AN INITIATIVE TOWARD CREATING A CHILD-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT A CASE OF MSHEIREB IN DOWNTOWN DOHA, QATAR

Abstract

Children are the link between the past and future generations and the most vulnerable group in the community. Around sixty percent (60%) of the world's population will live in cities by 2030. Seventy percent (70%) of global children will reside in them by 2050. Therefore, creating a healthy and sustainable environment for children is a fundamental goal. In Qatar, Msheireb Downtown Doha is the first sustainable regeneration project on the country level, an attempt to change the urban development direction and restore the urban identity by creating a sustainable neighborhood and family-oriented design for the residents and visitors. This research explored the potential for the case of Msheireb Downtown Doha to offer a child-friendly environment within the region. The research's primary goal is to investigate how Msheireb Downtown Doha can be represented as a walkable and child-friendly environment and to highlight the guidelines that should the built environment follow to fill the gap in urban planning in Qatar to complement the needs and views of the children. The research will utilize a mixed-method quantitative and qualitative approach to explore and investigate the walkability and child-friendliness design provisions of Mshereib Downtown Doha in Qatar. Thus, creating Msheireb Downtown Doha as a child-friendly environment aims to bring the children with the urban planning agenda to contribute to Qatar's 2030 vision for more sustainable and inclusive communities. Firstly, the qualitative data will cover a structured interview and morphological analysis of the built form of Mshereib Downtown Doha, in addition to behavior mapping of children's affordances and spaces. The theoretical framework is grounded in the literature on basic concepts such as walkability, the right to the city, child-friendly environment. In addition, extensive readings about correlations between walkable and child-friendly environments. The findings revealed that Mshereib succeeded in providing a pleasurable walkability experience while partially fulfilling the needs for a child-friendly environment.