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The Leisure Media Company Ltd | Fit Tech promotion
The Leisure Media Company Ltd | Fit Tech promotion
The Leisure Media Company Ltd | Fit Tech promotion
features

Active streets: Power to the people

The opportunities to be active on our streets are dwindling because of the priority given to cars above pedestrians. Riccardo Marini, director at urban quality consultants Gehl Architects, is one architect working to reverse this trend. Kath Hudson reports

Published in Health Club Management 2015 issue 4

What’s your approach to architecture?
Architecture should be about people before buildings. Offer the right lifestyle choices and you’ll get the right health outcomes: if places are designed with people in mind, people will be healthier.

The problem is, the bureaucratic systems we’ve created in the name of efficiency have destroyed the kind of places that bring joy to our hearts. We’re using technology to make everything as efficient as possible, whereas the path to health, happiness, wealth and wellbeing is one that puts people, culture and art central to the planning process.

The way cities are designed today is also contributing to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle among the public. We’re making it more difficult to navigate cities by foot and bike, and our consequent reliance on cars and technology takes away the everyday opportunities for exercise, such as going to the shops for groceries.

How can architecture and design help people to be active?
Copenhagen is a great example of this. People living in Copenhagen think it’s natural to cycle to work, school or the pub, whether it’s sunny, raining or minus 4 degrees centigrade. Research has shown this is because it’s considered the easiest and most efficient mode of transport. Cycling is integrated with other forms of transport: you can take bikes onto trains and the underground and taxis have cycle racks. It’s not rocket science or magic: if you make it easy to walk and cycle, then people will do it.

The next stage for Copenhagen is to tackle suburbia: encouraging people to cycle to the station, get on the train and pick up a hire bike in the city.

Can existing environments be enhanced and improved?
Most definitely. In the 1960s, Copenhagen was pursuing the American dream and was a sea of cars, but they realised this wasn’t the way to go from a quality of life point of view. For the past 40 years, they’ve been trying to reverse this mentality. It can happen anywhere – there just needs to be the political will and some skill and understanding.

What in your view are the barriers to change?
The usual criticism is that the city will die without cars, and people won’t want to do business there. Our counter-argument is that global companies like Google want to put offices in places which are liveable, so they can retain staff. Cars don’t make places liveable.

Can you give an example of bad design in a city?
I always compare Manhattan and Dubai. I love New York, which takes its roots from European cities. On the other hand, Dubai has taken the American dream but without the essential DNA of streets, pavements, public spaces and active shop fronts. A fake environment has been created where you go from air-conditioned car to air-conditioned mall; street life does not exist. Shade should have been designed in to make people want to be in the streets.

How can the health club industry make sure it’s not contributing to this problem?
Health clubs have to be careful they don’t offer a big shiny box that people can only drive to. They need to be located in areas where there’s footfall, or find ways of encouraging people to visit in an active way, like cycling.
Also, clubs can and should be social hubs that bring life to the communities where they’re located, encouraging people to exercise in the streets, parks and pedestrian areas around the club – whether on their own or in group activities organised by the club.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
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features

Active streets: Power to the people

The opportunities to be active on our streets are dwindling because of the priority given to cars above pedestrians. Riccardo Marini, director at urban quality consultants Gehl Architects, is one architect working to reverse this trend. Kath Hudson reports

Published in Health Club Management 2015 issue 4

What’s your approach to architecture?
Architecture should be about people before buildings. Offer the right lifestyle choices and you’ll get the right health outcomes: if places are designed with people in mind, people will be healthier.

The problem is, the bureaucratic systems we’ve created in the name of efficiency have destroyed the kind of places that bring joy to our hearts. We’re using technology to make everything as efficient as possible, whereas the path to health, happiness, wealth and wellbeing is one that puts people, culture and art central to the planning process.

The way cities are designed today is also contributing to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle among the public. We’re making it more difficult to navigate cities by foot and bike, and our consequent reliance on cars and technology takes away the everyday opportunities for exercise, such as going to the shops for groceries.

How can architecture and design help people to be active?
Copenhagen is a great example of this. People living in Copenhagen think it’s natural to cycle to work, school or the pub, whether it’s sunny, raining or minus 4 degrees centigrade. Research has shown this is because it’s considered the easiest and most efficient mode of transport. Cycling is integrated with other forms of transport: you can take bikes onto trains and the underground and taxis have cycle racks. It’s not rocket science or magic: if you make it easy to walk and cycle, then people will do it.

The next stage for Copenhagen is to tackle suburbia: encouraging people to cycle to the station, get on the train and pick up a hire bike in the city.

Can existing environments be enhanced and improved?
Most definitely. In the 1960s, Copenhagen was pursuing the American dream and was a sea of cars, but they realised this wasn’t the way to go from a quality of life point of view. For the past 40 years, they’ve been trying to reverse this mentality. It can happen anywhere – there just needs to be the political will and some skill and understanding.

What in your view are the barriers to change?
The usual criticism is that the city will die without cars, and people won’t want to do business there. Our counter-argument is that global companies like Google want to put offices in places which are liveable, so they can retain staff. Cars don’t make places liveable.

Can you give an example of bad design in a city?
I always compare Manhattan and Dubai. I love New York, which takes its roots from European cities. On the other hand, Dubai has taken the American dream but without the essential DNA of streets, pavements, public spaces and active shop fronts. A fake environment has been created where you go from air-conditioned car to air-conditioned mall; street life does not exist. Shade should have been designed in to make people want to be in the streets.

How can the health club industry make sure it’s not contributing to this problem?
Health clubs have to be careful they don’t offer a big shiny box that people can only drive to. They need to be located in areas where there’s footfall, or find ways of encouraging people to visit in an active way, like cycling.
Also, clubs can and should be social hubs that bring life to the communities where they’re located, encouraging people to exercise in the streets, parks and pedestrian areas around the club – whether on their own or in group activities organised by the club.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

The team is young and ambitious, and the awareness of technology is very high. We share trends and out-of-the-box ideas almost every day
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

Our results showed a greater than 60 per cent reduction in falls for individuals who actively participated in Bold’s programme
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

My vision was to create a platform that could improve the sport for lifters at all levels and attract more people, similar to how Strava, Peloton and Zwift have in other sports
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features