The Van Leer Foundation, in collaboration with UNS, is launching a new Urban95 initiative to bring a sharper focus on parental wellbeing in the design and development of cities.
Cities are often planned around infrastructure and services. Yet they are lived through everyday routines and relationships. The early years of a child’s life are foundational, yet the wellbeing of caregivers is often overlooked in urban design.
For parents and caregivers of babies and young children, daily moments such as moving through streets, accessing childcare, meeting others, or finding places to pause and connect shape how supported and cared for they feel.
Becoming a parent can change how a city feels
Becoming a parent often changes how people experience their city and what they need from it. Spaces that once felt neutral can feel stressful or inaccessible, while small, supportive features can ease daily life and foster connection.
This initiative looks beyond systems and services alone and pays closer attention to parental wellbeing through:
- Everyday routines that provide stability and connection
- Concerns on safety, affordability and accessibility
- Small, easily overlooked moments that create a sense of care and belonging
- The mental and emotional load of parenting in urban environments
By focusing on how parents feel, navigate, and connect, the partnership aims to better understand how cities support caregiving in practice starting from their front door.
Research to design resources grounded in parents’ realities
Research is a central part of this partnership. The first phase focuses on listening to parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 5 living in cities around the world.
Through in depth interviews and a global survey, the project seeks to capture the realities, challenges, and wishes of parents, including how daily routines unfold, where stress or support emerges, and how public spaces and services shape everyday care and caregiving choices.
The research spans cities across Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, combining the global reach of both the Van Leer Foundation and UNS to build a broad, grounded understanding of parents’ everyday urban experiences, rather than relying on assumptions about what families need.
Insights from this research will inform the development of a practical resources for urban practitioners to help embed parental wellbeing into planning, policy, and design. The aim is to strengthen social infrastructure alongside physical infrastructure and translate meaningful change for the daily experiences of families with babies and toddlers.
