Once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the EXPERTS behind these signature projects!

2-10-2025

📢Tophane Park Playground by Mr Elger Blitz
📢“Social Capital for a Child-friendly City” by Dr Mitsunari Terada
📢Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti
 
In the upcoming conference “Building a Free-Play-Friendly City: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Placemaking”, those professionals in the design, architecture, and planning sectors would get a rare chance to meet, learn and be inspired by the renowned experts as keynote speakers in person. Don’t miss it and it’s totally FREE!
 
👍🏻Mr Elger Blitz, an accomplished award-winning designer and founder of Carve, a leading and innovative Dutch design firm shaping public spaces for children and youth. With over 35 years of experience, Elger is known for his bold, imaginative playscapes that fuse architecture, landscape, and urban design. His work spans cities across the globe, from Amsterdam to Hong Kong, Moscow, Dubai, Korea and Singapore—transforming everyday spaces into vibrant hubs of play and connection.
 
👍🏻Dr Mitsunari Terada, known as Charlie, is a landscape planner, researcher, and community co-creator. With a Ph.D. from Chiba University and a current role as Assistant Professor, Charlie’s work explores how outdoor environments for children can adapt to the realities of climate change. His publication lays out a bold vision for urban spaces that prioritize children’s voices, inter-generational connection, and playful infrastructure. Charlie’s insights have shaped national conversations on play and urban design.
 
👍🏻Mr Simon Battisti, is an urban planner, educator, Executive Director of Qendra Marrëdhënie (QM), a Tirana-based nonprofit research and design agency that partners with local governments to create public spaces and mobility systems centered on the needs of children and caregivers. Since 2020, he has led Tirana’s city-wide School Streets program—transforming streets around schools into safer, more playful, and accessible environments for families. His work focuses on alternative, critical approaches to development in spatial planning.
 
🗓️ Main Conference: 23–24 Oct at Hong Kong Shue Yan University
EXPERTS behind these signature projects!】 Tophane Park Playground in Istanbul by Mr Elger Blitz, is a vibrant and inclusive playscape that won the ArchDaily Best New Public Landscape Award (2023) for its bold design and community impact.

Tophane Park Playground in Istanbul by Mr Elger Blitz, is a vibrant and inclusive playscape that won the ArchDaily Best New Public Landscape Award (2023) for its bold design and community impact.

EXPERTS behind these signature projects!】 In the Tophane Park Playground, Mr Elger Blitz created a multi-functional element that inspires play and resulted in a smooth sculptural object, attractive and playful for everyone.

Tophane Park Playground in Istanbul is created for people of all ages, groups, and backgrounds. It is not a fenced-off area where parents are watching from distance, it is for everyone, open to those who are not afraid to get involved!

Tophane Park Playground in Istanbul is created for people of all ages, groups, and backgrounds. It is not a fenced-off area where parents are watching from distance, it is for everyone, open to those who are not afraid to get involved!

Mr Elger Blitz

Mr Elger Blitz

The book “Social Capital for a Child-friendly City": Housing, Streets, and Parks by Dr Mitsunari Terada, features examples from Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and Japan, exploring methods for cultivating social capital and spaces for children to play and develop in cooperative housing, outdoor play spaces, streets, parks, and neighbourhoods.

The book “Social Capital for a Child-friendly City”: Housing, Streets, and Parks by Dr Mitsunari Terada, features examples from Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and Japan, exploring methods for cultivating social capital and spaces for children to play and develop in cooperative housing, outdoor play spaces, streets, parks, and neighbourhoods.

Dr Mitsunari Terada

Dr Mitsunari Terada

Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti, shows how cost-effectiveness, high-impact interventions are reshaping urban life for children and caregivers. It captured all four sides of a city block containing four educational facilities.

Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti, shows how cost-effectiveness, high-impact interventions are reshaping urban life for children and caregivers. It captured all four sides of a city block containing four educational facilities.

Photo credit: Qendra Marrëdhënie (QM)

https://www.qendra-m.org/…/school…/shkolla-edith-durham 

In the Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti, safe places are provided for students to travel to and from school and addresses the lack of open space for recreation.

In the Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti, safe places are provided for students to travel to and from school and addresses the lack of open space for recreation.

Photo credit: Qendra Marrëdhënie (QM)

https://www.qendra-m.org/…/school…/shkolla-edith-durham

In the Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti, names of the students were incorporated directly into the graffiti-inspired artwork, providing literal space for the children on the site and cementing their sense of belonging in their neighborhood.

In the Tirana School Streets initiative by Mr Simon Battisti, names of the students were incorporated directly into the graffiti-inspired artwork, providing literal space for the children on the site and cementing their sense of belonging in their neighborhood.

Photo credit: Qendra Marrëdhënie (QM)

https://www.qendra-m.org/…/school…/shkolla-edith-durham

Mr Simon Battisti

Mr Simon Battisti