Africa today: “Women and children walk an average of 6 miles a day to collect water. 1 child dies every 15 seconds due to the lack of clean drinking water. More than 10 million children die every year from preventable illnesses. 270 million children have no access to public health services.”

Design For The Children “is an open, international design competition asking architects and designers from around the world to develop a sustainable, culturally responsive, pediatric clinic model for East Africa.”

Competition is closed. View the winner here.

“In the last 10 years the Sure Start (UK) programme has transformed the delivery of integrated services and quality early learning to children and their families.

Children’s centres are crucial to the government’s 10 year strategy for childcare, Choice for parents, the best start for children, and are key to improving outcomes for children as part of the Every child matters agenda. By 2010 there will be 3,500 children’s centres, one in every community. We want centres to be accessible, welcoming, flexible, inspirational spaces.

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) is the government’s advisor on architecture urban design and public space. CABE has worked in partnership with the former DfES and now DCSF since Sure Start’s inception. By providing advice guidance to partners involved in the delivery of children’s centres, CABE promotes good design, helping children’s centres to become the focus of the community.

This guide has been created with CABE for the next phase of delivery. Drawing on the lessons that local authorities and other key partners have learned and highlighting the importance of quality design, the guide focuses on both the preparation for, and the design of, a children’s centre and other early years facilities.”

For anyone interested in children’s spaces and design, VIEW the guide in detail and be inspired.

“The Urban Forest Project is a series of unprecedented outdoor banner exhibitions taking root in cities around the world. In each location, artists, designers, students and the general public will employ the idea or form of the tree to make a powerful visual statement on banners that will be displayed throughout the community.

The tree is a metaphor for sustainability and, in that spirit, the banners at the close of each exhibition will be recycled into totebags and auctioned off to raise money for a local non-profit organization. Each local project will also incorporate or support an environmental call to action such as tree planting initiatives. The program can easily be adapted to address a number of green and creative initiatives in a variety of ways to shape a project that is unique and expressive of the local community.”

via visualculture