Letting Kids Design the Cities of the Future

The Box City event held in Denver recently educated children on the process of planning by letting them create their own version of a city.

1 minute read

April 25, 2016, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Future City

Fabrice Florin / Flickr

Yesenia Robles provides a dispatch from this year's Box City event in Denver, where volunteer urban planners "helped children learn about how a city is created."

Robles quotes Ken Schroeppel, co-chair of the Box City committee, to describe the value of the event and the children's approach to the activity.

According to Robles, the "Box City event is put on by different organizations throughout the country, but had not been held in Denver for a few years. This year the event was sponsored by the Denver Architectural Foundation with help from the city and the American Institute of Architects."

So what kind of a city do the youth of Denver design when given a chance? "The city that kids built Saturday included a cat shelter, a castle, skyscrapers, a sushi tower, convenience stores and a mall," writes Robles.

Saturday, April 23, 2016 in The Denver Post

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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