Facilitating Freedom for All:
Building Cities for the next generation
Join us for an engaging online event, ‘Facilitating Freedom for All: Building Cities for the Next Generation’, taking place on the 21st of September at 5:30pm (uk time). In this 75-minute interactive session, a panel of industry experts will shed light on the crucial aspects of creating inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities for our future.
Our esteemed speakers will explore the transformative role of integrating diverse perspectives from young people, in the planning and development of cities. By amplifying their voices, we can shape urban spaces that cater to the needs and aspirations of the next generation.
Moreover, our experts will delve into the vital subject of making cities safer for children, addressing the challenges and solutions to create environments that empower and protect our young citizens.
In pursuit of environmentally conscious cities, the discussion will also focus on the pressing issue of air quality. We will explore strategies as well as existing case studies where successful interventions have been established to reduce air pollution and increase the quality of life.
Following the presentations, there will be an interactive Q&A session, offering attendees the opportunity to engage directly with our panel and exchange ideas. Don’t miss this remarkable event as we strive together to build cities that cater to the needs of the present while securing a promising future for generations to come.
Meet the Panel
Tim Gill
Tim is a global advocate for children’s outdoor play and mobility, and an independent scholar, writer, and consultant based in London. He is the author of Urban Playground: How child-friendly planning and design can save cities (RIBA Publications) and No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society (described in the New York Times as “a handbook for the movement for freer, riskier play”). A UK Design Council Ambassador and Churchill Fellow, Tim holds degrees in philosophy and psychology from Oxford and London Universities, and an honorary doctorate in education from Edge Hill University. His website is www.rethinkingchildhood.com.
Inés Novella Abril
Master in Architecture and in Equal Opportunities. Researcher and coordinator at the UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality Policies in Science, Technology and Innovation from UPM. Inés is an associate lecturer of Urban Planning at Universitat Politècnica de València. Her research focuses on gender-responsive spatial planning and design, and on structural change and gender policies in STEAM institutions. Consultant for the Spanish Government and several regional Administrations on gender in housing and spatial planning policies and legislation. She provides technical advice to ADIF (Administrator of Railway Infrastructures in Spain) and other engineering companies on how introducing gender criteria in railway infrastructures and station planning and design. Inés was part of the multidisciplinary technical office in charge of developing the masterplan for Madrid Nuevo Norte redevelopment project and she collaborates in several actions to keep the gender-sensitive approach of the project during its development phase. Author and co-author of different toolkits, articles and book chapters on gender in spatial planning, Inés is the Western Europe Area Editor of the Bloomsbury Global Encyclopaedia of Women in Architecture, to be published in late 2023. She has been in charge of designing and implementing a number of training courses on gender in STEAM fields targeting professionals, researchers and managers from both public and private institutions. Her participatory action research with women on safety in public space was selected for the Spanish Pavilion in the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Simeon Shtebunaev
Simeon is an interdisciplinary researcher in the built environment working at Social Life. Their PhD project at Birmingham City University explores how young people engage in the planning of future ‘smart’ cities. He was a principal investigator on the AHRC funded project ‘Are you game for climate action?‘ developing the board game Climania with young people focusing on the role of the built environment in climate change. Simeon was selected as the RIBAJ Rising Star 2021 and RTPI Young Planner of the Year 2022. He chairs the Cultural Infrastructure and Investment working group part of the WMCA Cultural Leadership Board.
Joni Baboci
Joni is an architect, planner and all-around urban enthusiast. He is the founder of Layer, a spatial orchestration platform with global data coverage which empowers teams to govern through tactics and patterns while leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence. He has previously served as the General Director of Planning and Urban Development for the City of Tirana and the director of Atelier Albania, a structure of the Albanian government dealing with national and regional strategic planning; Joni has executed planning, design & development projects at different scales at the national, regional and local levels. He consults on urbanism and planning for various cultural and multilateral institutions. Joni holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science degree in Cities from the London School of Economics. You can find more about him on his website joni.baboci.net & newsletter thinkthinkthink.substack.com.
