Children have their say

[artist Sara de.Gouy]

I am Sara de.Gouy, architect, designer and artist. I like to think about my projects in collaboration with those they are destined for. I imagined this workshop-exhibition for the Centre Pompidou with students from a primary school in Paris. Here are some of their ideas for a city that would be more joyful, more poetic, more sustainable, more adapted to children. What would your ideal city be like?

[children having participated to the project]

If I were an architect, I would have made a multicoloured helter skelter around the Eiffel Tower.
If I were an architect, I would want to change the city… I would make the cars prettier and less polluting and to go to school I would make slides or ziplines. Yes, the city would be more adapted to children.
What I don’t like is the noise, I don’t like it!
That the cars are too noisy… I’d like to have more space for pedestrians.
What I don’t like about the city is the dog poo, because you can walk in it and then you have poo on your foot, it’s gross. We should have dog loos.
A city where the only transport would be bicycles and some imaginary buildings. Skyscrapers and buildings with strange, coloured shapes.
And for example, in the rue Ménilmontant I’d like to make a zipline to go down, that way it’s more fun because it’s on a hill. It would be more fun for the children… it would be useful for old people that way, especially if they’re disabled, that way they wouldn’t have to, for example, with their crutches, walk with crutches, that way they’d just hop on the zipline and Zoom!

The Play Crossing 

A more fun city would have more colours, and more colours on zebra crossings.
Yes, I like to play in the street.
Some children invent games with zebra crossings. For example, you can’t step on the cracks on the ground. On the little squares, you have to avoid the lines.
I invented a game where you have to avoid the colours to cross the street.
It’s a maze zebra crossing. The goal is to get to the manhole cover. All the lines are walls or passages. You have to do the sequence: turn, jump, slide; turn, jump, slide. Then there’s a little bridge to get to the manhole cover.
There’s one way to cross over on this side and another on the other side.

Buildings in Colour

I’d like the buildings to be more colourful.
I’d like there to be more colours because buildings are often black or white. They would be all the colours.
I coloured in the balconies and the windows, I think it’s prettier like that.
I made this building into a work of art. I used colours because it was a bit sad and so this made it happier. I used yellow, orange, blue… Loads of different colours. Then I started to make imaginary shapes, big ones, small ones… funny ones.
It would be a very funny, very colourful city.

The Bench – Children Have their Say

I’d like more swings, slides and benches.
I’d like a bench where you could sit standing up. A bench where you could lie down and read, and with something to rest on. And a last bench, where you could lie like this and have a little nap while you wait for the bus. And when the bus comes, some music would start so that if someone’s asleep they could wake up and catch the bus.
A bench to meet people.

The Apple Tree of Possibilities

I’d like there to be more fruit trees in the city.
A tree covered in fruit. You could just eat it in the street.
I’d like to have a tree that would show you lots of games. And another tree next to it that would show you vegetables. And another tree to show you crisps, sweets. And a clothes tree.
There’s a little system inside the tree that throws down everything you want. On this robot-tree… figs, apples, pears, cherries and some vegetables too. That would be great, it would replace all the shops full of crates.
It’s a guessing tree.
It’s a question tree. If you get the right answer, you get loads and loads of cherries.
You hide wishes in the fruit. Yes, they always come true.
A wishing tree. Actually, you write a wish on a letter. If you don’t know how to write, an animal comes. There are three types of animals who can come and write. There can be a squirrel, an owl or a fox. Five years later, the wish will come true.
It would be like future poetry, for what could exist.

The Extraordinary Garden

Generally, parks are a bit small. I’d rather they were… a bit bigger.
I’d like there to be bees in the park. They could gather pollen on the flowers here. And I could take some of their honey because it’s really delicious. And something I’d like but that’s sort of impossible, would for there to be chocolate fountains.
I’d put strawberry or apricot perfume on the bins so that they smell nice. It would be a sort of nice-smelling city. To smell the nice smell of flowers, of the bakeries.
I imagined a hut where you can rest, read books and play. It’s in a tree.
It’s a secret passage, you can sit down and sleep. It’s a passage built with clovers and sticks. It’s made with branches, tree trunks.
My hut is underwater. It’s round and there’s nothing in it. And there are loads of little fish.
My dream hut is called Flying Griffon. It has pillars everywhere. It has a zipline.
It was a flower hut. The hut is a rose. In my hut you go up and up, and once you’re up there you rest and you can bring books. To go up, you use the roses’ thorns.

Rain is Life!

And then we have a water butt, with different things. One for big plants, so logically it will be bigger, and another for the small plants, that could have pipes, for example a reservoir but with pipes everywhere.
It’s a water butt, that way you can get water for the plants when the rain falls.
It’s rain water that goes into a butt.
To not use the tap water, to pollute less too.

Wind over the Roofs

Wind turbines work from the wind’s energy. The wind makes them turn, then it produces energy. They could be on the roofs. 
On the roof because there’s much more wind up high than down low.
I’d like to walk around on the roofs. I’ve always wanted to see Paris from above. That’s why I’d also like to go up one day, on the roofs.
At night I go out and then I climb up buildings and then I start to go further and further. And that’s how I walk around on all the roofs. I’d like to lie down on a roof and maybe have fun counting the stars and finding the Plough.