Stimulating Active Usage of Open Spaces through Urban Acupuncture - Insights from Darmstadt,...
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Stimulating Active Usage of Open Spaces through Urban Acupuncture - Insights from Darmstadt, Germany Gladys Vasquez Fauggier, Marianne Halblaub Miranda, Martin Knöll Research Group Urban Health Games Technische Universität Darmstadt Background “Green and Blue Infrastructure” Sedentary behaviors are rising among the European population and Germany is not the exception (Knöll et al.,2017). Physical activity (PA) minimum levels are being barely reached by the German population. Only 39% of adults and 27.5% of children and adolescents reach the minimum standards of PA according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Moreover, it has been shown that performing PA in open spaces is even more beneficial. Increasing urbanization brings pressure on the urban land, the increase of housing and the decrease of free spaces for green, blue and public areas (See Figure 1 for German facts). This is a fact that threatens the accessibility of urban open public spaces, which play a great role in enhancing a healthy-behavior in city dwellers. This poster presents urban acupuncture as a strategy to make people aware of health benefits from a more active usage of green and blue infrastruc- ture. A New Health and Fitness Itinerary for Darmstadt Ost On this frame, we present a case study, part of PREHealth, an EU fun- ded research and action project, in which universities and planning de- partments of four European cities (Darmstadt, Athens, Eindhoven and Gyor) collaborate to promote a more active use in urban green spaces. The case study is in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, where a strategic plan called „Health and Fitness Itinerary “was developed in cooperation with the Municipality and urban interventions on the real space where tested in order to stimulate and activate deprived and depressed areas. The “Health and Fitness Itinerary” (HI) (See Figure 2) is conceived as a route that connects several open public spaces (with green and blue infrastructure) and offers the citizens the opportunity to be physically active (e.g. performing a sport, bicycling, etc.), to socialize and/or to rest and relax. Therefore, the HI has as main objective to be a route that offers health benefits to the citizens. Urban Acupuncture With the objective of impacting through education, a course was offered to architecture students. The students proposed creative, outstanding and feasible ideas on how to improve, stimulate and activate the east area of Darmstadt. The four best designs were selected, awarded and implemented (See Figure 3, 4, 5, and 6). As a result, four different temporary urban interventions (See Figure 2) were placed along the HI with the following objectives: • To connect the different open public spaces (the city center with the green spaces on the east) • To stimulate the area of the Kapellplatz and Woogsplatz which green spaces are currently underused, but bear considerable potential for PA. In detail, the following four projects can be seen: Backstage Gallery“ The historic city wall of the old town complex is a relic of Darmstadt history and is also the prelude to the route from Markt- platz to the eastern, green lung of the city. In order to promote attrac- tiveness for their residents and visitors of the open space, the existing spaces along the city wall are “stimulated” by a gallery with works of the local art scene, the BackStageGallery. „Altstadtwiese“ (Old tows) A street furniture, in the form of homemade “trees” as a quiet servant, equipped with picnic blankets, invites the ci- tizens to linger in order to activate the previously hardly used, inner-city open spaces. „Heiner Fit“ The project picks up on the idea of a fitness path and ad- apts it in a playful way and with a winking local color to the area. For example, stations such as “dry swimming” in front of a private swimming pool, “Jumping Jack” on the pedestrian bridge, or “Datterich Yoga” on the Datterich Fountain should activate the partially unused open spaces for a short period of time and revive them with humor. „Poof!“ Radiant yellow seats in city green – The poofs have a unique filling that makes them matter of discussion: Recycled remnants of pa- per from the Department of Architecture produce enough material for a seat. Lessons Learned The results of the case study could identify that dependent variables as age, education level, household situation and access to private garden were determinant on health-related behaviors of the population. Percei- ved benefits when visiting an open space are usually resting and rela- xing instead of being active. Moreover, in order to achieve changes on people´s behaviors, urban temporary interventions have been shown an effective and quick way to test different qualities of the space. This case study finds that, it is also important to support design and planning measures that include programs, activities, publicity, events, location based games and other soft measures due to their strong and positive effect. Therefore, it is imperative to call for more cooperation between different institutions and bodies to achieve better results on the field of urban pl- anning and health. Outlook Further development on signage and on the project “Heiner Fit” are pl- anned in collaboration with the city of Darmstadt. In addition, the same concept (stimulating) and strategy (urban acupuncture) will be applied in another area of the city of Darmstadt trying to better connect two dif- ferent green and blue infrastructures currently divided by a busy street. References Knöll, M. Halblaub Miranda, M. Vásquez Fauggier, G. Simons, M. van Wilgenburg, W. Dijst, M. Szörényiné Kukorelli, I. Honvari, P. Jóna, L. Tóth, P. Papageorgiou, F. Mylonas, D. Promoting education and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fitness (PREHealth) – The Need for Action in Planning, Policies and Education. International Synthesis Report. Technische Universität Darm- stadt, Fachbereich Architektur, Urban Health Games Group. Darmstadt, September, 2017. Available at www.prehealth.eu Knöll, M. Halblaub Miranda, M. Vasquez Fauggier, G. Promoting educa- tion and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fitness (PREHealth) –The Need for Action in Planning, Policies and Education. National Report Germany. Technische Univer- sität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Architektur, Urban Health Games Group. Darmstadt, September, 2017. Available at www.prehealth.eu Acknowledgments The present poster was founded by ERASMUS+ under the project “PRE- Health: Promoting education and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fitness”. We express our gratitude for their time and support to the study to: An- gela Eichenauer (Wissenschaftstadt Darmstadt), Britta Eiermann (Ex- perimental space design & artistic interventions & exhibition design), Verena Krekel, Katharina Eckert, Manuel Jacob, Stephan Bay, Astrid Weyand, Benjamin Bechtold, Emre Cinar, Lukas Fieger, Daniel Sossou, Katharina Münch, Sebastian Seibert, Louisa Wenkemann, Bastian Nis- pel and Anjuscha Hellog (Students of the Architecture Department). With some regularity (41%) never (29%) seldom(27%) regularly (7%) Source: Eurobarometer sports and physical activity , 2014 Source: Statische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder, 2015. How often do you exercise or play sport? Forest areas (30,64%) Traffic areas (5,07%) Built and free areas (7,02%) Urban recreational areas (1,25%) Water areas (2,39%) Agricultural areas (51,57%) Blue and Green Infrastructure in Germany Active Travel Active Recreation in Open Public Spaces Share of jouneys to work (%) by different transport modes Source: Eurostat, 2012 Where do you engage in sport or physical activity? Source: Eurobarometer sports and physical activity , 2014 Active Use of Green and Blue Infrastructure Fact Sheet for Germany 100 80 60 40 20 0 Germany Darmstadt By motorcycle By foot By bicycle By public transport By car at school or university 4% in Parks, outdoors etc. 42% at home 46% On the way between home and school / work etc. 27% at work 15% at Fitness center or Fitness club 42% don´t know 2% Elsewhere (spontaneous) 2% 67% 48% 25% 15% 10% 14% 9% 9% 1% 2% Figure 2: Temporary Interventions on the Health and Fitness Itinerary, Darmstadt Ost Figure 1: Active Use of Green and Blue Infrastructure, Germany. Source: (Knöll, et al., 2017). A. Backstage Gallery C. Heiner Fit D. Poof! B. Alstadtwiese PREHealth Figure 5: „Heiner Fit“ Photo: Kaußen, N. Figure 3: „Backstage Gallery“ Photo: Kaußen, N. Figure 4: „Altstadtwiese“ (Old town meadows) Photo: Kaußen, N. Figure 6: „Poof!“ Photo: Kaußen, N. A. B. C. D. www.prehealth.eu
Transcript of Stimulating Active Usage of Open Spaces through Urban Acupuncture - Insights from Darmstadt,...
