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Playground Design: Do safety standards kill creativity or are they helpful tools?

European playground safety standards are often regarded as creativity killers both for designers and children. This can happen, indeed, when they are misinterpreted or misused. 
 
Standards acknowledge that playgrounds are for all children, regardless of their age or abilities, and state that children need to take risks to be able to cope with risk, to learn about their capabilities and limits, emotions and social skills. Technical standards focus on the safety of infrastructures and layouts, so that children and carers can anticipate residual risks; for this purpose, existing risks should be easy to perceive and beneficial for child development and the learning process, as they allow for a free choice in risk-taking. Standards acknowledge that accidents will happen as part of play and aim at reducing fatal and severe injuries.
 
In this webinar we will discuss how standards can be a helpful tool to design challenging, inclusive and safe play areas for children: how they shouldn't necessarily be used only in a prescriptive way. We will also present some criteria for the process of Risk-Benefit Assessment.
 
Participants will be invited to bring their own cases or questions and interact with the speakers.

Apr 28, 2022 09:30 AM in Lisbon