Abstract
In 2020, Children (younger than 15 years old) made up 21 per cent of Iran’s total population. This emphasizes the importance of children and their special needs to be taken into consideration in the urban planning and design processes of the country. The lockdown and stay-home strategies in the times of the Covid-19 Pandemic have had psychosocial and mental health implications for children; among which the sense of anxiety, fear of getting sick, negative thinking and exhaustion are repeatedly reported. The small size of the apartments and limited chances of movement and physical activities at home are yet other challenges for many urban children. Given that a big percentage of the population of big cities like Rasht, the capital city Guilan region in the north of Iran, live in the apartments, the shared and semi-public spaces of the residential complexes can play a role in accommodating the children's activities and providing opportunities for their physical and social activities. The planning and design of such spaces lack the required security and safety considerations as well as the visual and environmental attractions. This calls for the necessity to reconsider the design of shared and semi-public spaces of the residential complexes as third places that could be easily accessible for families, safe and attractive for the children while responding to their specific needs during the pandemic. The current article is conducted by employing a qualitative method. The required data is collected through a mix of desk research and field study (including observation sessions and interviewing children and parents in 15 residential complexes of Rasht); the content analysis is conducted through a 3-stage coding system, and ultimately, a framework for child-friendly third places with a focus on threshold spaces is proposed. The findings introduce fourteen key qualities including safety, security, child independent movement, legibility of the environment, cleanness and hygiene of the place, health of children, aesthetics of space, access to play, diversity and dynamics of space, access to services, response to special needs of children, social engagement and participation as well as access to open and green spaces necessary for child-friendly planning and design of third places of a residential complex. The proposed framework is applicable for planning and design of the new and rehabilitation of the existing residential complexes.
