This work was funded by the Institute of Human Geography
What if children created a fictional city?
What ideas might geographers learn if children were to plan a fictional city?
For the fourth Heo/Geo Lecture Series, sponsored jointly by the UP Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society, the focus is on urban imaginaries among slum-dwelling children in San Jose del Monte City. Aireen Andal from Macquarie University presents children's urban imaginaries through a world-building workshop with slum-dwelling children in the Philippines. Building on Donna Harraway's notion of "standpoints of the subjugated", making fictional cities prioritises the engagement of children as active participants in urban discourses, rejecting a technocratic and adultist approach to knowledge production.
Fictional Cities
We used our imaginations to create fictional cities!
Áte Dárna City
Áte Dárna is an action-packed city, with different species who live in harmony with each other. This city is named after a Filipino superhero, Dárna, combined with the honorific "Áte" that means elder sister in Tagalog. Áte Dárna has two distinctive regions-Nar-nar and Dar-dar. The names of these two regions are based on the two-fold persona of the superhero Dárna: Dar-dar is from Dárna, the superhero; Nar-nar is from Nárda, the normal human. While the regions of Áte Dárna tend to be distinct from one another, they are part of one system in the city. There is no particular order of importance between these regions. Both play important functions to the everyday well-being of Áte Dárna.
Dár-dar is the busier region, with structures that help everyone to have a good heart. The built environment in Dar-dar includes structures such as the cemetery, police station, jail, and church. The cemetery lists the good things one has done while living. It reminds everyone of eventual death and to be a good person while living. The police station is focused on investigating bad things happening in the city. The jail serves as a landmark of consequences to think about bad things someone has done, such as insulting others, hurting one's feelings, making someone cry for bad reasons, stealing, damaging other properties, among others. The jail offers good food for the incarcerated individual to gain strength in thinking. The church regularly reminds everyone to have a good heart by being good to others, helping others in need, not being envious of others, and not ignoring someone in need. The church is also a place where residents get to understand more about the circumstances why others do bad things. These built structures coexist with natural spaces such as hilly areas, a volcano, bushes-and-trees space, and a lake with a big face. Spaces with nature are where city-dwellers think about goodness. When they see nature, they see kindness because nature is kind and generous. Specifically, the lake with Big Face allows someone to reflect on what goodness means to them. The Big Face makes someone think as it stares at them in silence, prompting thinking.
Among the highlights of this city are several other vivid structures and elements, particularly Octopus place and Yucky place. The Octopus place has a resident octopus whom others seek for advice when they are thinking of doing bad things. Aside from the church, the octopus provides contexts of why bad things happen for everyone to understand and not judge the convicted one. Residents also get extra energy and a clear mind after talking to the resident octopus. After going to the Octopus place, the Yucky place is where bad thoughts are thrown away, such as thoughts of lying, hurting others' feelings, and stealing.
Dar-dar has wide and narrow streets. The wide streets are coloured blue and are rarely congested, with a lot of space for walking. The narrow streets are coloured red and connect wider streets to each other, and also connect different places, such as one structure to another. But there is a striking contrast between the blue wide streets and the red narrow streets. The wide streets can be divided into two separate narrow streets and turn red during weekends. The narrow streets, in turn, become a big white chalkboard on which to write, draw, and be creative.
Dar-dar
Nar-nar
Nar-nar is the slower region of Áte Dárna. Most of the spaces in Nar-nar are old, historical places, full of centuries-old buildings and houses. These structures, however old, are well-maintained. This region has seven main features: food corner, Big Mike, sleeping quarters, Happy Tower, residences, hospital and empty space for alien visitors.
The Food corner is managed by an octopus, a hairy cow (bison), and a penguin. They make food with rice as the main ingredient. They know exactly what the city-dwellers need in terms of food intake and health requirements, including food restrictions and alcohol tolerance.
Big Mike is short for Big Microphone. Darna-dwellers love to sing so Big Mike was set for singing and for greeting loved ones. Big Mike has a speaker that connects to all residential houses, so everyone can hear the greetings. There is also a disc jockey that plays music requests from residents.
