"Der perfekte Versteckplatz, aber nur wenn man kleiner als 1,30m ist" (The perfect hiding spot, but only if you're shorter than 1.30m). A 9-year-old researcher documented this secret space between two recycling bins and a hedge, completed with measurements and a 'visibility chart' from different heights. She rated it 5 stars for play but warned that "Erwachsene können uns hier sehen" (adults can see us here). This small observation captures something essential about how children experience urban space: at a different scale, with different concerns, and often with surprising precision.

This was one of thousands of insights collected during our Urban Observations project, a two-year pilot , where we embarked on unlocking an entirely new form of urban intelligence shaped by the voices of children, transforming Vienna's students into urban researchers.

Why children?

Because a city that works for children works for everyone.

The concept of child-friendly cities has gained significant traction in urban planning discourse, seeing children as 'indicator species' for a healthy, democratic, and sustainable city. UNICEF's (2020) "Planning and Designing Child-Friendly Living Spaces: A Guide for Municipalities and Planners", STIPO's (2018) "The City at Eye Level for Kids" and Francesco Tonucci's (2020) "The City of Children". argue that if a city is safe and accessible enough for a child to autonomously play and walk to school, it is by definition safe and accessible for everyone, from elderly residents to parents with strollers and people with disabilities.

This movement represents more than design preferences but addresses fundamental human rights. When car-centric design exiles children from public space, it shrinks their autonomy and violates principles enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which, among others, establishes children's right to express their views in all matters affecting them (Article 12). Academic research confirms that children possess unique environmental competencies, experiencing urban environments through more holistic, sensory and emotional dimensions than adults (Malinen and Vahtikari, 2025). They are the first to notice sensory details, physical barriers, safety gaps and aspects of play and belonging. This means that children are not just future citizens; they are expert citizens, right now.

"Children are not just future citizens; they are expert citizens, right now"

Acknowledging this, several countries and cities around the world are proposing strategies for child-friendly living spaces (UNICEF, 2024). In Austria, the 'Kinderfreundliche Gemeinden' initiative has mobilized 288 municipalities to commit to a rigorous audit process, focusing on seven thematic areas including child participation, safety, and child-friendly politics (UNICEF, 2025). Vienna in particular has implemented several child-focused urban policies, including the Werkstadt Junges Wien participation process (2019) that engaged over 22,500 children in shaping the city's Children and Youth Strategy (City of Vienna, 2020), the Schulstraßen program creating car-free zones around schools (EU Urban Mobility Observatory, 2024), and a €1 million participatory budget for youth-led projects (Wieninger, 2023).

Building on this momentum, our Urban Observations project aimed to develop a systematic methodology for capturing children's street-level expertise, translating their daily experiences into actionable urban data through City Layers' citizen science methodology, participatory mapping mwthod, and our digital and physical toolbox.

The Urban Observation Project: Two Phases of Development

Phase 1: Exploration (2023)

Our first pilot year focused on meticulously translating abstract urban planning concepts into child-accessible language. We began with an extensive list of urban variables drawn from literature review, ranging from climate metrics to social dynamics. This framework was transformed into a gamified mapping toolkit combining digital and physical templates. Through iterative testing and feedback in guided mappings with schools and participation in co-creation and citizen science events, such as the WIENXTRA23 and the OeAD Citizen Science Award 2023, we gathered practical insights that refined our approach on the second phase. Fundamentally, our framework was reframed to move from abstract indices to specific sensory experiences; and from scaled ratings to drawing solutions.

Phase 2: Implementation (2024)

Implementing the learnings from the exploratory phase, our second pilot was launched in summer 2024. For two intense months (June and July), our team partnered with over 50 school classes across Vienna, engaging students aged 8-18 into active urban research. 

fig. 1-2 Children Mapping with City Layers Tools, July 2024, Vienna

The project kickstarted with our indoor workshops where students were introduced to the quest of consciously observing their surroundings, using interactive physical and digital exercises. Following this, the students and our team set off on 'mapping expeditions', guided by three different mapping approaches adapted to their developmental stages:

Ages 8-12 used our "Stadtteil-Forscher*in Spiel" (Neighborhood-Explorer Game), a physical worksheet for recording their location-specific experiences, feelings, surprises and observations about sounds, aesthetics, climate comfort, safety, and social activities. The worksheet included space for proposals through drawings and written suggestions.

Ages 12-15 used a hybrid model of simplified digital and physical mapping formats based on their familiarity with digital devices.

Ages 15-18 used our City Layers digital platform that guided them into a more advanced mapping process, enabling geolocated documentation of their observations with photos, descriptions, and detailed improvement proposals.

Following the guided mapping expeditions with our team, students had an extra month of full access to our platform to continue mapping independently in their neighbourhoods. 

fig. 3 The Urban Observations Digital Tool Approach

Results: Patterns in 7,000 Data Points

fig. 4-7 Excerpts from children's physical mapping worksheets

By the end of summer, we collected 64 physical worksheets with over 100 design proposals and 7,000+ geolocated digital observations. Our analysis revealed some consistent patterns in how children perceive and navigate Vienna:

1. The "Langweilig" Problem: The word "boring" appeared 147 times across our data, consistently applied to well-maintained but mono-functional spaces. Public spaces without play equipment or interactive elements were repeatedly flagged as uninteresting to them, regardless of their aesthetic quality. This suggests a misalignment between aesthetics and lived experience, and our adult definitions of successful public space and children's needs for engagement.

