The Landscape Design and Children’s Well-being Laboratory is committed to advancing academic research, practical implementation, and talent cultivation for the development of child-friendly cities in China. As of 2021, 1,157 regional units worldwide have participated in or obtained certification as "Child-Friendly Cities" under the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) initiative, with France, Spain, Turkey, and Austria ranking among the countries with the highest number of certified cities. Although China accounts for 12.5% of the global child population, no Chinese city has yet achieved UNICEF certification as a child-friendly city.

Against this backdrop, the Landscape Design and Children’s Well-being Laboratory has been established, with experimental sites in the Greater Bay Area urban cluster and other cities across China. Our work focuses on understanding what types of urban landscapes are child-friendly or unfriendly, identifying how communities, parks, streets, squares, and play spaces can attract children to engage in outdoor activities instead of relying on electronic devices. We investigate the influence of landscapes on children’s holistic development, including health, creativity, imagination, collaborative skills, and prosocial behaviors. Additionally, we aim to develop child-friendly city construction models and evaluation index systems tailored to China’s social, economic, and geographical conditions. Special attention is given to intervention measures and their effectiveness in promoting child-friendly environments within low-income communities, such as urban villages and peri-urban areas. Concurrently, we research key technologies for designing children’s play spaces and apply these findings to demonstration projects. Through these efforts, the laboratory seeks to advance the construction of child-friendly cities in the Greater Bay Area while providing theoretical foundations and practical blueprints for similar initiatives in other regions of China.