Smart Communities for Children and Play, with Natalia Krysiak

Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast, I have a wonderful conversation with Natalia Krysiak, a practicing architect at Hayball and the founder of Cities for Play. Natalia specialises in the design of child-oriented learning and play environments, and her area of research focuses on child-friendly cities and how the built environment can contribute to the health and wellbeing of children. In this episode, Natalia begins by telling us about her background in architecture, what inspired her to begin her organisation Cities for Play, and what a Smart Community means to her. Natalia then shares how she came to work in the Smart Communities space, before she discusses the importance of accommodating children's needs when designing and planning our built environments, as well as the importance of the physical and digital combinations in our communities. Natalia then shares with us some of her Churchill Fellow experiences, before discussing some examples she has seen in other countries of how children get to and from school. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of creating placemaking through play and creating play mapping in communities, as well as the benefits this has on our society. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community Connect with Natalia via Instagram: @citiesforplay Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital