VIEWPOINTS

This paper reviews plans for a new building programme for Amsterdam, a growing city in the Netherlands. This plan ignores children's needs and 'devoires' responsibility to the boroughs. This is alarming as the boroughs are not addressing threats to the quality of children's neighbourhood lives. It is argued that this neglect will undermine Amsterdam's reputation as a child friendly city by design. There is an urgent need to make children's presence more visible, to set minimum space standards and to involve children in the planning process.