Mexico City is the home to over 2 million children and approaching nearly 5 million in the metropolitan area. Within the city, they represent 26.7% of its total population. However, despite the importance of children being self-evident, they remain a political minority due to their perceived limited capacity to influence their environment.

Urban policies have been unsuccessful in considering children’s needs and perspectives, nor have they integrated them in the urban planning process. Children, then, must adapt to existing urban conditions whether or not they are appropriate. Mexico City’s highly car-oriented model is a major challenge for children’s urban life. It influences mobility, physical safety and has also contributed in the exclusion of children from open spaces and streets. Ultimately isolating children indoors.

Access to high quality public and play spaces is one of the greatest challenges faced by children in Mexico City. Considering the rapid development of transportation infrastructure alongwith the uneven distribution of resources, violence, and crime, children who live in marginalized areas are the most affected by a lack of open and outdoor spaces where they can rest, walk or play activities that play a fundamental role in their physical, emotional, and cognitive development.

(Re)claiming and (re)creating urban environments, for and with children, beyond the city’s car and adult-oriented spatial paradigms thus becomes a central issue in urban development. The city’s recently enacted Constitution includes : “the right to the city” as its main precept. At its most imaginative and its most ambitious the right to the city is the right that , right all Mexico City’ inhabitants have, including children, to change the city as they change themselves, the right to imagine and create the city the live and want to live in.” While we make important and deep changes in terms of urban planning, how can we start seeding these other urban futures, children and beyond?

Peatoniño’s playstreet are: 1) A community-centered design approach, 2) a spatial and urban analysis carried out through a GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping tool, and 3) a pedagogical approach that promotes a child’s right to the city, right to play and knowledge of issues regarding road safety. Ultimately, it seeks to liberate and reappropriate the streets of the city through play, especially in neighborhoods where public space is scarce.

Going beyond the tangible and quantifiable approach, the social capacity of design underlies the entire process of this project from start to finish. Peatoniños playstreets creates an index of institutional and local knowledge, resources, and relationships that, ultimately help develop networks to scale up and sustain the implementation of the project. Meanwhile, creating a , criteria by which one can assess the quality of each playstreet design.

Peatoniños is now focusing its efforts on going beyond closing streets and playing in them; and creating a collective vision of how adults and children can shape the city in a tangible way together. In its next stage we will also create a new typology of permanent streets: by and for the children.