The sleeping quarters are set so that those who came from work or school can take a nap or an hour of sleep to regain energy before they go and meet their families, friends, and loved ones in the evening. There are special beds that provide a very relaxing sleeping experience, together with music and a soft pillow to hug.
The Happy Tower is a place that makes everyone happy by remembering happy memories in colourful rooms. They can also see a panoramic view of the city on the top of the tower. The favourite views of dwellers are usually the distant sky with stars and space. The panorama from across Dar-dar is also often viewed, especially at night when the blue and red lights of the streets shine brightest. The streets are a special sight from near or far, when Áte Dárna City seems to enjoy the darkness of the night, giving excitement to tired dwellers. The Happy Tower must be maintained through thorough cleaning and sun exposure. The pink circle on top is an indicator of the health of the tower.
The residences are houses to rest and have fun with household members. Every house has a grandmother. Fences or gates are not so common in the places of residence because dwellers exchange spaces often
The hospital, while supposed to be in Dar-dar, was decided to be in Nar-nar because health emergencies need to be dealt with in a non-stressful environment both for hospital staff and patients. Also, medical emergencies can happen at night so the hospital needs to be in Nar-nar.
Nar-nar has allotted an empty space for alien visitors who might land on the city, as evident in the open space near the hospital. Residents prefer to welcome visitors in a peaceful way so the empty space is located in Nar-nar.
Buláte City
Buláte City is generally characterised by its fascination with movement. residents always wish to move whether it is by land, water, air, or outer space, as evident in the different modes of transport in the surrounding areas. One immediately recognises the city because the residential houses have stars on their roofs. Stars are loved because these are friendly companions that give directions to those who are lost in their way. As such, city-dwellers' roofs have artificial stars that come in different colours and sizes.
As the city is oriented towards movements, there is a Transport Centre that designs different modes of transport, such as cars, trains, buses, aeroplanes, and spaceships. Its logo is that of an astronaut dog because dogs are friendly, and have some wisdom to offer. Those who go out to discover other places should be friendly. Likewise, those who receive newcomers, travellers, pilgrims, or nomads from outside the city are expected to be friendly too. Aside from being friendly, another movement-related thing that is valued in Buláte City is love. Love makes one move. As such, there is a Love Park in the city where residents usually walk. It is a tribute to love as a practice and as an action that can make everyone move.
There is also a school with a big bowl of soup. This school stands along the coast so that the students can gaze out to the horizon beyond the sea. When students see how the sea separates from the sky, they can wonder and expand their imaginations about going to different places. This school also provides food for their students while viewing the horizon. Beside the school building is a big bowl of soup and adjacent to this are seats for students to look at the sea through a wider panoramic view, and be mesmerised by the thought of exploring other places.
There are two hospitals in Buláte city; one is for the general public and the other is for the elderly. The general hospital has a shark station just across the street, by the coast. The shark station is where any expired body is fed to sharks. The hospital opts to just give fresh, young bodies to sharks. The expired bodies of those at the hospital for the elderly are buried under the Worm Bunker soil. The worms and plants enjoy a healthy soil from the carcasses of old humans and non-humans, as well as compost from plants. In this regard, the worms of the city have a history of migration. Buláte was once full of worms on the surface, hence the name "buláte" (which means worm). But the worms got tired of their bigger constituents-animals with four legs and humans-who built many different transport structures in the city. Some worms were run over, stepped on and killed by big transport vehicles. So the worms left the surface, migrated underground, and lived happily ever since.
While there has been a mistake in building the hospitals as they are not adjacent to the seaside or Worm Bunker, transport of carcasses still operates efficiently because there are animals with wheels to bring carcasses to the sea or to the Worm Bunker. These animals undergo a surgery in the Animals-with-Wheels Station, which appends wheels to animals, especially those that are slower. The station started with pigs but is now trying wheels for cows. There are also other animals in the queue such as snails and caterpillars, and even flying insects, such as butterflies, dragonflies, and bees.
Masayá City
Masayá is a water (coastal) city. It is tucked within an island across the sea of "cool pirates". It is a peninsula, surrounded by a water edge of the island. The urban life of its residents are geared towards ensuring that water is clean.
