Active Design Strategies: Definition and Perspective
The concept of ‘active design’ comes up in the contemporary debate around designing interiors, buildings, and communities that prioritize human health and well-being and how to get healthy by active design. Active buildings provide opportunities for activity inside and around buildings, enhancing the overall active design strategy.
Active design strategies exist to aid a healthy lifestyle and can include dedicated bicycle pathways, bike-sharing schemes, and micro-parks designed to reduce air pollution levels.
Here is a short introduction to this innovative new approach combining fitness, design, and architecture elements.
Active Design Definition and Why Do We Need it?
Unless you have been living under a duvet for the last decade, you’ll have heard mention of the lifestyle disease epidemic affecting the Western world.
Physical inactivity, poor diet, and smoking are one side of the coin, while obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and chronic heart disease are the other.
Together, they are putting unprecedented pressure on state healthcare systems already close to buckling with limited resources. As governments have sought ways to improve the situation, active design has become a rallying cry for health-conscious city planners, architects, and interior designers aiming to prevent ‘rather’ than ‘cure’.
Creating opportunities for sport and physical activity is essential in active design, as it promotes regular physical activity in daily life and encourages healthier living spaces.
Active Design Definition
As a set of building and planning principles, active designs exist to aid a healthy lifestyle - the principles of active design promote physical activity by immersing them into everyday activities.
Why Do We Need Active Design?
Human Sustainability
Human sustainability lies at the heart of the active design movement, emphasizing individuals’ long-term well-being and vitality within the built environment. Technologies and materials such as in-floor radiant heating, low-emission interior materials, heat recovery ventilation systems, and high-efficiency HVAC systems are crucial in maintaining healthier indoor air.
Active design integrates principles that encourage physical activity, social interaction, and mental well-being, addressing diverse needs and promoting overall health and quality of life.
By prioritizing human sustainability through active design, communities can create environments that foster healthier lifestyles, stronger social connections, and greater resilience to environmental and societal challenges, thus promoting resource efficiency and optimizing energy consumption.
Healthy Placemaking through Active Building Design
Examples of creating a healthy community or healthy city include dedicated bicycle pathways and bike-sharing schemes to reduce car use and lower pollution levels while encouraging physical activity. Achieving superior indoor air quality through active building design is crucial for occupant health and comfort.
The difference between passive and active design can be seen in the strategic use of landscaping that helps create attractive walkways that encourage walking and interaction outdoors - New York’s now legendary Highline being one obvious example, unlike passive design that is mainly focused on building orientation in a way that takes advantage of the climate the most.
Active design building encourages physical activity
One of the significant benefits of active designs is that it encourages physical activity. Additionally, mechanical systems such as air conditioning play a crucial role in maintaining comfort and energy efficiency in these buildings.
Stairwell prompts in office and residential buildings can make the difference between using an elevator 20 times per day to go from ground to the first floor versus burning an additional 200 total calories taking the stairs.
Something as simple as a notice adjacent to a stairwell entrance can be enough to encourage greater stair use; such prompts need to be easily visible and graphically engaging.
Incorporating showers, changing rooms, lockers, and bike racks in office buildings for workers also encourages cycling to work and lunchtime jogs or workouts.
Nature contact thanks to active building design
Active building design mainly refers to public landscaping, city centre micro-parks to reduce air pollution levels, and other opportunities to connect with nature in an urban environment. As part of renewable energy sources, wind energy is also utilized in active building design to harness the movement of air using turbines or windmills.
These have all been shown to help reduce anxiety, promote a sense of vitality, and restore nature-connectedness for improved mental well-being, even in relatively short periods.
A series of micro-parks in London, UK, was designed to offer small doses of nature in a densely urban context surrounded by office high-rises and encourage active sustainable design in natural surroundings.
How did we get here?
In the last half-century, the nature of work has fundamentally shifted. No longer are the majority of people toiling in fields, or doing manual labour in factories, the new normal is to be in an office all day, at a desk, in front of a screen, with or without a natural light source nearby.
From a meta-history perspective, this is far from the evolutionary correct norm our bodies were built for. ‘Active design' is a way to incorporate activity prompts and hacks into the built environment to combat the risk of endless hours of sitting.
Active design & ‘the sitting problem
A ‘nature knows best' health philosophy provides a clear set of guidelines when addressing lifestyle issues, such as whether sitting is the new smoking, as the media dubbed it.
