COME OUT AND PLAY! Youth and Placemaking in Public Space

Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Image from Huts, Temples, Castles (MACK, 2022). Courtesy of the artist and MACK

On the occasion of the Aedes exhibition of Ursula Schulz-Dornburg’s photographs from her publication Huts, Temples, Castles published by MACK books on the Jongensland Playground Amsterdam in 1969, ANCB will host an international Lab Talk on participatory placemaking and knowledge-sharing with regard to children and youths in public space today.

Already in 1996 Unicef and UN-Habitat launched an initiative called Child Friendly Cities, declaring that the “wellbeing of children is the ultimate indicator of a healthy habitat, a democratic society and of good governance.“ The inclusion of the young generation’s needs in planning our cities and regions is also a quest for creating a better and just society as a whole, overcoming class-, income-, age-, race- and gender boundaries. Urban planning strategies that open opportunities for children may improve mental and physical health, reduce criminal damage and antisocial behaviour and change attitudes towards teamwork and self-assessment, thus reducing later consequences (and costs) to society. The Lab Talk will also look at how the younger generation utilises items and materials deemed as 'junk' and makes the most of the world around them in the spirit of a circular economy.

As part of the ANCB programme Knowledge Spaces, the Lab Talk will ask how to incorporate flexible, ad-hoc and democratic space development as a form of participation and freedom for the young generation. What can architects, planners and policy-makers do or provide for in urban space to make children feel addressed, inspired and safe? How can we learn from less structured, less 'orderly' placemaking or appropriation of space to allow a glimpse into a playful future or even utopian version of our cities and societies? How can we value children on a societal level in public space, rather than focusing on economic returns?

PROGRAMME

Welcome

Miriam Mlecek, Programme Manager, ANCB The Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, Berlin

Introduction

Tom Wilkinson, Architecture History Lecturer, University of London; Editor, The Architectural Review, London

Presentations

Viktoria Walldin, White Arkitekter, Flickrum project, Stockholm

Hannah Wright, Urban Planner, Amsterdam

Anne Müller, Child-Friendly Communities, an initiative by UNICEF and Kinderhilfswerk e.V., Berlin

Trine Agervig Carstensen, Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen

Panel Discussion

with speakers and Manfred Nowak, Secretary General of the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC), Vienna

Moderator: Maria Vassilakou, Urban Planner, Consultant, former Deputy Mayor Vienna

Generously supported by: