Urban design and planning

Louise Kielgast, Gehl Architects
 
Context: health and urban planning

Historically, many of the health problems that people in cities experienced were related to the standards of the built environment. Cities had poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of light and fresh air caused rampant disease and illness. While poor sanitary conditions continue in cities around the world, many current diseases and health problems – such as child obesity – are not related to the buildings themselves, but more to the ways streets and public spaces are designed and planned. The planning and design of cities have a great impact on aspects such as noise levels, pollution, sedentary behaviours, CO2 emissions and so on. These, in turn, impact human health in negative ways.

This important relationship between the planning and design of the built environment and people’s health conditions is widely recognised within our profession. But the health challenge is not the only important issue for urban planners and designers. Addressing health challenges is competing with many other agendas, such as economic development, city attractiveness, social sustainability, security and climate adaptation.

As practitioners in urban design and planning, our work at Gehl is centred around making better cities for people. It’s through this people-centred approach we seek to demonstrate how making cities more liveable may also contribute towards more sustainable, attractive and healthy cities. This approach is based on decades of studies on human behaviour in cities – how people move about and choose to spend time in public spaces. From observing human behaviour, our experience is that safe and liveable urban environments are not about separating and segregating functions throughout the city. Rather, by mixing, integrating and gathering functions close to each other we see urban areas attract a wider range of age groups, including children – not least because people are generally attracted to the presence of other people. The possibility of watching and perhaps interacting with other people has proven to be a great attractor.

Obesity on the agenda in urban planning: inspiration from research

Child obesity as a specific health issue is to a large extent addressed through the lens of people’s physical activity patterns, based on the knowledge produced in the health sector that physical inactivity constitutes one of the important determinants of obesity. This focus on physical activity features strongly in the field of urban design too, in terms of planning for people’s mobility – whether in a car, by public transport, on foot or by bicycle.

Consequently, urban designers and planners rely heavily on research and data collected in the field of transportation, such as modal split numbers, but are equally influenced by public health research. For example, some research concludes that inactive lifestyles are increasing at an enormous rate in most parts of the world, not least among children. There are worrying examples of children spending up to 17 hours a week in front of a screen, compared to 8.8 hours playing outside.

The alarming global trends of sedentary lifestyles have, in recent years, resulted in more public health research on the possible effect of the built environment on physical activity and obesity. This research motivates the planning profession to promote urban environments that are more conducive to active mobility (walking and cycling). Furthermore, the following factors affect people’s physical activity levels: sprawl (resulting in increasing motorised transport), population density, building density, density of public transport, mixture of land use and the presence of green areas, such as parks. Other more specific design aspects that have an influence on physical activity include pavements, streetlights and cul-de-sacs.

In addition to working with the physical dimensions of the built environment, urban designers and planners are inspired by the public health research which has demonstrated great health disparities and health inequalities in cities. Such research suggests that social factors are equally important to address if obesity rates are to be reduced. In the field of urban planning these insights have led to an increased focus on health equity.

Nature of actions in the field of urban design and planning

Based on the above insights, our profession understands that adequately addressing the challenge of child obesity requires working with planning at multiple scales (policy, strategic planning, zoning, masterplanning, and concrete street and public space design), as well as understanding the role of both the so-called ‘hardware’ (streets, squares, buildings) and ‘software’ (political leadership, campaigns etc).

In addition to these general planning principles, more and more planners work to address the challenge of health inequality. This means, for example, acknowledging that the most deprived urban areas generally also suffer from a lack of public spaces and local parks suited for and welcoming to children. Upgrading public spaces in these areas is likely to have a big impact in encouraging more people to spend time outside and for longer periods of time.

At Gehl, we conduct observational studies of how people make use of public space. We have gained important qualitative insights into what motivates people to walk, cycle and spend time in public spaces, thus making the argument for more people-centred planning principles. An example is the recurrent planning principle of ‘density’. From a child’s perspective, it is particularly relevant to plan for better proximity – proximity between home and school, proximity to potential friends, proximity to recreational areas (such as sports facilities and parks), proximity to local shopping. These are all things that will encourage more families, and thus children, to make more active mobility choices – thereby reducing the risk of obesity. These types of insights are used in various planning stages, from input during visioning processes through to concrete design ideas and pilot projects.

Areas of intervention to address child obesity

Addressing child obesity within the field of urban planning implies action at many levels, as exemplified by the following intervention areas.

  • Play areas for social interaction close to home Strong social ties have a positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing, including physical activity and obesity. How can social interactions and ties be made possible from an early age? As time is a scarce resource in many families today, one intervention could be to make children less dependent on the presence of adults and create environments where they can move and play more freely close to home. This may include residential buildings with activated courtyards overseen by parents from inside, or traffic calming measures on the street, which allow children to go out and explore on their own as they get older.
  • Safe commuting routes To design cities for children, we must also consider their commuting experience and what makes for a safe route. How are public spaces, crossings and speed policies integrated into certain routes? Safe roads affect how children use and play in the city – and can increase how much they walk and cycle. This is illustrated in Copenhagen, where pavements are continued across side streets without interruptions in the paving, to give pedestrians priority. In addition, playful streets can impact the whole journey. By adding playful elements to the streetscape, walking and cycling in the city can become more inviting to children.

Conclusion: more quality based metrics in the planning of the built environment

While general urban planning principles such as density, connectivity and presence of green areas are likely to affect levels of physical activity, we at Gehl have learned that such quantitative measures cannot stand alone. They must be accompanied by qualitative measures that support people’s needs and behaviours and take into account people’s experiences of the public realm. This implies asking a different set of questions. Does population density really foster social interaction? Are the pavements in a good condition to walk on – including for children? What is the actual walking or cycling distance to get to the park? Is the park well maintained and pleasant to spend time in? By asking questions such as these, and acting on them, we can begin to achieve positive built environments as a catalyst for human health.


2 Modal split is the percentage of travellers using a particular type of transportation or the number of trips using said type.

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