Planning for Children and Young People
Who we are and what we do
Welcome to this website, we have put this together to showcase research from the University of Birmingham in relation to delivering child- and youth-friendly housing and public spaces.
We are Professor Sophie Hadfield-Hill and Professor Peter Kraftl and over the past fifteen years we have worked with over 5,000 children, young people and families in urban places across the UK, India and Brazil.
The overall aim of our approach and work is toinfluence and inform the design and delivery of homes and communities - to ultimately make safer, better, healthier places for children, young people and families.
There are three interlinked strands of research and reports available on our website which we hope are of interest to you. These are summarised and can be accessed below.
If you would like more information please get in touch:
Professor Sophie Hadfield-Hill, University of Birmingham (s.a.hadfield-hill@bham.ac.uk)
Professor Peter Kraftl, University of Birmingham (p.kraftl@bham.ac.uk)
We have worked with Local Authorities, private developers, urban designers and national government to feed our research findings into plans and policies. If you think we could help you, then please do let us know. All of these interactions are free as part of our public service and impact - we would be happy to talk to you or visit your team.
Planning Places for Children and Young People
Large-scale house building has been, and continues to be on the agenda in the UK, with programmes such as the Garden Villages and Towns policy and large scale developments as part of the planned delivery. Historically, a major population group with distinct needs - children and young people - has tended to be marginalised within the planning and delivery of planned settlements and this is the focus of our research. In 2018 we published a report which summaries major opportunities for the inclusion of children and young people in the planning and design of Garden Villages and Towns in the UK.
Kraftl, P., Hadfield-Hill, S. and Laxton, A. (2018) Garden Villages and Towns: Planning for Children and Young People. Birmingham: University of Birmingham Briefing Report.
Planning for Intergenerational Futures
Our latest research in 2023/24 asked how future urban places can meet the needs of different generations of residents who live in them. Our report outlines our main thematic findings and sets out key recommendations which were co-designed with a group of 30 key stakeholders at a conference in Birmingham in May 2024. You can read more about this on this page and download the report below.
Hadfield-Hill, S. and Kraftl, P. (2024) Planning For Intergenerational Futures: Conversations with professional stakeholders and residents of new build communities. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
How we can support policy-makers and practitioners (Toolkit: Build a Community in a Day)
We put together this toolkit to support local authorities and planners engage with children young people in planning and design. There are suggestions for a day of activities for a group of thirty young people. The activities have been designed for young people aged 9-18.
Kraftl, P. and Hadfield-Hill, S. (2019) Build a Community in a Day: Resource Pack for Engaging Children and Young People in Planning and Design. University of Birmingham.
Further publications and resources from our research:
Christensen, P., Hadfield-Hill, S., Horton, J. and Kraftl, P. (2017) New Urbanism, New Citizens: Children living in Sustainable Urban Environments, Routledge
Hadfield-Hill, S. (2012) Living in a sustainable community: New spaces, new behaviours? Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability (Special Issue: Children, Young People and Sustainability), 18, 3, 354-371.
Hadfield-Hill, S., Kraftl, P. and Zara, C. (2017) App based tools for participation and urban data collection, University of Birmingham.
Horton, J., Hadfield-Hill, S. and Kraftl, P. (2015) Children living with ‘sustainable’ urban architectures, Environment and Planning A, 47, 4, 903-921.
Horton, J., Christensen, P., Kraftl, P. and Hadfield-Hill, S. (2014) ‘Walking … just walking’: everyday pedestrian practices of children and young people, Social and Cultural Geography, 15, 1, 94-115.
Horton, J., Hadfield-Hill, S., Christensen, P. and Kraftl, P. (2013) Children, young people and sustainability: introduction to special issue, Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. 18, 3, 249-254.
Kraftl, P., Horton, J., Christensen, P., and Hadfield-Hill, S. (2013) Living on a Building Site: Young People’s Experiences of ‘Sustainable Communities’ in the UK, Geoforum, 50, 191-199
Our longstanding work is based in part on in-depth collaborative research involving several institutions. The details of the projects are as follows:
ESRC ‘New Urbanisms, New Citizens: Children and Young People’s Everyday Life and Participation in Sustainable Communities’ (RES-062-23-1549)PI: Professor Pia Christensen; Co-I: Professor Peter Kraftl; Co-I: Dr. John Horton; Dr. Sophie Hadfield-Hill
ESRC ‘New Urbanism in India: Urban Living, Sustainability and Everyday Life’(ES/K00932X/2)PI: Dr. Sophie Hadfield-Hill; Dr. Cristiana Zara
© Copyright Planning for Children and Young People