Inhibition of exploration by children of urban environment

The separation between the child's world and the adult world is unknown in traditional societies. In simple villages, children spend their time alongside farmers in fields, side by side with people who are building houses, close, in fact, to all the daily actions of the men and women around them. By contrast, modern cities are so dangerous that children cannot be allowed to explore them freely – life is so enormous and dangerous that children can't be left to roam around. There is constant danger from fast-moving cars and trucks and dangerous machinery, as well as the danger of assault or kidnap and, particularly for smaller children, the danger of getting lost. The obstacles to exploration inhibit the maturation process by depriving the child of opportunities to acquire self-confidence and to interact with the real, dynamic world of change, risk and reward surrounding him.

1. Inhibition of individual psychological development through life phases
2. Decline of human relationship to nature

1. Threatened urban trees
2. Inadequate interaction between humans and animals in the urban environment
3. Inadequate facilities for children's play
4. Inaccessibility of urban parks

1. Sedentary city lifestyles

1. Urban road traffic congestion
2. Psychosocial effects of transport systems
3. Monolithic architecture of high-rise buildings
4. Maldistribution of teachers
5. Insufficient common land in urban environments
6. Inadequate recognition by institutions of the transition through adolescence
7. Excessive intensification of parent-child relationship
8. Deteriorating social environments for raising children

1. Undeveloped recreation space

1. Sterile working environment

1. Restraining children
2. Living sophisticated lives
3. Linking children and the environment
4. Designing urban environments for children

1. Separateness
2. Inhibition