 |
Do Our Cities Make Us Fat?In the week when Britain was branded the fattest nation in Europe, CABE is arguing that the design of our cities can really improve our levels of physical activity.
In a new report, Physical activity and the built environment, CABE says that a quarter of adults are obese, with two thirds of men and three quarters of women not taking enough exercise.
The report points out that most sustained exercise is taken just doing everyday activities, such as travelling to work or going to the shops, rather than specifically to get fit.
Cities therefore need to be designed to make it easy for people to walk or cycle.
Similarly, the quality of parks affects how much they are used for physical exercise, and how much people choose to incorporate them in walking or cycling routes.
And offices can be designed to support healthy activity, for example by including showers and secure parking for bikes.
If towns and cities feel and look good, the more people will choose to walk and cycle.
So with billions of pounds being spent on new homes, schools and public spaces around the country, it seems we have a golden opportunity at the moment to make healthy behaviour an easy and attractive option.
more: www.cabe.org.uk/default.aspx?cont... (149)
design directory:
CABE > Architecture Resources
bookmark: 
12/10/2006 | Viewed 13,685 time(s)
|
|