2. Negotiating Car-Centric vs Human-Centric Design: They articulated the tension of modern urban life between vehicular and pedestrian needs with remarkable clarity. At Karlsplatz, students loved the architecture and green space but documented how "Verkehr" (traffic) created stressful feelings at certain peripheral points. Multiple children focused their design suggestions on the surrounding streets, rather than the square itself, where astonishingly and perhaps unconsciously, no car was ever depicted indicating a clear negotiation of space for people rather than vehicle use. Other students focused on drawing "desire lines" and paths they would like to actually take as pedestrians instead of the official walking routes, creating movement patterns catered to their own scale and interests.

3. Embodied Mapping: Children's observations went beyond visual assessment to document their multi-sensory experiences of urban space. They captured surfaces that are dangerous to fall on, specific corners where wind conditions are unpleasant, locations of persistent puddles and benches that become unusable in summer heat. One student's concern for "Besserer Boden für Rollstuhlfahrer/innen" (better ground for wheelchair users) demonstrated how embodied experience can foster their broader awareness on accessibility. This sensory mapping revealed location-specific dimensions of urban comfort that can often be missed in planning.

4. Cleanliness as Collective Responsibility: Their problem identification and solution proposals showed a sophisticated understanding of urban challenges as collective concerns. This was particularly evident in the case of Resselpark, where an average cleanliness rating of 1.8/5, with consistent comments about litter ("hier liegt überall Müll") prompted more than complaints. Beyond requesting more bins, they proposed collective action and systematic solutions, such as school cleanup rotations and community responsibility systems. This suggests children view urban maintenance not as a service to be provided but as a shared civic responsibility.

5. Infrastructure Priorities: The analysis of the frequency of their suggestions revealed some clear priorities: Skate/parkour/urban equipment for play (6,575 mentions); Drinking fountains (5,893 mentions); Trash/recycling bins (5,761 mentions); Flowers and greenery (5,741 mentions); Effective weather protection for outdoor play (5,497 mentions). These requests form a practical manifesto for child-friendly infrastructure, emphasizing basic needs (water, shelter), environmental quality (greenery, cleanliness), and opportunities for active play.

6. The Geography of Experience: Our heat mapping of 7,000+ geolocated observations revealed how children's collective experiences create an alternative geography of the city. Clusters of low safety ratings validated known problem areas while identifying previously undocumented concerns. Positive clusters often centered on informal social spaces rather than designated children's areas, such as a corner where teenagers gather, a wall perfect for ball games, a square where modular urban equipment allow for creative play. This pattern suggests that children, much like adults often value spaces of spontaneous social interaction over formally programmed areas. 

fig. 8-13 The Urban Observations heatmaps

A Methodological Finding: The Power of Familiarity

A significant difference emerged between the mappings guided by our team and the ones done independently by children in their own neighbourhoods. During the guided mapping expeditions the observations were more general and executional, whereas when mapping their neighbourhoods independently, students provided remarkably detailed and specific insights. One Floridsdorf student submitted 47 observations about her school route, including traffic light timing analysis and proposals for converting underused spaces.

This gives a fundamental learning for our methodology, suggesting that meaningful participation requires both structured introduction and autonomous exploration time in familiar territories. Children's expertise is most acute in spaces they inhabit daily, where their knowledge accumulates through repetition, forming what we might call an "archive of experience" that no single observation session could capture.

Discussion: Reconsidering Participation

Roger Hart's (1992) "Ladder of Participation" warns against decorative inclusion of children in planning processes. Our results suggest that given appropriate tools and genuine platforms, children can provide systematic urban intelligence that goes beyond anecdotal input.

The project revealed that public space and play space are distinct categories for children. Green areas without interactive elements were consistently rated as inadequate, challenging our assumptions about what constitutes successful urban space for young residents. Perhaps most significantly, children demonstrated systemic thinking about urban problems. Their suggestions for cleanliness, safety, and accessibility revealed understanding of cities as interconnected systems. They didn't just identify problems, but proposed networked solutions that considered maintenance, community involvement, and long-term sustainability.

Conclusion: Measuring What Matters

The Urban Observations project demonstrates that children's perspectives can be systematically collected and translated into actionable urban data. Through 7,000 data points and 100 design proposals, Vienna's young residents have provided a ground-level dataset that can be a resource for multiple stakeholders, from urban planners seeking ground-level validation to complement traditional planning approaches, to schools teaching civic engagement, and researchers studying child-environment interactions.

The children who participated became active contributors to understanding their city. Their message, quantified and mapped, is clear: they need drinking fountains, safe crossings, clean spaces, and places that invite play and social interaction. But beyond these specific requests, they've profoundly shown us that urban intelligence exists at every height, around every corner, in every daily journey to school.

The tools exist. The methods work. The data speaks clearly. The challenge now is institutional: building on Vienna's child-friendly city momentum to create systematic pathways for young people's expertise to shape the spaces they inhabit. The future of our cities is being mapped by their youngest inhabitants. We just need to listen, and more importantly, to measure and act on what they're telling us.

Limitations and Future Directions

This pilot was limited to Vienna and two months of intensive data collection. Certain limitations can drive future iterations: 1. The summer timing meant we missed seasonal variations in how children experience urban space, such as capturing how winter's icy sidewalks, autumn's leaf-covered paths, spring's puddles shape their daily navigation throughout the year. 2. An age-specific analysis could yield a deeper investigation of how urban perception evolves from age 8 to 18. 3. The research could seek pathways to integrate the academic findings into formal mechanisms that incorporate children's data into district planning processes. 4. The question of scale also remains open. While we successfully captured street-level experiences, how this methodology might address larger urban systems, such as public transport networks, district-wide planning, city-wide climate adaptation requires extended testing.