What would cities look like if they were designed by infants? As Christine Murray says (What would cities look like if they were designed by mothers?, 27 August), they would have the slopes and lifts so necessary for pushchairs. But what policymakers do not know, and every infant could tell them, is how vital it is for their development that their parents and other caregivers have plenty of good company.
Because we are born so immature and fragile, humans evolved in multiple caregiving groups. No single person can do the job alone. Armed with this hereditary intelligence, the baby town planner would ensure the presence of a children’s centre in every neighbourhood, where people share the load as well as the pleasures of caring for small children, and maybe get some advice or help as well.
When the Millennium Village in Greenwich was being designed at the end of the last century, I tried without success to get English Partnerships to include a properly integrated Sure Start centre in it – the concept was one of new Labour’s greatest creations, after all. Early years policy is still too determined by formal ideas of education, as if you had to be taught how to find things out. Observe any preschool child and you will see how they can’t stop exploring and, as soon as they can talk, asking “why?”. But they will not do this if their parents or caregivers are overwhelmed with stress and anxiety.
Being a very small child is temporary and soon forgotten, but it is by far the most impressionable time of our lives. Decades of developmental research has shown how acutely sensitive a baby’s brain and physiology is to its immediate emotional environment. A vision of local children’s centres as a communal family is still far from recognised or understood.
Dr Sebastian Kraemer
London
• Christine Murray is spot on in saying that lived experience is a great teacher to all those responsible for our built environment. That is why the professions, including planning, must have membership that truly represent the community it serves to ensure diverse needs are catered for.
There are more men than women planners today, but it is fast changing. Across planning schools and entrants to the profession there is generally a 50:50 split. If we create places that are suitable not just for mothers but anyone caring for children and adults or those travelling with luggage, it does not just make good business sense. It is common sense to design places that everyone can access and use.
Victoria Hills
Chief executive, Royal Town Planning Institute
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition
