In an effort to make New York City’s built environment “more livable and hospitable” the Department of Design and Construction (DDC), Health and Mental Hygiene, Transportation (DOT), and City Planning have developed the Active Design Guidelines: Promoting Physical Activity and Health in Design to be referenced in conjunction with the DOT’s Street Design Manual and other guidelines produced by NYC. The guidelines are written for urban planners, designers and architects and are driven by the need to address health concerns such as obesity and diabetes through intelligent design. Our built environments give us cues as to how to inhabit them and have tremendous effects, sometimes subconscious, on our lifestyles. Do you walk, drive, or bike to work? Do you take the stairs or the elevator? We make these types of decisions, which are largely based on comfort, on a daily basis. But the guidelines established in this manual are intended to give designers the tools to encourage healthy lifestyle choices to address the social concerns of NYC. So, what can planners, architects and designers do to create an active and healthy city? Find out after the break.
Since the nineteenth century, we have learned to combat infectious diseases. Preventative measures have proven effective: build better buildings and infrastructure, and incidents of infectious illnesses will decline. It happened in the 19th and early 20th centuries with cholera and tuberculosis. In this century, the diseases that we face are often self-inflicted. Chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and obesity all have roots in the sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices that many people have today.
