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Waterden Green - Creating a Space for Teenage Girls
Remember the sheer joy of a childhood trip to the park? The thrill of spinning until dizzy, soaring high on swings, and racing friends across climbing frames? These spaces offered endless fun for everyone, regardless of gender. But as we grow older, something shifts. By age eight, a gender divide starts to appear in parks, and by the time girls reach their teenage years, they often feel side-lined.
This was my experience too. As a child, I loved visiting the park with my cousins. My male cousins and uncles dominated the cricket and football fields, while my female cousins and I revelled in the playground. But as we grew older, the equipment seemed less inviting. We found ourselves wandering, making up games, or feeling uncomfortable in spaces now claimed by boys. Eventually, the park no longer felt like our place.
This exclusion of girls from public play spaces is a widespread issue. At the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), we're determined to change this. We're on a mission to design parks that welcome and inspire girls, giving them the space they deserve.
Our project at Waterden Green in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, unlocked by the adjacent East Wick and Sweetwater residential development, aims to do just that. Through collaboration with the youth group Elevate and Make Space for Girls, we’re designing a green space specifically for teenagers, including a focused space for teenage girls aged 12-18. This initiative is part of a broader effort by the Greater London Authority (GLA) to address the needs of women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals in public spaces.
Our work with the GLA involved workshops, featuring insights from Mayoral Design Advocates Daisy Froud, Jayden Ali, and Manijeh Verghese, who helped us centre the voices of girls and young women in the briefing process.
By inviting a group of young women from Elevate to co-client the brief writing with LLDC, the young women have said they felt empowered to actively participate in the decision-making process. The Elevate co-client team worked alongside LLDC colleagues to write the key briefing principles, they helped draft the design brief and participated in the procurement of a design team.
This project aligns with the vision set by LLDC’s Women and Girls Safety Board to enhance safety and inclusivity in the park, as outlined in the Women and Girls Safety Charter. By prioritising meaningful engagement and space for girls and young women to sit in a position of power and influence, we aim to create a space that works for teenage girls.
Our partnership with Make Space for Girls has been crucial. They’ve guided the co-client team to reflect on the project to date and consider a lessons-learned approach which is captured in our report, helping refine our methodology to encourage a co-client engagement style for future projects.
As we move into the next phase of the project, we are pleased to be working with Studio Gil, who will be leading the design development of the project, alongside a highly skilled consultant team; Black Females in Architects, Light Follows Behaviour, Untitled Practice and Simple Works.
We invite everyone to consider the voices of young people and marginalised groups in urban planning, and how moving away from traditional engagement processes and instead embracing methods such as co-clienting, can help create better and more meaningful places for all.
