Co-designing a Shared Future: How Can Children be a part of the Reimaging of Belfast's Interfaces?

The conflict in Northern Ireland has resulted in a legacy of 'walls' dividing areas, which ironically share similar challenges of disadvantage. "The most socially deprived areas in Belfast are also areas where "peace walls" or interfaces between communities are prominent" (Browne & Dwyer, 2014, pp.800). Leonard and McKnight (2011) have noted that young people are inclined to view the peace walls as a method of exclusion. The presence of walls has altered the way in which children in interface communities perceive their places, neighbourhood and city.
This research will explore the views of children who live in interface localities facing deprivation in Belfast it will analyse children's perception and usage of interface sites, how they are currently consulted as part of planning and regeneration processes and how different consultation approaches and participatory methods could be utilised to harness the creative potential of the younger generation in the reimagining of interface areas.
This research will seek to develop a co-designed visioning strategy led by the children within these interface areas. The strategy will focus on specific sites and will include policy recommendations. A key learning will be around measurement of beneficiary relevant consultation and engagement techniques. Techniques evidenced as more successful will produce recommendations for future child focused consultative exercise related to local and city-wide regeneration projects within Belfast.

The research aims to answer, "How can children's voices be heard as part of the process of reimagining interface areas?" The following objectives will be used in order to achieve this aim:

1: To contextualise how interface communities have developed over time physically, socially, culturally and economically and identify, investigate and evaluate spaces at interface locations.
2: Evaluate and analyse existing policy and practice on how children are currently consulted as part of planning and regeneration processes.
3: Understand how children look at the current affordances and their independent mobility within their communities to assess the current child friendliness of interface sites and immediate surroundings.
4: Gather innovative solutions to chosen sites within interface areas through child friendly workshops incorporating appropriate interactive design methods.
5: Design a visioning strategy for sites based on the children's input with policy recommendations and evaluate the success of the child-led approach analysing the effectiveness of each method used.
Objectives 3 & 4 will be met by working collaboratively with local community centres within Belfast. Methods to include: 2 visits per site, surveys, interviews, focus Groups and workshops.

This research will seek to redress the existing gap related to effective, meaningful engagement of children in determination of the future of interface sites. Children are all too often overlooked in the process of planning their communities. This research will enable a co-design approach, including interactive techniques for children to develop design skills and 'vision' their area differently. It has gained interest from diverse groups such as Playboard NI and Department of Justice who are both willing to collaborate as the research fits within each of their respective objectives. The research also compliments Belfast Healthy Cities and the Belfast Agenda. The study area will look at communities of disadvantage within Belfast seeking to review improved designs for interface sites led by and for children ages 7-11. The focus on children is to give the future generations of these areas a voice and gain a different perspective as to redressing these problematic places and generate innovative solutions. Ultimately this research aims to benefit Belfast's shared vision and develop a diverse use of participatory methods to enhance current consultation techniques used within the existing policy.