Here, we combine evolution-based thinking with active design principles to explore the topic of 21st-century sedentary living.
Less physical activity at work
Physical activity, once intimately connected with our daily lives going back to hunter-gatherer times, is no longer a fundamental part of work for many of us, let alone home life, which is something the rise of active design is about to change. Ventilation systems that supply continuous fresh air, such as Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) and Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) systems, play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy work environment.
One recent study shows that this equates to a reduction in calorie consumption of around 100 calories/day in the US and can, therefore, be linked to a ‘significant portion’ of the increase in mean body mass across the US population in the past 50 years. In other words, the US population is getting more obese because it spends less time moving.
Physical inactivity at home
The dominance of televisions and computers during free time at home contributes to the average person’s total time sitting down, not expending any energy each day. Implementing drain water heat recovery systems can capture excess heat lost down the drain, saving energy and promoting a more efficient home environment.
Overall, this equates to a massive problem of physical inactivity in both junior and adult populations in the Western world, and that, put, is bad news for obesity levels, diabetes, and heart disease.
Lower back pain in office workers
Prolonged periods of sitting directly impact hip mobility while also being a major cause of lower back pain, which is why an active design perspective has introduced sit-stand desks in offices to help with the pain. This process saves energy by reducing the need for heating and cooling adjustments, as employees are more active and generate less heat.
Even sitting for shorter periods is an improvement, where ‘active design’ tactics that encourage small movement snacks during the day can provide a solution.
Sit-stand desks in healthy offices - products of active design
Sit-stand desks are a real example of what an active design perspective can do for your health, especially in the workplace. Energy recovery ventilation systems also play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy office environment by supplying continuous fresh air and pre-conditioning it to save energy. Products such as the Human Scale desk converter help encourage a combination of sitting and standing at work, allowing the desk owner to adjust desk height at will throughout the day.
Most people will find the afternoons tiring after a full morning on their feet, so a mobility ball under the desk can help, as can the option to move elsewhere in the office to change position for a while. It is all about mixing things up according to the work type.
A Cochrane review of existing research showed that the main benefit of investing in one of these desks, or an extension for an existing desk, is to reduce the total amount of time an office worker spends sitting down during their workday as well as to reduce the number of sitting bouts over 30 minutes in duration.
Our anecdotal evidence of using them for the past six years is that they make a massive difference for lower back pain sufferers, removing the issue from the equation for as long as one can stay off the chair. Mix that with a core strength and mobility exercise program, and it will be a winning formula. We’ve tried it, changed our habits, and will never return.
Lifestyle Exercise at Work - more active design applications
Lifestyle exercise is also part of the active design perspective. It encourages office workers to integrate short periods of low to moderate activity into their day, the idea being to cumulatively piece together a meaningful amount of movement through a combination of trips to the water cooler, up and down stairs, for a walk around the block, and so on over the day.
Think of the often-quoted “10,000 steps” concept.
Signage prompts in Office Active Design
Simple signage prompts are a seemingly obvious yet remarkably effective way of encouraging office workers to stay active, use the stairs, and say no to the elevator, assuming a reasonable number of floors are required!
We hope that by learning more active design, you'll gain clearer insight and wish to incorporate it into your lifestyle or workplace. Active design concepts have numerous positive effects, not just on your body but also on your overall health, not to mention that productivity and focus feel positive.
Active Design Strategies to Promote Physical Activity and Wellness
In today’s sedentary world, active design has become increasingly relevant in promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyles. Active design strategies also include using solar thermal panels as part of renewable energy systems to achieve energy-efficient buildings. Active design strategies aim to integrate fitness and wellness into the built environment, including buildings, interiors, and communities.
By incorporating active design principles such as bike paths, stair prompts, and sit-stand desks, designers and architects can encourage physical activity and combat the risk of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and chronic heart disease. By promoting more active and healthier lifestyles, active design is an essential step toward improving public health and well-being.
The Importance of Active Design in All Design Projects
Active design is not limited to fitness and wellness-oriented projects but should be considered in all design projects. Designers and architects must recognize the built environment's impact on human health and well-being. Incorporating active decoration and design principles such as natural light, ventilation, and access to green spaces can improve mental and physical health, productivity, and overall well-being.
As we face challenges with sedentary lifestyles and lifestyle diseases, active design is vital to modern design practices. It should be a fundamental consideration in all projects.
If you want to know more about how we can help you design a healthier, more active office, contact us via email at design @biofilico.com