The newly established Area Renewal in the Kulbane district in Valby, Copenhagen, needed input for their new district plan, and we were lucky enough to be selected as facilitators for the youth through a collaboration with the local Lykkebo School. The neighbourhood is socially diverse with specific areas around the Kulbanevej district left socially deprived and home to youth who don’t feel any sense of belonging. Thus this Area Renewal project had a huge focus on engaging youth and aimed to activate schools and youth clubs in the future development of the area.

Besides acquiring knowledge about how the children use the area today and collecting their ideas, it was important that the work we did marked a new beginning. We wanted the children to know that they would be part of something bigger, that we needed them, and that they add value.

Through meetings with Lykkebo school and the Area Renewal, it was decided that we should do a workshop with all the students from 0-7th grade. Boom! 300 students. The outcome of the workshop needed to be used by the Area Renewal team immediately. Therefore it was crucial that the youth’s input was clear and easy to decipher. Hoping to make the workshop an exciting and fun day for all the participants between ages 6 and 13, we chose to give the workshop a playful theme. The students had to be agents on an important mission to help the Area Renewal team create the best neighbourhood of all time.

At the beginning of the day, we gathered the 300 students in the school’s main hall. From there, they were sent out on three different missions. After each mission, students returned to the main hall and submitted their results before being sent out on the next mission. The first mission was centred around the students providing information about their behaviour and movement patterns in their territory. On the second mission the students had to go out to the area and observe and analyse a site. On the third and final mission they had to develop ideas for the future.

Because of the huge age range, we had to design specific tasks for the different age groups. 6-year-olds can’t read and solve abstract tasks like the 13-year-olds. At the same time, the results had to be consistent. This required a lot of preparation on our part, as well as the close dialogue with teachers from the different grades.