The first rural area in Pudong to transform into a child friendly slow moving space project has been completed

Blue, green, red, and various colors form a row of colorful fences. The smiling face and footprints of the frog form the colorful slow path next to the fence

A slow lane called "Wild Fun Children's Path" has recently been completed on the Chen Family Mansion Road next to the creative space in Haishen Village, Huinan Town. It is reported that this is also the first practical project to transform the road space around children's activity venues in rural areas into a child friendly space after the release of the "Guidelines for the Planning of Children Friendly Urban Areas in Pudong New Area".

"1 meter height" received attention

The level of independent children's activities is an important indicator of a city's resilience, and the construction of a slow traffic system suitable for children's travel has become an important guarantee.

In 2021, the 14th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long Range Objectives for 2035 clearly stated the need to "carry out 100 demonstration projects for child friendly cities, strengthen the construction of extracurricular activity venues, community children's homes, and public spaces for child friendly transformation, and improve public service facilities for children." The construction of child friendly cities has been elevated to a national strategy for the first time.

In 2022, the Implementation Plan for the Construction of Shanghai as a Child Friendly City was released, marking a new journey for Shanghai from creating a child friendly community to creating a child friendly city. The new district takes the initiative to incorporate child friendly spaces into the colorful community construction system. In January of this year, jointly formulated by the Planning and Resources Bureau of the New Area and the Office of the Women and Children's Work Committee of the New Area, the "Guidelines for Child Friendly Urban Planning" were launched for the first time in all districts of the city, with the goal of achieving a more child friendly city and promoting the integration of the concept of "looking at the city, the world, and the future at a height of one meter" into the entire process and field of urban development.

Recently, the Office of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, together with the Office of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Office of the State Council Women and Children's Work Committee, issued the Implementation Manual for the Construction Guidelines of Urban Child Friendly Spaces, promoting the construction of urban child friendly spaces. It is required to combine urban renewal actions and gradually promote the child friendly transformation of public service facilities, road spaces, and parks and green spaces. The "Wild Fun Children's Path" project in Haishen Village, as a child friendly transformation in the road space, not only provides children with a safer slow driving environment, but also makes their travel journey more interesting.

A representative from the Family and Children's Rights Department of the New Area Women's Federation stated that building a safe and comfortable child friendly travel environment is an important part of building a child friendly urban area in the new area. "The 'Wild Fun Children's Path' project in Haishen Village, as a starting point, will play a positive demonstration role."

Children's ideas are reflected

Haishen Village is not only the hometown of Olympic champion Angel Zhong, but also a "Beautiful Leisure Village in China" and a "Demonstration Village for Rural Revitalization in Shanghai". As an "internet famous village", the Xiangchuang Center is one of the important distribution points for rural cultural and tourism tourism in Haishen Village. Tourists will stay and gather here, and then go to various cultural and tourism destinations in the surrounding areas, such as Yimi Park, Zhong Angel Honor Room, Youth Home, Meals, and Rural Fun.

The "Wild Fun Children's Trail" starts from the rural innovation center, passes through Chen Jiazhai Road, and extends along the fence by the small river to a one meter amusement park. In order to ensure the safety of children's independent actions and the convenience of parent-child activities, a series of renovations have been made to the original facilities, including transforming the steps of the entrance of the rural innovation center into slopes to facilitate the implementation of baby strollers; Set up fences at the boundaries of parking areas and along the riverside to control the parking area and prevent safety hazards for children's movements, and improve the fault tolerance of children's independent actions; The road card pattern is designed with safety crossing signs, reminding children and parents to "stop, look, and pass"; At night, the small light bulb on the fence will flash brightly, reminding the driver to slow down and avoid. At the same time, various children's fun devices have been installed in the public space outside the township innovation center, becoming venues and facilities for children's communication and games, expressing the concept of "promoting children's social interaction", and also enhancing the vitality of children's use in the public space.

In the past, "Tong Yue Space" projects were mostly based on the needs and perspectives of adults, while "Wild Fun Children's Path" emphasized research on children's thinking and invited children to participate in the design.

Zhu Qi, Deputy Director of the Public Space Research Institute of Shangda Architectural Design Institute and Founder of Ovik Cultural and Creative Studio, responsible for overall project planning and design, told reporters that a pre design survey found significant differences between adult design perspectives and children's perspectives. Therefore, during the design process, multiple children were invited to participate and share their ideas. "For example, children like to walk with footprints on the road, and the frog footprints on the children's path can allow them to walk and walk at the same time. It also creates a sense of scene and story to follow the frog's footprints to the frog's house to explore the truth, which also satisfies children's special liking for small animals and special interest in events."

In the public space outside the rural innovation center, chairs in the shape of watermelons, strawberries, oranges, and various childlike objects such as mushroom shaped tables are arranged. "Many of these come from the children's design opinions, including the mushroom shaped floor lamp on the lawn, which also stems from the children's ideas."

The Children's Path project will be promoted

It is reported that the children's path from the rural creative space to the Yimi Park is only the first phase of the project. After the operation adjustment of the Yimi Park is completed, the "Wild Fun Children's Path" will present more elements of rural environment, such as field scenery and rice frog charm, as well as knowledge content such as seasonal farming and natural science popularization, better enhancing children's perception of natural wilderness and stimulating their interest in natural ecology.

According to the planning guidelines for child friendly urban areas in the new district, the spatial system of child friendly urban areas includes public service facilities, public spaces, and travel environments. "In terms of travel environment, it involves elements such as optimizing the public transportation system, motor vehicle management, slow traffic system, study routes, and community travel environment." Lv Min, Deputy Director of the New Area Planning and Management Affairs Center, said, "Currently, the District Planning and Resources Bureau is actively exploring and hoping to create more suitable travel environments for children."

With the completion of the first child friendly space slow walking project in rural areas, not only has a new check-in point been added to Haishen Village, but it also provides reference for subsequent promotion.

Ni Junwei, the person in charge of the Women's Federation of Huinan Town, introduced that due to the lack of precedent, the "Wild Fun Children's Path" project spent a lot of time in the preliminary research and discussion, and received active support from all parties. Shanghai Yuncheng Tourism Development Co., Ltd. also provided convenience for the project implementation. She revealed that in the future, the child friendly space slow walking project will also enter the community from the countryside, "allowing more children to safely and freely travel in interesting spaces."

*Reprinted from official WeChat account released by Pudong