Abstract
In Australian cities, suburban living is perceived as spacious residential environments that meet the needs of growing families and children. Children's use of suburban and urban space is deemed to be met through formal, and therefore structured, infrastructures such as playgrounds and sporting fields. However, children are also builders and make a diverse range of improvised structures or architectures in public spaces which generally do not attract adult attention due to their ephemerality, scale and unobtrusiveness. When larger child-made structures come to the attention of authorities, the result can be a conflict between them and the children who built or used the structures. This viewpoint presents two Australian examples of such structures, tracing the public face of these conflicts through documentary sources and highlighting the regulatory and control measures imposed on children's building practices. These examples are examined through a rights lens to reflect children's building as a socio-spatial practice of belonging and citizenship. These practices are understood as spatial expressions of citizenship, which reflect tensions between regulation and agency. It is observed that alternative approaches to valuing and integrating child-made structures and children's rights are underexplored.
