Active by Design
- £900mIn the UK the direct financial cost of physical inactivity to the NHS is estimated as £900m.*P Scarborough et al. (2011) The economic burden of ill health due to diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol and obesity in the UK
- 9minsA quarter of British adults now walk for less than nine minutes a day – including time spent getting to the car, work and the shops.*YouGov poll for UK charity Ramblers (2013)
- 68%68% of men and 58% of women in England are overweight or obese.*The Health and Social Care Information Centre (2012) Statistics on obesity, physical activity and diet: England.
Active by Design is the Design Council’s response to the current major health crisis caused by many people’s very low levels of activity, and a lack of access to healthy food.
Active by Design builds on government and health research showing that people’s well-being and quality of life can be improved through designing better buildings and public spaces in cities and towns. Through Active by Design we hope to find new ways to connect our planning system, health services and the built environment sector in ways that have not been done before.
We will achieve this by providing guidance and support to a wide variety of built environment professionals, including town planners, architects, landscape architects, developers, buildings managers, transport planners, public health professionals, leisure and parks professionals, and employers.
The Design Council aims to bring these different disciplines together to help improve the health of the nation.
You can now download our short guide Active by Design: Designing places for healthier lives.
We invite anyone who is interested to get in touch and register forour conference this September.
To find out more about Active by Design, join our mailing list or contact the project team.
Read our Active by Design guide: Designing places for healthier lives.
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