Urban95 walking tour comes to London

Published November 3, 2017

The Urban95 initiative continues to get the message out around the world about making cities healthy and vibrant places where babies, toddlers and their families can thrive. Earlier this week, BvLF’s Programme Director, Cecilia Vaca Jones, and Consultant, Irene Quintáns, addressed a meeting of the National Association of City Transportation Officials in Chicago.

Next week, Darell Hammond, Senior Adviser to BvLF’s Urban95 Initiative, will present at the Child in the City International Seminar on Children’s Play in the Urban Environment at Goldsmiths University of London. Delegates from cities we work with around the world – Bhubaneswar, India; Bogota, Colombia; Istanbul, Turkey; Lima, Peru; Recife, Brazil; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Tel Aviv, Israel; Tirana, Albania – will attend to learn more about play and public space.

The seminar will be followed by a walking tour of public spaces in London, organised by BvLF, in which participants will be encouraged to take the perspective of a young child. Led by Tim Gill, a longstanding advocate for child-friendly urban planning and design and co-author of the first ever London-wide planning guidance on children’s play and recreation, it will also include guest speakers:

  • Meghan Talarowski, a landscape architect based in Philadelphia working on innovative ways of measuring how the design of public spaces affects physical health and social behaviour.
  • Aileen Shackwell, urban planner and lead author of Play for England’s guide Design for Play.
  • Phil Doyle, a consultant specialised in the practicalities of completing and maintaining public spaces and playgrounds.
  • Dinah Bornat, researcher, teacher, writer and a co-founder of ZCD Architects.
  • Liz Kessler, urban designer and public space coordinator for EC1 New Deal for Communities between 2003 and 2009.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for live tweets of the seminar and an Instagram takeover during the walking tour. Further reflections on the event will be published on this website in due course.