Spatial inequities: Child-friendly spaces and ethnic sensitivity in Balukhali Rohingya 1 Refugee Camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS) are crucial architectural interventions designed to provide psychosocial support to children during refugee crises. The unprecedented influx of refugees globally in recent decades has underscored the urgent need to address children's vulnerability to psychosocial issues. Despite the widespread use of prototypical CFS models by various NGOs and humanitarian organizations to address the crises, there is a significant gap in the spatial analysis of these responses under precarious refugee camp conditions. This study focuses on CFS in the Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, the world's largest refugee camp. Children here face crises such as abuse, life-threatening situations, gender violence, and child trafficking, mirroring their experiences in Myanmar. Utilizing the Octonary Framework, a comprehensive tool for evaluating architectural spaces, this research conducts a qualitative spatial analysis of CFS. The findings reveal that CFS primarily emphasize a superficial cosmetic ‘representation of childhood’, neglecting the need for ethnically sensitive spatial cultures that can address the specific needs of the displaced community. This oversight results in spaces that fail to provide the therapeutic and healing environment necessary. The research findings contribute to developing sustainable CFS practices, aiming to create a more spatially just environment for vulnerable children in future refugee crises.