The research of play, sports, landscaping and technology shows concrete results when the municipality of Herlev over the next years will turn a number of visions into reality. The visions are a result of a development project where researchers, architects,and the municipality, in cooperation with The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities, have developed new physical and interactive movement and exercise routes with the Center for Playware as building advisor.
The combination of sports, exercise and digital technology is a new and untested field, nationally as well as internationally, and the development project is the first of its kind in Denmark. The concept contains a number of concrete proposals, in which new technology and physical installations are used as motivational factors and initiators, both for supporting active practitioners of sports, and to motivate more people to be active, especially children and youngsters.
The project is an essential part of the health strategy “The good life” in the municipality of Herlev. One of the goals of the strategy is: “In order to prevent the growing tendency of obesity in the population and other life style related diseases, especially among children, is must be easy and fun to get exercise in Herlev”.
The professional basis for the project is a number of research and development projects carried out by the Center for Playware, at Forrest and Landscape, University of Copenhagen, and in The Consortium for Sports and Play Landscapes of the Future, as cooperation between a number of research institutions and companies with expertise within the field of sports, room, physical play and technology – all under the management of the house of consultants “Monday Morning”.
Furthermore, the project has its background in experiences made by Bisgaard Landscape as primary councilor in the extensive renovation of Fælledparken which the municipality of Copenhagen carries out.
In the shaping of the concrete proposals, experiences from user-surveys and previous development projects on landscapes, movement and digital technology are included. E.g. the Center for Playware has gathered information and experiences from the cooperation with Danish companies on the development of digital playground equipment. Likewise, Forrest and Landscape holds the knowledge of the relationship between public outdoor spaces, the culture of exercise and movement, and architecture included in the project.
The proposed solutions combine research-based knowledge with solid experiences on outdoor spaces and its users, as well as knowledge of the new technology. They are unique, independent solutions, which combine landscapes and user-needs with technology – from mobile phones over GPS technology, to RFID that are advanced and innovative while, at the same time, easily accessible for the population and a reliable part of everyday use.