Overview
Metamorphosis is on transforming neighbourhoods with a focus on children.
Metamorphosis starts from the premise that when a neighbourhood has many children on its public spaces, this is a major indicator that it is well designed as a sustainable neighbourhood. The word sustainability itself is already inseparably combined with children as it implicates “designed for the next generations”. Thus, Metamorphosis will address the challenges of the topic 4.5. from this perspective and will thus:
- Transform car-oriented neighbourhoods into children-friendly neighbourhoods achieving behavioural change and increase in the quality of life
- Build the vision needed for such transformations
- Answer basic research questions related to neighbourhood transformation
- Achieve creative breakthrough innovations – in development, in design, in governance and in planning procedures – for public spaces in neighbourhoods and urban districts
- Through the above described mechanisms, develop and implement children friendly mobility solutions
- Evaluate take-up, involvement, process and impacts using innovative evaluation methodologies
- Develop and implement innovative transfer instruments to transfer Metamorphosis-innovations from city to city and country to country, also beyond the duration of the project
Children can help to develop positive emotions for the neighbourhood (and this is a key issue, as behaviour and decisions are mostly determined by emotions, and only to a much lesser degree by rational arguments such as cost-benefit). Thus:
- children can easily find a direct way to their parent’s hearts
- to be against children’s needs and demands isn’t socially well accepted
Metamorphosis will include trial implementation cities with completely different neighbourhoods. Each city will participate with up to four different neighbourhoods, selected to have a wide variety: in size, structure, density and diversity.