Children discover and uncover the city using an app
Anke Leitzgen and Bruno Jennrich have succeeded in making children’s and youths’ perspective of the city more visible with their cross-media initiative #stadtsache (a matter of the city). At the heart of the project is a user-friendly app that has won third prize at the Vienna Business Agency’s ideas competition “Kinder, Kinder! New Design Ideas for a Playful City”.
Exploring one’s own competences and living experiences is the basis for the development of self-efficacy and confidence. Yet children rarely get the chance to feel needed or to act as experts. The city is one of the few areas where all children have a say. After all, they gain experience with it every day, for example when they travel by public transport, gather at playgrounds or just move around the city.
The app #stadtsache builds on the input of its users. The younger generation is invited to comment on their everyday lives and to actively participate in urban development. This creates an increased awareness of what is going on in their immediate surroundings. #stadtsache encompasses a wide range of topics, from recreational activities to information on the dangers of city life.
Anke M. Leitzgen and Bruno Jennrich on their project (Video in German):
The ideas competition “Kinder, Kinder! New Design Ideas for a Playful City“ invited creative minds, producers, and manufacturers from Vienna and beyond to submit new concepts, strategies, products and services offering solutions to the following questions, based on the way children (might) experience the city: How can responsibility and commitment become a joint venture; how can we foster a happy coexistence, and how can we protect children’s rights so that the everyday life of children in the city becomes enriched now and in future?
For more information please visit viennabusinessagency.at
Submissions: https://viennabusinessagency.at/creative-industries/competitions/kinder-kinder/submissions/
Feature Image: © #stadtsache
Anke M. Leitzgen will be presenting during the Poster Exhibition of the Child in the City World Conference 24-26 September 2018 in Vienna. Click here to register for the conference.
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