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Stimulating Active Usage of Open Spaces through Urban Acupuncture - Insights from Darmstadt, Germany Gladys Vasquez Fauggier, Marianne Halblaub Miranda, Martin Knöll
Research Group Urban Health Games
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Background “Green and Blue Infrastructure” Sedentary behaviors are rising among the European population and Germany is not the exception (Knöll et al.,2017). Physical activity (PA) minimum levels are being barely reached by the German population. Only 39% of adults and 27.5% of children and adolescents reach the minimum standards of PA according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Moreover, it has been shown that performing PA in open spaces is even more benefi cial. Increasing urbanization brings pressure on the urban land, the increase of housing and the decrease of free spaces for green, blue and public areas (See Figure 1 for German facts). This is a fact that threatens the accessibility of urban open public spaces, which play a great role in enhancing a healthy-behavior in city dwellers. This poster presents urban acupuncture as a strategy to make people aware of health benefi ts from a more active usage of green and blue infrastruc-ture.
A New Health and Fitness Itinerary for Darmstadt OstOn this frame, we present a case study, part of PREHealth, an EU fun-ded research and action project, in which universities and planning de-partments of four European cities (Darmstadt, Athens, Eindhoven and Gyor) collaborate to promote a more active use in urban green spaces. The case study is in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, where a strategic plan called „Health and Fitness Itinerary “was developed in cooperation with the Municipality and urban interventions on the real space where tested in order to stimulate and activate deprived and depressed areas.The “Health and Fitness Itinerary” (HI) (See Figure 2) is conceived as a route that connects several open public spaces (with green and blue infrastructure) and offers the citizens the opportunity to be physically active (e.g. performing a sport, bicycling, etc.), to socialize and/or to rest and relax. Therefore, the HI has as main objective to be a route that offers health benefi ts to the citizens.
Urban AcupunctureWith the objective of impacting through education, a course was offered to architecture students. The students proposed creative, outstanding and feasible ideas on how to improve, stimulate and activate the east area of Darmstadt. The four best designs were selected, awarded and implemented (See Figure 3, 4, 5, and 6).As a result, four different temporary urban interventions (See Figure 2) were placed along the HI with the following objectives:• To connect the different open public spaces (the city center with the green spaces on the east)• To stimulate the area of the Kapellplatz and Woogsplatz which green spaces are currently underused, but bear considerable potential for PA.
In detail, the following four projects can be seen:
Backstage Gallery“ The historic city wall of the old town complex is a relic of Darmstadt history and is also the prelude to the route from Markt-platz to the eastern, green lung of the city. In order to promote attrac-tiveness for their residents and visitors of the open space, the existing spaces along the city wall are “stimulated” by a gallery with works of the local art scene, the BackStageGallery.
„Altstadtwiese“ (Old tows) A street furniture, in the form of homemade “trees” as a quiet servant, equipped with picnic blankets, invites the ci-tizens to linger in order to activate the previously hardly used, inner-city open spaces.
„Heiner Fit“ The project picks up on the idea of a fi tness path and ad-apts it in a playful way and with a winking local color to the area. For example, stations such as “dry swimming” in front of a private swimming pool, “Jumping Jack” on the pedestrian bridge, or “Datterich Yoga” on the Datterich Fountain should activate the partially unused open spaces for a short period of time and revive them with humor.
„Poof!“ Radiant yellow seats in city green – The poofs have a unique fi lling that makes them matter of discussion: Recycled remnants of pa-per from the Department of Architecture produce enough material for a seat.
Lessons LearnedThe results of the case study could identify that dependent variables as age, education level, household situation and access to private garden were determinant on health-related behaviors of the population. Percei-ved benefi ts when visiting an open space are usually resting and rela-xing instead of being active. Moreover, in order to achieve changes on people´s behaviors, urban temporary interventions have been shown an effective and quick way to test different qualities of the space. This case study fi nds that, it is also important to support design and planning measures that include programs, activities, publicity, events, location based games and other soft measures due to their strong and positive effect.Therefore, it is imperative to call for more cooperation between different institutions and bodies to achieve better results on the fi eld of urban pl-anning and health.
