Building Belonging: Youth-Driven Designs for Bordeaux
By The Nashville Youth Design Team and Megan McCormick, Research Fellow
8 min read: This blog post shares how the Nashville Youth Design Team researched youth belonging through workshops, surveys, and focus groups, then applied their findings to create design concepts for the Bordeaux neighborhood that make the community safer, more inclusive, and more welcoming for young people.
The Nashville Youth Design Team started in July 2020, with the goal of helping to make Nashville better for young people. We first wanted to know--What do Nashville youth need to feel healthy and well? We are now a team of 20 high school interns that represent schools and neighborhoods across Nashville. In 2023, we (the Nashville Youth Design Team) partnered with Imagine Nashville to explore young people's experiences and perspectives on the city and its future. To do this, we developed a 2-hour design thinking exercise, the Dream City Workshop, which asked our peers to design their dream city and then translate their designs into hopes and dreams for the city's future, shared through a survey. Among other findings, the survey revealed that only 60% of young people in Nashville feel like they belong, compared to 78% of adults. Drawing on this finding, we decided to focus our research during the 2024-2025 school year and the 2025 summer on youth belonging in Nashville.
Our Research on Youth Belonging
We began exploring youth belonging in Nashville by developing a research question based on our findings from the Dream City Workshop. Our research question was: Why do so many young people feel like they don’t belong in Nashville, and what can we do about it?
After developing our research question, we came up with themes that accurately represented what helps youth feel like they belong in Nashville, and what might make them feel like they don’t belong. To do this, we conducted focus groups and surveys with over 100 youth at the 2024 Mayor's Youth Summit. Using this data, we developed a visual representation of youth sense of belonging, which we call the Layers of Youth Belonging, which you can see here:
To further explore youth belonging in Nashville, we used our Layers of Youth Belonging to develop a focus group interview guide that included an activity where youth were asked to design a neighborhood they felt they could truly belong in:
We conducted 29 focus groups at 10 schools and community centers, engaging 273 young people. During these focus groups, youth completed the activity, and we collected audio transcripts of youth responses to places they would go to feel safe, loved, etc. in Nashville. The map below shows the location of the focus groups along with the number of focus groups held at each site and the number of youth we spoke with.
During the summer, we analyzed focus groups and put together a list of themes that arose from our research. As new codes emerged, we noticed a few recurring themes, which are represented in the image below.
For our research participants, safety meant that both physical and emotional safety help with belonging. They also shared that feeling unsafe mentally hinders belonging. Participants also discussed how connections with friends and family help with belonging, and said they wanted places to be social and connect. Youth also shared that they felt having greenspaces helped with belonging, that having parks close by helped with belonging, or that they wanted parks nearer to them. In our focus groups, youth shared that they felt more welcomed in inclusive and diverse places and places to learn more about themselves and others. The theme transportation indicates that a lot of participants said that not being able to go places and access them made them feel like they didn’t belong, or that they got help from family to move around. The affordability theme refers to teens saying that not being able to afford to go places with their friends sometimes prevents them from making connections with other youth and with their places. Finally, youth we interviewed talked about belonging being helped by places to get energy out.
We used these themes to inform our designs for the Bordeaux area.
Applying Our Research on Youth Belonging in Bordeaux
This summer, during our design week, we went to visit the intersection at Buena Vista Pike and Clarksville Pike in order to learn more about the location and how some of our research and learnings about youth belonging could be applied at that site. While we were there, we collected a lot of observational data, noticing areas that may benefit from enhancements that could make the area better for youth in the neighborhood. We also met with Bordeaux residents to learn more about how they see the neighborhood and what might be changed at our specific site. We implemented these observations and information from our meetings with neighborhood residents into our site plans with the goal of trying to make the site better for youth.
We then split off into 3 design groups, creating designs informed by our research on youth belonging and our engagement with residents of the area.
Information about our designs are below.
Bordeaux Plaza & Park
In this design we wanted to focus on building additional spaces for getting energy out, supporting the current community, and having a safe space to enjoy nature. During one of our focus groups, when asked how they designed their neighborhood for belonging, a middle school student shared: “I added a community center in the back of, like, a garden and a pool, because I was just thinking like I would love there to be…involved in the community.” We used insights like this to inform our design.
Our primary goals were to provide a safe and accessible third space for teens and youth in Bordeaux, promote spaces for inter-generational socialization, include features to increase youth belonging in Bordeaux, and offer some activities that we noticed the area is currently lacking (playgrounds, gyms, water activities, and additional greenspace). We added a community center, a splash pad, additional seating, a playground, open lawn area, and maintained some parking for visitors. We know that young kids need an area to play, and parks and water are fun for them and a good activity to get them out the house.
Bordeaux Community Square
In our design, we wanted to include a space that would be utilized by the youth in the area. While doing focus groups, the idea of having third spaces, specifically a community center, came up frequently. We felt we could design a community center with eye-catching colors to create a space that youth would feel safe and comfortable in while also having fun with other members of their community. Inside the center, we emphasized a colorful, welcoming, bright space with many options for areas to hang out, play games, and learn.
An idea we had for the roof of the community center is to add a pool for those who enjoy going to the pool, especially because there are not many pools in the Bordeaux area. This spot will be good for the community, making space for more active lifestyles while also making a safe and welcoming place for the youth to hang out. We also added a soccer pitch, which is a great space and offers entertainment where kids can have fun and enjoy a beautiful spot. Finally, we added a bus shelter in our design, with a non-transparent back, rest area, and solar panels. Our design will also remove some of the unused parking space to create room for youth to get energy out and socialize. All in all, we think our design will greatly improve the area for the community and the youth that currently live in Bordeaux.
Bordeaux Courtyard
We wanted to highlight some of the points of interest for youth that will heavily impact our site and lead more people into the site. We recognized that the site’s location is a really important first impression and welcome into the Bordeaux area after you cross the bridge into the neighborhood. One thing we really wanted to improve around this area was how to get to our design, so we first focused on the intersection at our site. We added a larger island to stop at to get to the courtyard, a bus stop, bike lanes with tree buffers that also offer shade, crosswalks across every intersection, a larger aisle to stop at to get to the courtyard, wider sidewalks, narrower road entrances, and a curb extension. Also, some of the data we collected last year shows that a large majority of youth go to shop and eat at restaurants when they are not at school or home. We implemented this into our design by adding a major shopping center, which also has lots of food trucks. Along with the shopping center, we included a playground because many youth from our research referenced how playgrounds played a part in the neighborhoods they designed for belonging. We also found in our codes that youth feel better when they have a space to get out energy.
We also added a second story for housing. For both residents and shoppers, we propose that the stores in the shopping center open both ways for easy access. We also wanted to offer seating and shade in the back for people to enjoy their meals or enjoy a walk outside. Finally, we designed a statue, which would be the first thing people see when they enter the neighborhood. We wanted this statue of the Black power fist to be representative of the predominantly Black community in Bordeaux.
Next Steps
We plan to implement a tactical urbanism installation informed by elements of our designs during the upcoming school year, and are excited to continue our work on youth belonging through the implementation of designs in the Bordeaux neighborhood.