Architects who have looked at the issue of designing quality creches will speak at a conference in Kilkenny next month

With the cost of childcare now consuming a significant proportion of the income of Irish parents, a conference in Kilkenny next month will attempt to address one of the real issues - the quality of crèches and other facilities where kids will spend their formative years.

The Building for Children conference aims to deal with the planning, design and building of spaces for children and will even explore what input the kids themselves might put into the creation of the spaces where they are spending more and more of their time.

Organised by 11 city and county childcare committees, mainly in Dublin and the south-east, the conference will raise awareness on issues of best practice and will be of benefit to those involved in the childcare sector as well as architects, planners and local authority officials.

It will include a presentation of Pobal's soon-to-be-published resource pack on best practice in the design of childcare facilities as well as an exhibition of the latest designs, which will be opened by James Pike, president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI).

The all-day conference on Thursday, June 7th will be chaired by Frank McDonald, Environment Editor of The Irish Times, and the agenda will include keynote speeches and presentations from both Irish and overseas speakers with particular expertise in designing for children.

Speakers include Mark Dudek, author of Kindergarten Architecture; Italian architect Michele Zini, who specialises in designing for children; Brian O'Brien, of Solearth Architecture; landscape architect Feargus McGarvey, and Maureen Gilbert, from the Equality Authority.

Moira O'Mara, head of the Childcare Directorate at the office of Minister for Children Brian Lenihan TD, will also outline what is being done to ensure a supply of affordable, quality childcare facilities in Ireland, and the design standards they must reach to qualify for approval.

For more information on the Building for Children conference, consult its website, www.conferencepartners.ie/BFC2007, or contact Clare Kilmartin to register for it at 01 296 9393.