Building for the Future
An advocacy document produced by the Architecture Centre in 2008.
Every Child Matters: Change for Children is a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from birth to age 19. The Government’s aim is for every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, to have the support they need to:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic well being
‘This means that the organisations involved with providing services to young people will be teaming up in new ways, sharing information and working together, to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what they want in life. Children and young people will have far more say about issues that affect them as individuals and collectively’.
Every Child Matters: Change for Children – DFSC (2005)
Involving children and young people in the creative industries, including the design of buildings and spaces, can have a positive impact on children’s lives, raising their aspirations, their self-esteem, and creativity.
The built environment can be used to support the formal school curriculum and make connections between schools, young people and the wider community. Involving children and young people in design decisions about the places in which they live, learn and play can help produce inspiring buildings that are respected, induce a sense of ownership and community, and are fit for purpose.
The work that is carried out by artists, architects and built environment educationalists with, and for, children and young people can make a significant contribution to their personal and social well-being, their creative development, their understanding of the world around them, and their ability to learn and communicate with confidence.
Download Building for the Future to see how Architecture and Built Environment Centres (ABECs) such as The Architecture Centre in Bristol, can use built environment education as a valuable and creative means of meeting the important Every Child Matters agenda.
Building for the future
Read our built environment education advocacy document Building for the Future
