Plans for child friendly public spaces are emerging throughout Lima in Peru as part of the Urban95 programme endorsed by Lima’s new Mayor Jorge Muñoz. Mayor Muñoz is enthusiastic about including the youngest children in his vision for the city. New municipal urban programmes have been created where Urban95 criteria leads data collection and construction guidelines.
One of the initiatives promoted by Lima, PUCU, in the municipal district of Pucusana, encourages diverse forms of recreation for young children and their caregivers in public spaces. Pucusana’s children walk every day and so PUCU aims to awaken the curiosity of discovery while walking along local routes. As part of the project scoping, the district explored the needs of access of all families with young children, whatever their condition, and incorporated a pedagogical vision of caring and quality elements while respecting local identity.
The PUCU Design Guide (only available in Spanish) shares Pucusana’s insights on how to rethink urban public spaces and design them to better respond to the development and growth needs of young children. The guide establishes a strong connection between urban design and planning to societal needs – creating a compelling case for leaders and communities to take a systemic view. The ideas in the guide are supported by concrete examples from the minicipal district of Pucusana, and also builds on the results of the Public Space Production Workshop as part of the Urban95 programme in Lima with 6 districts, in 2019.
This publication is part of the partnership between the district of Pucusana, The Municipality of Lima together with the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Urban95 programme as well as multidisciplinary professionals from the Coordinadora de la Ciudad en Construcción (CCC), Alto Peru and SUMBI and local actors from the private sector, civil society and other independent professionals in Pucusana.
