5 field trips showcasing ‘Children in the sustainable city’

Published on 28-03-2019 at 12:27

During the upcoming Child in the City International Seminar in Antwerp, Belgium five field trips have been planned. The field trips provide delegates with an opportunity to see first hand how the city of Antwerp engages with the seminar’s theme of ‘Children in the Sustainable city’.

Child in the City seminars and conferences brings together a global community that is interested in creating and maintaining child-friendly cities. The field trips allow delegates to exchange ideas and skills, and build collaborative networks.

The field trips

The first field trip takes place Monday morning on the 20th of May. Delegates will take a walking trip in the neighbourhood “Brederode” and reflect and discuss the steps to make public spaces more child-friendly. As well as the playspacewebs in Antwerp. Antwerp works on making childfriendly networks with safe and liveable connections between playgrounds, sports fields, parks, schools, and so on. work to n theis to the Brederode neighbourhood.

On the morning of the second and final day of the seminar, delegates will have the option of choosing a walking or cycling field trip. The walking field trip explores the neighbourhood “Sint-Andries”. This neighbourhood is working on a lot of experiments involving climate adaption. Most of the projects are about making resilient public space: like a garden street and community gardens. There is also a playspaceweb for the neighbourhood to ensure that Sint-Andries will not only become climate adaptive but also childfriendly.

For those interested in attending a cycling field trip they can choose one of the three options. The first heads to the city development “Groen Kwartier”. The “Groen Kwartier” is a city development project in the old military hospital. The project has become a new neighbourhood in the middle of the city with private and social housing, with a new park, greenery, and car-free streets. The neighbourhood has become a good example of a lot of themes such as densification and urban renewal. It is a nice place for families with children.

There is also a cycling trip through the neighbourhoods of “Oud Borgerhout” and “Antwerpen Noord”. These neighbourhoods have a high number of children and youngsters, are very diverse and dense, with a lack of greenery and open space. There have been a lot of projects to work increase the public space, road safety, and the child friendly factor. A very successful new park has been built with playgrounds, sports fields and a skate/BMXbowl: park Spoor Noord. These projects are so close together, that it gives you a good feeling what a playspaceweb could be in reality.

The last cycling field trip is to the neighbourhoods “’t Eilandje” and the “Park Spoor Noord.” The neighbourhood “’t Eilandje” is a very large city development project in the old harbour of the city Antwerp. The harbour became deserted and is now an example of slow urbanism. It’s expected to grow up to 20.000 inhabitants. The goal is also to attract families with children. The trip will include a visit to the expo “Antwerp Tomorrow” about the spatial structural plan at the famous museum ‘MAS’. After a visit through the streets and past the old docks, we will go through the new park Spoor Noord. The park is newly built at an old railway site.

In order to ensure the best experience for delegates, each field trip is limited to a certain number of participants. Which is why delegates are encouraged to start signing up for a field trip now. Once you are registered for the seminar you can sign up for the field trips.

Feature Image: Park Spoor Noord – Antwerpen. CC Flickr/Maurice Weststrate.