The Brussels Civic Lab, coordinated by MOBILISE, kicked off its first workshops with children from its partner TADA on 4 and 11 October 2025. Through two participatory workshops, the children became “researchers for a day”, exploring and reflecting on what a safer, more comfortable and accessible city should look like for them.
The starting point for these workshops was to highlight the lack of diverse voices, especially those of children, in urban planning processes. Based on this issue, fun and participatory activities were designed so that the young researchers could express their ideas, perceptions, and experiences about mobility and public space.
Workshop 1:
Introducing sustainable mobility and the 15-Minute City
In the first workshop, facilitators introduced key concepts such as sustainable mobility and the 15-minute city through dynamic conversations. The children then participated in an interactive survey to find out how they travel to school. With the support of the web app, they were able to compare the time they perceived it took them to reach certain places in the neighborhood with the actual time calculated by the application. This activity sparked their curiosity and paved the way for an exploratory outing to one of the amenities in the area. Upon their return, the children shared their observations in a poster session, highlighting what aspects caught their attention during the walk and how they experienced the public space.
Workshop 2:
Exploring safety through photovoice
The second workshop maintained the same participatory structure but incorporated a new methodology: Photovoice. This technique allowed the children to use photographs to document the elements that convey safety and comfort or, conversely, discomfort and insecurity in spaces they frequent, such as parks or on their way to school. Later, they presented their findings as a group, using their photographs and drawings as a basis for explaining their ideas and proposing changes and improvements that, from their perspective, could make the city a safer and friendlier place for them.
Children’s insights inform the CONIFER Project
In total, around 60 children aged between 11 and 13 actively participated in these workshops, sharing experiences, emotions and proposals around urban mobility and the 15-minute city. Their voices will be a fundamental input for the diagnostic stage of the CONIFER project, providing a necessary perspective for building more inclusive cities.
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