Architecture to Children

Conference guests

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  Tim Gill

  is an independent scholar, writer and consultant based in London, UK. He is a global advocate for children’s freedom to play and explore, and for a balanced approach to risk in childhood.

  Tim Gill

  is an independent scholar, writer and consultant based in London, UK. He is a global advocate for children’s freedom to play and explore, and for a balanced approach to risk in childhood. His work cuts across education, child care, recreation, planning and urban design. It speaks to decision makers, academics, commentators, practitioners and the wider public.

  The New York Times described Tim’s 2007 book No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society as “a handbook for the movement for freer, riskier play.” In 2017 he was awarded a fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to study child-friendly urban planning in Canada and Europe. Tim holds degrees in philosophy and psychology from Oxford and London Universities, and an honorary doctorate from Edge Hill University. A former director of the Children’s Play Council (now Play England), in 2002 he was seconded to Whitehall to lead the UK government’s first comprehensive review into children’s play.

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  Helena Menezes

  is General Director at H. Menezes Risk Vision, Portugal. Consultant and trainer in child safety, risk assessment of built environments and their impact on health and inclusion; European Consumers (ANEC).

  Helena Menezes

  is General Director at H. Menezes Risk Vision. Consultant and trainer in child safety, risk assessment of built environments and their impact on health and inclusion; European Consumers (ANEC) representative in the European standardization committee for playgrounds since 2000.

  In her trainings Helena demonstrates how European playground Standards can be a useful tool for risk management when designing play spaces, throughout their whole life cycle, from pre-design stage until post-occupancy, allowing for free and challenging play in inclusive and safer environments.

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  Nicola Butler

  is the Director of Hackney Play Association, UK. She is a co-author of Play England’s guidance – „Design for Play: a guide to creating successful play spaces“

  Nicola Butler

  is the Director of Hackney Play Association, a children’s charity that runs 3 adventure playgrounds in disadvantaged parts of East London. Adventure playgrounds originated in Scandinavia and are based on the idea of providing children with scrap materials that they can play however they choose, using their imaginations.

  Hackney Play Association also runs the Hackney Play Streets project, supporting residents to have temporary road closures for children to play in the street.

  Nicola is also chair of Play England, the national charity for children’s play in England and is the author of Play England’s guidance, Design for Play: a guide to creating successful play spaces.

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  Lenka Šulová

  a prominent Czech psychologist and professor at Charles University in Prague. She is an author of many publications about the child's psychological development.

  Lenka Šulová

  She works at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in Prague, where she leads the Department of Social Psychology. She focuses on the psychological stages of human development within society and also on partnership and family relationships.

  She is involved in international research group, which focuses on early development of the child, the specifics of the maternal and paternal roles, the importance of the family environment in relation to the institution of the child.

  She is the author and co-author of number of psychological publications, including the book "Early Mental Development of a Child". She is a member of many professional psychological societies in the Czech Republic and abroad, she regularly participates in international scientific meetings and research activities. She has her own consultancy practice.

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  Elger Blitz

  is founder and senior designer at Carve. He got involved in designing playgrounds in the early nineties, which gives more than 25 years of experience in relevant projects in public space.

  Elger Blitz

  is founder, and senior designer at Carve. He got involved in designing playgrounds in the early nineties, which gives more than 25 years of experience in relevant projects in public space.

  His cross-disciplinary and renewing approach to designing urban spaces from the perspective of play has proven to anticipate on actual demands and trends, with a result that extends beyond the relevance for urban spaces for children and youngsters alone.

  He handles design tasks in a very integral manner, switching easily between different scales and disciplines. His unconventional approach and distinctive ideas on designing for kids and teenagers makes him a guest lecturer at different universities in the Netherlands and abroad.

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  Matěj Hájek

  sculptor, co-founder of the Ztohoven artist group. He collaborated on the creation of several "Playscape" projects on the border of landscape architecture and landart.

  Matěj Hájek

  is sculptor and co-founder of the Ztohoven artist group. He collaborated on the
  creation of several "Playscape" projects on the border of landscape architecture and landart.

  He is the co-author together with the architect Tereza Kučerová from the studio Molo architects of the new project Play landscape called Pecka in the mountains of Krkonoše.

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  Julian Richter

  carpenter, founder of world-known Richter Spielgeräte GmbH company which has been on the market for more than 50 years. He was the chairman of the European Standards Organisation (CEN).

  Julian Richter

  graduated as a wood engineer and already during his studies he started to manufacture playground equipment from 1967 on. The initial ideas and designs were created by his mother, who was a social worker at this time in Hamburg. She recognized children’s needs for play and how equipment should be designed for children’s needs.

  He developed his company from a “little carpentry” to one of the leading playground equipment manufacturers worldwide. From the 70ies on he was involved in actually every development of playground safety standards, first in Germany, then in Europe.

  The Commitment for the children was always his mantra when being part of or leading the committees for developing the standards (first DIN7962, then the European wide harmonized EN1176 and 1177). “As much play value as possible – as much safety as needed” is one of his favourite sayings. As chair of the CEN committee TC136 SC1 he achieved an acceptance for the consideration of “safety in a different way’” which means: Not just regarding technical rules literally from written standards but having a deeper look into the risks.

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  Harry Harbottle

  is the chairman of Play Scotland. He used to be a member to the European Commission in consumer safety, and was also a member of the European Standards Organisation (CEN) committee on game security.

  Harry Harbottle

  Harry has experience of working at a high level in statutory, voluntary and private sectors so he is well placed to understand the benefits and frustrations of working in all three when it comes to generating quality public places. For 20 years he was appointed as an expert to the European Commission in consumer safety and child safety, sitting as an independent member of the European
  Standards Organisation (CEN) technical committee on the safety of playground equipment.

  He is also a co-author of a guide to the European Standard for the Safety of Playground Equipment. He more recently sat on a CEN working group looking at playground safety in relation to children with special needs. Harry spent much of his time helping to establish innovative and exciting playspaces
  across Europe. His home is in SW Scotland which he uses as the base for his other business activities in Britain and Ireland through his company, CATE Consultancy. With Theresa Casey, he co-authored “Free to Play – A guide to creating accessible and inclusive play spaces”. He is currently the chair of Play Scotland, a national organisation lobbying on the child’s right to play.

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