OutlookFurther development on signage and on the project “Heiner Fit” are pl-anned in collaboration with the city of Darmstadt. In addition, the same concept (stimulating) and strategy (urban acupuncture) will be applied in another area of the city of Darmstadt trying to better connect two dif-ferent green and blue infrastructures currently divided by a busy street.
ReferencesKnöll, M. Halblaub Miranda, M. Vásquez Fauggier, G. Simons, M. van Wilgenburg, W. Dijst, M. Szörényiné Kukorelli, I. Honvari, P. Jóna, L. Tóth, P. Papageorgiou, F. Mylonas, D. Promoting education and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fi tness (PREHealth) – The Need for Action in Planning, Policies and Education. International Synthesis Report. Technische Universität Darm-stadt, Fachbereich Architektur, Urban Health Games Group. Darmstadt, September, 2017. Available at www.prehealth.eu
Knöll, M. Halblaub Miranda, M. Vasquez Fauggier, G. Promoting educa-tion and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fi tness (PREHealth) –The Need for Action in Planning, Policies and Education. National Report Germany. Technische Univer-sität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Architektur, Urban Health Games Group. Darmstadt, September, 2017. Available at www.prehealth.eu
AcknowledgmentsThe present poster was founded by ERASMUS+ under the project “PRE-Health: Promoting education and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fi tness”.
We express our gratitude for their time and support to the study to: An-gela Eichenauer (Wissenschaftstadt Darmstadt), Britta Eiermann (Ex-perimental space design & artistic interventions & exhibition design), Verena Krekel, Katharina Eckert, Manuel Jacob, Stephan Bay, Astrid Weyand, Benjamin Bechtold, Emre Cinar, Lukas Fieger, Daniel Sossou, Katharina Münch, Sebastian Seibert, Louisa Wenkemann, Bastian Nis-pel and Anjuscha Hellog (Students of the Architecture Department).
With some regularity (41%)never (29%)seldom(27%)regularly (7%)
Source: Eurobarometer sports and physical activity , 2014
Source: Statische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder, 2015.
How often do youexercise or play sport?
Forest areas (30,64%)Traffic areas (5,07%)Built and free areas (7,02%)Urban recreational areas (1,25%)Water areas (2,39%)Agricultural areas (51,57%)
Blue and Green Infrastructurein Germany
Active Travel
Active Recreation in Open Public Spaces
Share of jouneys to work (%) by different transport modesSource: Eurostat, 2012
Where do you engage in sport or physical activity? Source: Eurobarometer sports and physical activity , 2014
Active Use of Green and BlueInfrastructureFact Sheet for Germany
100
80
60
40
20
0Germany Darmstadt
By motorcycleBy footBy bicycleBy public transportBy car
at school or university
4%
in Parks, outdoorsetc. 42%
at home46%
On the waybetween home
and school /work etc. 27%
at work15%
at Fitness centeror Fitness club
42%
don´t know2%
Elsewhere (spontaneous)
2%
67%
48%
25%
15%
10%
14%
9%
9%1% 2%
Learn more about the project at www.prehealth.eu
Suggested citation: Knöll, M. Halblaub Miranda, M. Vasquez Fauggier, G. Promoting education and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fitness (PREHealth) –The Need for Action in Planning, Policies and Education. National Report Germany. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Fachbereich Architektur, Urban Health Games Group. Darmstadt, September, 2017.
Figure 2: Temporary Interventions on the Health and Fitness Itinerary, Darmstadt Ost
Figure 1: Active Use of Green and Blue Infrastructure, Germany. Source: (Knöll, et al., 2017).
A. Backstage Gallery
C. Heiner FitD. Poof!
B. Alstadtwiese
PREHealth
Figure 5: „Heiner Fit“ Photo: Kaußen, N.Figure 3: „Backstage Gallery“ Photo: Kaußen, N. Figure 4: „Altstadtwiese“ (Old town meadows) Photo: Kaußen, N.
Figure 6: „Poof!“ Photo: Kaußen, N.
A. B. C. D.
www.prehealth.eu
