Author: Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children

Many cities overlook teenagers in urban planning, leaving them without safe, welcoming places to gather, connect, and be themselves. From Cairo to Cuenca, examples show how co-creating teen-friendly public spaces can boost safety, inclusion, and well-being while making cities more vibrant for everyone.

Does your city have spaces for teens to spend time with their peers? Teens in cities navigate a complicated world. They deal with physical and emotional changes, academic pressure, social expectations, and digital influences, and cities often forget to plan for them. Their needs are different from the needs of younger children. Without dedicated, inclusive places to gather, connect, and be themselves, many teens feel unwelcome in city spaces and retreat into social isolation.

Why create teen-friendly spaces?

Many cities remain blind to the needs of one key demographic: teenagers. While younger children are to some extent considered in urban design, teens are often overlooked. Their voices are rarely included in decision-making, and public spaces fail to reflect their needs, especially the needs of teenage girls.

Teenagers are in a critical stage of identity formation and independence. They seek social interaction and freedom yet often find that city parks cater to small children, sports courts are dominated by boys or older youth, streets are either unsafe or patrolled by loitering laws and hostile architecture, and adults, especially police, view groups of teens with suspicion. Often, all they want is a public space to hang out with friends.

Engaging teens in co-creating urban spaces can be a powerful opportunity to support their development, mental health, safety and sense of belonging.

How to create spaces for teens

1. Understand teen-specific needs and priorities

In Cairo, Egypt, urbanist Sara Ibrahim developed the Hangouts App to better understand how teens perceive and value public space. Over 60 teens, both girls and boys, helped design the app, which allows teens to tag their favourite places across Cairo and assess them based on criteria like safety, enjoyment, acceptance, freedom, and social connection.

From several selected favourite locations, three key design insights emerged:

• Teens value social interaction. Spaces that allow them to meet friends and build peer relationships improve their feelings of safety, excitement, and autonomy.
• They want places that offer thrill and challenge. Whether through play, exploration, or new experiences, teens need opportunities to test boundaries and build confidence.
• They need freedom from adult control. Niche spaces within parks where they express themselves through art, music and other activities, separate from areas designed for younger children, allow teens to gather informally and move independently.

These findings underscore the importance of designing with teens in mind, not just accommodating them as an afterthought. You can read more about this study here.

2. Engage teens to co-create urban solutions

The Safe and Sound Cities initiative, currently active in seven cities across the Philippines, Ecuador, Colombia, and Switzerland, involves young people aged 15 to 24 in reimagining their cities through participatory processes.

In Cuenca, Ecuador, child and youth-focused urban consultancy Huasipichanga, alongside Integrar and Fundación Amaru, in 2023 engaged teens in shaping people-friendly spaces through a series of innovative activities:

• A 2023 survey of 1,500 young people examined their perspectives on safety, public spaces, mobility, mental health, and other related topics. Survey results showed 71% of young people were affected by stress, anxiety or depression.
• A youth-led podcast through 20 episodes, opened dialogue on challenges like relevant to young people, such as crime, harassment, road safety, mental health, job opportunities and citizen participation. It also spurred conversations around innovative ideas for change.
• Two hackathons brought together over 200 young people to co-create urban solutions, followed by mentoring sessions for 12 groups on placemaking, innovation, and sustainability.

Two selected projects, Bibliorio, an outdoor library, and Arteria, an initiative to revitalise urban corridors around a local university through greening, art and safety measures, were awarded USD 20,000 for implementation. Below is a short description of Bibliorio, led by a team of 18-year-old boys and girls.

Bibliorio is a project aimed at establishing a secure outdoor space where young individuals can engage in literature-related activities, promoting reading, and fostering connections with both the environment and fellow individuals. A neglected, unsafe and underused linear park was selected to implement the initiative. Mobile book kiosks designed by young people, with over 600 books and seating areas were added to the park, and community events were organised every two weeks to promote reading and attract more people to enjoy the space. Over 10,000 people have visited the space since July 2024, 40 volunteers have been engaged to activate the space, and post-implementation survey results show that 86% of users feel safe in the upgraded park.

3. Prioritise public space for teen girls

Urban spaces are often particularly unwelcoming to teen girls. Research from the United Kingdom shows that many girls from the age of 8 use parks and public spaces less frequently, and by the age of 13-15 years, only 8% of girls are meeting recommended physical activity guidelines. They cite fear of harassment, lack of appropriate spaces, and the sense that these environments are not made for them.

UK-based charity Make Space for Girls is working to change that. They advocate for public facilities that meet the actual needs of teen girls, rather than relying on default designs like skate parks or football fields that mostly serve boys. Their research and advocacy have helped local authorities and communities co-design spaces that reflect what girls want: areas for small groups, face-to-face seating, good lighting, privacy with visibility, and places to relax and talk without pressure.

An example of a teen girl-friendly space is the Hangout Heart, a teenage gathering space developed by Earthscape Play in Kitchener, Canada, in collaboration with Make Space for Girls. Six criteria, developed using data collected by Make Space for Girls and through focus group discussions with local teens, guided the creation of Hangout Heart.

What do teen girls want in public space?

• Spaces for small groups (2–5 friends).
• Seating that allows face-to-face interaction.
• High vantage points for safety and a sense of empowerment.
• A balance between enclosure (privacy) and openness (security).
• Comfortable, clean materials that feel good to touch.
• Opportunities for play, especially climbing and swinging.

The Hangout Heart is a sculptural wooden structure designed not for sports or high-energy activity, but for connection, comfort, and visibility. Its form is based on extensive consultations with teen girls, and it provides semi-sheltered, social space that allows girls to climb, swing, perch, lounge, chat, listen to music, and people-watch.

Safe and Inclusive Public Spaces for Girls and Young Women, a cities4children publication, has a wealth of information on making cities gender-inclusive places.

Let’s make space for teens

Urban spaces must evolve to reflect the full diversity of their users, and that includes teenagers. Whether you are a city leader, urban planner, NGO staff member, or community advocate, you have a role to play in making cities safer, more welcoming, and more empowering for young people. Do you know of other teen-friendly spaces? Please share them with us at info@cities4children.org

About the Author 

This blog was written by Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children International. Many thanks to thanks to Sara Ibrahim, Assistant Professor at Nile University, and Andrea Betancourt, Senior Program Manager at the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation, for speaking with us and sharing valuable insights on the teen-friendly spaces featured in this blog.

The Ideas for Action Series showcases ideas for action, innovation, programmes, policies and practices that make public spaces child-friendly. Read more of our blogs here. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. When re-sharing this content, please ensure accreditation by adding the following sentence: ‘This blog was first published by the Global Alliance – Cities4Children (www.cities4children.org/blog)’