Just beside the estuary is a public space where different critters enjoy green spaces and play music. There are some old houses, fences, and fisher's cottages where residents can cook and rest. A few metres from the estuary are two schools where students simultaneously go. The first one is a school with "little teachers", namely insects such as bees, butterflies, dragonflies, snails, caterpillars, and ladybugs. This school aims to educate its students to always see from the perspective of the littlest ones in the city to understand what kind of knowledge do little city-dwellers have. The second one is a school with big teachers, such as dragons, elephants, lions, and giraffes. This school provides students with perspectives of what big city-dwellers know. To be able to further protect the health of the sea, the Pirate Academy was established for continuous training of Bantay Dagat crew and to teach new recruits of the duties and responsibilities of being a coast guard.
As a multi-specie maritime city, Masayá's priority is to manage water well. Of particular interest is the Where-the-water-goes office that manages where the water goes. This office is composed of "kind" humans and non-humans that act as a committee that decides how the water is used in the city, including distribution, quantity, and price. The Where-the-water-goes office makes strong and clear laws to which the entire city must submit. Such an office was established because households have different water needs and the city must ensure that everyone gets the water they need, with minimal scarcity or waste. As Masayá is keen to protect its water source, beside the Where-the-water-goes office is the Pink Powder manufacturing house. This house is managed by fairies who produce pink powder detergent powder made from mushrooms. This pink powder cleans the sea and river to protect the health and well-being of water-based city-dwellers. Finally, Masayá also follows a coordinated time for all dwellers through the service of the Time-telling church, whose bell rings every 6:00 pm to remind everyone to pray for the water of the sea and river to remain clean and plentiful. Then everyone eats dinner and drinks water at 7:00 pm.
Sána Ol City
Sána Ol, also known as "Naol" for short, is a city that loves indulgences. This city prides itself on being a place where residents can buy anything they want and can think of. Official city-dwellers are humans who believe that life is temporary and short, and that everyone has to enjoy the present as the future is unknown. Sána Ol is known to tourists because of its lavishness. Some migrants go to Sána Ol to seek their fortunes in the city of indulgences. Some refugees also come to live peaceful and luxurious lives free from hunger, sickness, poverty, and war. As such, there are many places of leisure in the city of Sána Ol and there is emphasis on making sure that every single resident enjoys. The city's name is from a Tagalog phrase, which roughly translates to wishing for all to have the same experience.
One very poignant feature of Sána Ol is the location of residential houses in the middle of the city. The city is mostly residential and is dominated by several large houses, with an average of eight rooms. The houses in the city are built very distinct from each other. Each has a unique feature, with extravagant design, and expensive appliances and furniture. When city-dwellers leave home, they typically go to the four main places that surround the residential houses-salon, shopping mall, beach, and park.
The citizens of Sána Ol are fond of going to the salon to beautify themselves and their pets. City-dwellers value appearing well so they regularly schedule a haircut, manicure, pedicure, facial, among others. However, the salon is also a centre of entertainment as everyone loves to chat for hours in salons.
The shopping mall is also a popular place to be at. It is full of goods and services that residents want to buy or to experience. If an item is out-of-stock, the shopping mall will find a way to supply it. Shoppers leave the mall with big carts, taking home newly bought items, or sometimes, they deliver to others as presents. The shopping mall opens at 6:00am and closes at 12 midnight. There is also a wide variety of restaurants and cafes in the mall when shoppers get hungry and tired. The mall has a nice smell, along with the fragrance of jasmine and ylang-ylang, so everyone stays long.
There is not a single day without someone on the beach. The water of the beach tastes like coconut juice, and the sand is pink. On the beach, one gets to think of wonderful things in the past and exciting things to do in the future.
Finally, Sána Ol is also home to a big park where city-dwellers usually have picnics, rest, and socialise. There is a big screen in front of the park where everyone can watch films or sing karaoke together. Sometimes, there are some groups that perform in the streets too. Another popular area in the park is the Duyan Trees, where there are trees with hanging hammocks for napping. Where crowds gather, sweets are surely provided. The park also has various food stalls such as bread, eggs, hotdogs, and mostly fast food.