Children as the residents of urban space are an important part of the urban society and also the neglected social group in Tehran.
In order to consider the various aspects of children’s perception and life in urban and residential spaces, this paper aims to present the results of the study on children’s participation in connection with the housing and city to aware socio-cultural researchers and urban managers and planners of a large community of small people.
For this purpose, with a constructivist approach, children are known as social activists who have a mental and real perception of their needs in an urban society and can define their position in the urban community and react to unpleasant environmental and physical factors.
In this research the study of documents, urban spaces and residential buildings of Tehran's 11th district has been done compared with the qualitative data derived from the results of observation, unstructured interviews, reviewing the children’s paintings and writings using the cluster sampling method and the qualitative content analysis method. This matter indicates that to have a healthy and dynamic society, it is essential to expand the public domain in the city and create a private space in the house for the children.
The desirable city for the children is a space which provides their maximum physical and mental needs; childhood culture and individuality is represented in the private space and provides them social interaction and participation, access to the municipal facilities as well as a sense of peace and security in the public space. Children’s consideration of urban and architecture spaces involves various physical, mental and behavioral aspects which they have frequently pointed in their paintings and interviews.