Children's Understanding and Aspirations on Built Environment: A Case Study on Khulna City of Bangladesh

This paper outlines the necessity of planning and design provisions on urban built environment from children's understanding and aspirations' perspective. Their understanding and aspirations are analyzed through survey and a result presentation was prepared using research tools like mind maps, place representation and annotated drawings of dream neighborhood by 271 children of class 5 and class 8 from three renowned schools of Khulna, Bangladesh. Khulna, as a divisional city, is under rapid urbanization process, therefore, facing mounting pressure to build a child-friendly and livable environment which will support its growing urban population and future generations. Thereby, identifying children's understanding of built environment and highlighting their aspirations, this paper also provides solution measures for future planning and design within its scope. Thereafter, with a systematic review of Khulna Development Authority prepared structure plan, referring to the aspired child friendly built environment issues, it has been found that most of the planning provisions are available inside the plan document. However, zoning and development control mechanisms as well as maintenance of existing provisions lack the goodwill of respective authorities. Finally, this study reflects that children's participation in the planning process and the level of their cognitive perception is crucial to achieve a sustainable and child friendly built environment.