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Designing with Children: Creating engaging places for children
Jeff Cutler BCSLA, CSLA
Principal / Landscape Architect
space2place design incModerator:
Alison Maddaugh BCSLA,
Project Designer, space2place design inc
The creation of play spaces in the public realm has become increasingly formulaic. Our society’s obsession over minimizing risk is the primary cause for these standardized designs; places that rarely sustain a child's interest on repeated visits. Developing great places for children is a skill we are re-learning. Communities are beginning to realize that when a city works well for children, it works well for the rest of us. Placing children at the centre of the design process is a simple extension of this vision, to attune ourselves to the true quality of spaces we create, from sites of inspiration to ecological health.
Presenter Bios
Jeff Cutler
Jeff is a landscape architect and the founding principal of space2place. He is a strong advocate of
extending the designers reach to integrate public consultation, sustainability, ethnography, and
engineering into the design and transformation of public places. Jeff's work has been featured in numerous design publications worldwide. He has also lectured extensively on design and public realm related subjects in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Oregon . His projects have won 4 national CSLA awards and 3 Design Exchange awards in Toronto. He was awarded designer of the year (landscape architecture) by Western Living magazine in 2008.
Alison Maddaugh
Alison’s work is characterized by a unique understanding of outdoor play environments for children,
informed by past work, research, and art installations. She combines her training in landscape
architecture and fine arts in her approach to work and views each project through a lens of aesthetics and phenomenology. Alison is a lead designer and project manager for space2place. Her specialty lies in the ability to develop innovative details integrated with the overall site plan, her projects include the design for the Surrey Nature Centre and the UniverCity Childcare Facility.
