Perception on City | Theplaceilive

How Do Children Percieve the City They Live In?

Children gather around a giant city map (Guliver Map) and were provided with 4 different colored post-its to write down their reflections for below questions in single words;

“What comes to your mind first when we say Istanbul/Rotterdam?”
“What is the voice that you hear the most in Istanbul/Rotterdam?”
“What does Istanbul/Rotterdam smell like for you?”
“What is the color that you see the most in Istanbul/Rotterdam?”

Comments On What Children Say

"What comes to your mind first when we say Istanbul/Rotterdam?

Children’s observations and feelings on Istanbul were reflected by more than 50 different “words” while these were fewer for expressions on Rotterdam.

The top 10 reflections for both cities are listed below in descending order...

As the participant children in Istanbul represent a more diversed group in terms of living area and socio-economic background, their perception on the city appear to be relativelly richer compared to their peers in Rotterdam.

Rotterdam participant’s experience with the city they live in seem to be more limited which is evident by their high referrals to local objects/items like “Schiemond”, “my house”, “my street”, “school” etc.

Children from both cities commonly refer to the symbols of their cities.

Voices and Smells of Istanbul/Rotterdam

Although children’s observations on the cites they live in - what they hear and smell- are rich and cover a wide range of expressions, there is high concentration on certain reflections...

The children living in Istanbul commonly and heavily referred to “exhaust smell” followed by the smell of “garbage, cigarette” and “smoke”.

Concerning the reflection of “sounds heard” there is evident concentration on “horn, traffic, people talking” and “construction” which support the general perception of a chaotic, crowded metropole with massive construction activities going on.

Children in Istanbul although to a lesser extend, smell “nature” (flower, grass, forest, sea) and “food”, hear voices like “bird” (seagulls), “animal” (cats,dogs) and “sea” (wave, ship sound). Differently then many European cities including Rotterdam, “street cats and street dogs” are part of city life in Istanbul.

For the children living in Rotterdam smell of “gas, gassoline, smoke and food” appear as the highest referred, followed by “nature, sea, garbage”.

Similar to their peers is Istanbul, for children in Rotterdam voices of “traffic and crowd” are on top of the list. However, voices of "children playing, bikes, scooters” gives the signs of a different environment. A reletivelly high referral to “police, ambulance, firetruck” voices also attract attention.

Colors of Istanbul/Rotterdam

For the children living in Istanbul, while blue and green are among the top expressed, there is a heavy concentration on gray, black, brown and “mixed colors” which also reflect the dense asphalt road structure, almost no green, free space between high buildings and the ongoing construction activities.

The color blue is on the top of the colors seen in Rotterdam too. However green is equally expressed and white and red which apear on their famous soccer team Feyenoord and on their national flag are also highly mentioned.

It may be stated that children living in both cities do percieve and reflect their environment, surroundings and feelings very clearly and realistically. “Exhoust/gasoline/cars”, “trafic, crowd” appear to be a common concern.