spaces.

The neighborhood can be considered as a big social family to try to make thè closer one to what children expect. It is better that thè measures, which should be done in thè field of urban design to achieve thè desired objectives of Child Friendly City, to be hierarchically began at the neighborhood level.

The fact is that every child starts his urban life from thè neighborhood, between thè route from home to school and his first contact with thè city, happens there. Therefore, we carne to this belief that if every neighborhood could take a step in being Child Friendly and respond to thè children's urban need, particularly in thè field of urban design, it will be so helpful to have an appropriate city for children.

Children want thè space and freedom to enjoy structured and unstructured activities, both indoors and outdoors. It is important to them that parks, play areas and recreation facilities are engaging, fun and clean. Facilities like these provide children with opportunities to develop confidence, competence and a sense of achievement.

There are very few children who live within walking distance of a nearby park. Clearly we need parks and playgrounds more than ever to make our whole city more child-friendly.

Parks and green spaces are thè urban spaces in which children can get away from city life, relax, socialize, be physically active, and be in contact with nature. Cultural facilities considered in some parks, such as libraries, galleries and other settings, is very usual and interesting. So that children can enjoy their urban lives, having access to such green urban spaces to spend their leisure time there and this will be effective in different aspects of their life. A park can help bring a community together and strengthen its identity.

Tehran, thè capital city of Iran, can be considered as a city which has-

become a place for adults and thè children have no role in it. Compared to thè international standards and citizenship rights, children living in Tehran are not in an acceptable situation in thè field of urban quality.

Designing a local park consisting of some needed facilities for children can be a simple way to improve thè child-friendliness of a neighborhood and thè city.

We are going to design a Cultural Park for Children in a low-income neighborhood, in order to provide cultural, educational and recreational facilities for thè community.

In this project we try to approach thè best design appropriate for children and thè interaction with thè local community as well as thè Persian Architecture.

Since thè park is situated in thè midst of a poor community, it affords poor children thè opportunity to play and to be trained in an arranged place with trees and green spaces.

To some extent, this park can be a response to children's urban needs since it includes a variety of activities and attractive places specially designed for them, such as playgrounds, creative activities places, land of natural elements, drawing yard, library, art ateliers, workshops, cinema and galleries, all in thè contact with trees, green spaces and water.

We tried to create an urban space in a site which has been considered to be a green space, but is just surrounded by some trees in thè northern and eastern part. The modular design, in harmonious with thè surrounding buildings, and using Persian Architecture elements, is our main concept.

We designed buildings with maximum two stories so that can be more suitable for children.

The size (dimensions) and height of buildings are understandable for children and not that much complicated so that Children are able to accept thè buildings as a place especially designed for them.

Cubie and modular design of buildings and landscape are some characteristics of thè project in order to approach Iranian architecture which makes use of symbolic geometry, using pure forms such as circles and squares, and plans are based on often symmetrical layouts featuring rectangular courtyards.

Semi-open spaces in connection with enclosed and open spaces are considered and can be understood as transition spaces, such as central courtyard, portico and Iwan. All these elements, in Iranian Architecture, have been thè spaces for interactions since they were shaded and thus cooler.