ARUKI — Tokyo AI Walkscapes
Children’s Perspectives in Shaping Urban Futures.
Children’s perspectives on the city, reimagined through walkshops and AI-driven visual storytelling. A project proposal by Childish Studio for Tokyo Biennale 2025.
Children’s perspectives are not miniature versions of ours — they are worlds of their own.
About Aruki project
How can children’s everyday walks become radical tools for reimagining the city’s future through technology and storytelling?
ARUKI is an interdisciplinary artistic research project inviting children to creatively explore and reinterpret their neighborhoods in Tokyo through participatory 'walkshops' and AI-supported visual storytelling.
Children’s experiences and visions will be translated into AI-generated visuals (using GPT-4o), forming a dynamic dialogue between their present perceptions and future aspirations for Tokyo. These outputs will be curated into a printed and digital publication and presented in an immersive exhibition at the Tokyo Biennale 2025.
Children’s experiences and visions will be translated into AI-generated visuals (using GPT-4o), forming a dynamic dialogue between their present perceptions and future aspirations for Tokyo. These outputs will be curated into a printed and digital publication and presented in an immersive exhibition at the Tokyo Biennale 2025.
Developed by Childish Studio (Berlin/Bangkok), the project combines playful pedagogy with speculative design methodologies to amplify children’s voices in imagining urban futures. Explore more projects
Objectives
1
Urban storytelling starts at child level.
Empower children as active participants in shaping the visual narratives of their neighborhoods.
2
Reimaging tomorrow’s cities with machine dreams.
Explore how AI tools can facilitate creative expression and speculative urban design.
3
Public space begins with public voice.
Contribute child-centric perspectives to public discourse on inclusive urban development.
Benefits for Tokyo
Child’s View
Reveals Tokyo’s urban and emotional landscapes through children’s imaginative perspectives.
Serious Play
Provides urban planners, designers, and local governments with creative qualitative insights for inclusive city-making.
Shared Streets
Strengthens social cohesion through intergenerational storytelling and public participation.
Methodology & Process
How does a walk become a vision & a vision become a city?
ARUKI transforms everyday movement into participatory research. Through a four-part process — walking, imagining, visualizing, and sharing — children become co-authors of urban change. This methodology blends embodied observation with generative storytelling, bridging the streets of today with the futures they dream of.
1
Exploration Walkshops
Child-led walks through selected Tokyo neighborhoods to observe, document, and reflect on urban spaces.
2
Prompting & Visualization
Children express their impressions through verbal or written prompts, which are transformed into AI-generated images using GPT-4o.
3
Co-Design & Sharing
In group sessions, children collaboratively discuss and refine their visual narratives, imagining interventions for child-friendly futures.
4
Publication & Exhibition
The results are compiled into a professionally designed printed/digital publication and showcased in an interactive exhibition at Tokyo Biennale 2025.
Outputs & Global Context
How far can a child’s idea travel?
ARUKI’s outcomes go beyond the streets of Tokyo. They manifest as stories, tools, and methods that travel — adaptable by communities, educators, and designers around the world. From tactile books to immersive exhibitions, each output is a vessel for children’s urban visions and the processes behind them.
Printed & Digital Booklet
A small-edition collection of children’s AI-generated urban visions, reflective prompts, and walkshop documentation .
Immersive Public Showcase
An interactive exhibition environment featuring visuals & stories — inviting visitors to step into Tokyo through children’s eyes.
A Replicable Toolkit
A flexible, research-informed methodology for participatory urban exploration, combining analog practices with emerging AI tools.
Relevant References
London
A child-led play intervention in London’s King’s Cross area, transforming vacant public spaces into creative playgrounds through collaborative design with children and artists.
Vienna
A city-supported initiative that empowers citizens to activate public streets and spaces through temporary micro-interventions — from street furniture to mini parks — fostering hyper-local engagement.
Budapest
A temporary cultural commons created by closing Budapest’s Liberty Bridge to traffic, allowing citizens to reclaim it for collective rest, art, and social life.
About Childish Studio
Each Childish Studio project typically includes workshops for municipal artists, designers, architects, planners, researchers, urban professionals, and children advocates. We provide opportunities to engage children and young people actively in assessing their local environment, setting priorities for improvements, and developing designs where they can contribute their ideas and priorities.
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