Co-designing a Shared Future: How Can Children be a part of the Reimaging of Belfast's Interfaces?

北爱尔兰的冲突导致了遗留下来的“墙”分割地区，具有讽刺意味的是，这两个地区也面临着类似的不利挑战。“贝尔法斯特社会最贫困的地区也是‘和平墙’或社区间界面突出的地区”(Browne&Dwyer，2014，pp.800)。伦纳德和麦克奈特(2011)指出，年轻人倾向于将和平墙视为一种排斥方式。围墙的存在改变了界面社区的儿童对他们的地方、邻居和城市的看法。这项研究将探索贝尔法斯特面临贫困的界面社区儿童的看法。它将分析儿童对界面站点的感知和使用，目前如何将他们作为规划和重建过程的一部分征求他们的意见，以及如何利用不同的咨询方法和参与性方法来利用年轻一代在重新想象界面区域的创造潜力。本研究将寻求开发一种由儿童在这些界面区域内领导的共同设计的视觉策略。该战略将侧重于特定地点，并将包括政策建议。一个关键的学习将是衡量受惠者相关的咨询和参与技巧。被证明更为成功的技术将为今后贝尔法斯特的地方和全市重建项目中以儿童为中心的协商工作提出建议。这项研究的目的是回答：“在重新想象界面区域的过程中，如何才能听到儿童的声音？”为实现这一目标，将使用以下目标：1：结合实际、社会、文化和经济方面的社区发展情况，确定、调查和评价界面位置的空间。2：评价和分析目前如何在规划和重建过程中征求儿童意见的现行政策和做法。3：了解儿童如何看待当前的负担能力及其在社区内的独立流动性，以评估当前界面地点和周围环境对儿童的友好程度。4：通过结合适当的互动设计方法的儿童友好讲习班，收集界面区域内选定地点的创新解决方案。5：根据儿童的意见和政策建议设计地点设想战略，并评估儿童主导的方法的成功，分析所使用的每种方法的有效性。目标3和4将通过与贝尔法斯特当地社区中心的合作来实现。方法包括：每个站点两次访问、调查、访谈、焦点小组和工作坊。这项研究将寻求弥补与儿童有效、有意义地参与确定界面站点的未来相关的现有差距。在规划社区的过程中，儿童经常被忽视。这项研究将使合作设计方法成为可能，包括让孩子们以不同的方式发展设计技能和对他们所在领域的“愿景”的互动技术。它已经获得了不同团体的兴趣，如Playboard NI和司法部，它们都愿意合作，因为这项研究符合各自的目标。这项研究还赞扬了贝尔法斯特健康城市和贝尔法斯特议程。研究区域将着眼于贝尔法斯特的不利社区，寻求审查由7-11岁儿童领导和为其设计的界面网站的改进设计。对儿童的关注是为了让这些地区的后代有发言权，并从不同的角度纠正这些有问题的地方，并提出创新的解决办法。归根结底，这项研究的目的是使贝尔法斯特的共同愿景受益，并开发参与性方法的多种用途，以加强现有政策中使用的现有协商技术。

The conflict in Northern Ireland has resulted in a legacy of 'walls' dividing areas, which ironically share similar challenges of disadvantage. "The most socially deprived areas in Belfast are also areas where "peace walls" or interfaces between communities are prominent" (Browne & Dwyer, 2014, pp.800). Leonard and McKnight (2011) have noted that young people are inclined to view the peace walls as a method of exclusion. The presence of walls has altered the way in which children in interface communities perceive their places, neighbourhood and city.This research will explore the views of children who live in interface localities facing deprivation in Belfast it will analyse children's perception and usage of interface sites, how they are currently consulted as part of planning and regeneration processes and how different consultation approaches and participatory methods could be utilised to harness the creative potential of the younger generation in the reimagining of interface areas. This research will seek to develop a co-designed visioning strategy led by the children within these interface areas. The strategy will focus on specific sites and will include policy recommendations. A key learning will be around measurement of beneficiary relevant consultation and engagement techniques. Techniques evidenced as more successful will produce recommendations for future child focused consultative exercise related to local and city-wide regeneration projects within Belfast. The research aims to answer, "How can children's voices be heard as part of the process of reimagining interface areas?" The following objectives will be used in order to achieve this aim:1: To contextualise how interface communities have developed over time physically, socially, culturally and economically and identify, investigate and evaluate spaces at interface locations.2: Evaluate and analyse existing policy and practice on how children are currently consulted as part of planning and regeneration processes. 3: Understand how children look at the current affordances and their independent mobility within their communities to assess the current child friendliness of interface sites and immediate surroundings.4: Gather innovative solutions to chosen sites within interface areas through child friendly workshops incorporating appropriate interactive design methods.5: Design a visioning strategy for sites based on the children's input with policy recommendations and evaluate the success of the child-led approach analysing the effectiveness of each method used.Objectives 3 & 4 will be met by working collaboratively with local community centres within Belfast. Methods to include: 2 visits per site, surveys, interviews, focus Groups and workshops.This research will seek to redress the existing gap related to effective, meaningful engagement of children in determination of the future of interface sites. Children are all too often overlooked in the process of planning their communities. This research will enable a co-design approach, including interactive techniques for children to develop design skills and 'vision' their area differently. It has gained interest from diverse groups such as Playboard NI and Department of Justice who are both willing to collaborate as the research fits within each of their respective objectives. The research also compliments Belfast Healthy Cities and the Belfast Agenda. The study area will look at communities of disadvantage within Belfast seeking to review improved designs for interface sites led by and for children ages 7-11. The focus on children is to give the future generations of these areas a voice and gain a different perspective as to redressing these problematic places and generate innovative solutions. Ultimately this research aims to benefit Belfast's shared vision and develop a diverse use of participatory methods to enhance current consultation techniques used within the existing policy.