Children live here and now – places and spaces, safety and freedom, and all that society offers, empower children and form their lives as adults. This is true not least in healthcare, where designing with the child in mind means to design in a child-friendly but not in a childish way. We need to acknowledge that children are capable persons that care about their physical environment and have the right to be engaged and listened to in decisions regarding their wellbeing.
Additionally, children make no difference in various environments – they need to play, socialize, rest and be children wherever they are. The question for the seminar is how designers and the adult world respond to the needs of children and lessons learned from best practice in healthcare environments for children.
