THE 3RD EYE

an alternative view of the city

Phirany Lim

The project is an attempt to understand the good city based on childrens daily life experiences. How do we include their voices to help shape our place?

Pooja and Laura in the ladies only train cart

It all started...
During our class research trip to Mumbai in May 2009, my friends and I decided to take our class project a step further. We realized that children had a lack of voice when it comes to urban development issues. Their opinions matter just as much as adults. The 3rd Eye project was a workshop that we did for a day and as a result we created a dialogue between adults and children on how they can impact their community. We were a team of 6 with backgrounds in Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, and Architecture working as a multi-disciplinary team. By having this unique group, we each gave insights that brought the project together.

The initial process

In order to get our project off the ground, we need to work in liasion with a NGO or a group that focused on children. Luckily Pooja and Debeshi were Indian natives so they helped with the translation.

After meeting with various people, my friend Debeshi had a lead from a friend of hers. She said they were open to our project and would like to help. We worked with a group called Prayas.

Design Charette: Part 1

We created drawing exercises that were distributed to the children. This helps them think about their spatial relationship to the city in a wider context. We were involved in this process as we talked and observed them drawing. The children had 1 hour to complete their drawings. Questions that were asked: 1. Draw your house 2. What is your favorite room in your house? 3. What do you like about your neighborhood? 4. What do you want to change in your neighborhood? 5. How do you get to school?

Debeshi talking with the kids

Design Charette: Part 2

Once the drawings were done, they had a 30 minute break so that we can go over them. Based on the clarity and content, we chose children to do an informal video interview with us. They explained their drawings to help us understand what makes a good city to them. Some of their stories were funny while some were sad. The second part of the design charette involved children drawing on blank postcards. We told them to answer this question: how you would improve your neighorhood? These postcards were meant to use as our analysis and to distribute to our classmates in order to spark a conversation about childrens inclusion to city issues. We also did a video interview with them to share their story.

I like to walk to school because I meet my friends on the way there.

I want a playground. We dont have swings or slides in our neighborhood. It would be nice to have something to play on.

The end results

This workshop was a design research toolkit that we experimented to address the question how do we include children in the urban planning process? Their point of view brings a new dimension to our thinking as we solve urban development problems in our cities. By giving children this creative outlet to answer questions, we give a sense of belonging and a voice to their concerns where they too can provide solutions. As our gift of appreciation, we gave the children backpacks filled with markers, crayons, notebooks, and a kit with a scissor, ruler, and glue. In return they gave us a show. They performed an old Indian story where there was a lot of laughing, dancing, and clapping.

Laura, Barbara, and Gynna dancing with the performers