Adultism in Architecture. Are Children Being Discriminated Against by our Urban Surroundings?

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Pedagogy - Pedagogic Psychology, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin (Erziehungswissenschaften und Psychologie), language: English, abstract: This paper will present the idea that adultism, the discrimination against children in society, can be exhibited in a physical nature as well as a mental nature. When we look closely at our buildings and our urban surroundings, we discover for whom they were designed, and more importantly, for whom they were not designed.

Not only does this tell us a lot about the distribution of power in society but also how we have accepted this order of things. The standard against which we have historically measured all things, has been healthy, male adults. The result of this order is not only that its makes the lives of the affected individuals, in this case the children, less convenient and comfortable, but it also can lead to very dramatic outcomes, when for example the emergency planning of buildings only takes adults into consideration.