Towards A Healthy City By Foot | Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners

Winner of the 2021 WLA Awards – Award of Excellence – Conceptual Design

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Infrastructural vs Experience
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The Journey Approach

Walking has great potential. It may not be the fastest, and as some may say not the most comfortable way to get around, but it is the only type of movement which doesn’t require a vehicle. By walking more, we limit the influence of our movements on the environment. As a result, creating room for walking frees up space in the city, which can be used to tackle diverse social and environmental challenges. Oddly enough, the pedestrian is often forgotten in the design of our public spaces. This research project provides insight into the potential benefits of walking, and identifies the design tasks within our built environment to realize these benefits.

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The Walkable City

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The Walkable City

The 20th century was without a doubt the century of the automobile. Mass production of cars had revolutionized mobility and represented a milestone in the democratization of transport. The pursuit of speed and individual freedom has led to a spatial layout that follows the logic of the car. This legacy is still visible in our urban environment today. Cities are still largely organized to get from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible. The research proposes a method to transform an infrastructure network into a functional experiential landscape. A walkable city where the journey is as important as the destina­tion, recognizes local streets, green-blue networks, neighborhood services and amenities, schools, urban plazas, and public transport stations as the structural elements for a walk­ing operational journey, rather than limiting the walking realm to sidewalks parallel to car infrastructure.

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Walking With Covid-19

In a timeframe of changing mobility, walking can act as a catalyst to realize various gov­ernmental agendas. Strategies for climate adaptation, emission reduction, safety, densi­fication and population growth can be linked in the space that is freed up by the increase of walking. Under the burden of the current global pandemic, cities around the world could benefit from walking as a catalyst for the organization of their public space. The measures to counter the spread of the corona virus have changed our daily lives. Many people started working from home and now move mostly within their own neighborhood, either on foot or by bicycle. As a result of this change, people are valuing green in their direct envi­ronment more and more. In a walkable city human scale is normative, physical activity is stimulated and space for social interaction is created. The walkable city shares a design brief with that of a sustainable and healthy city that can help improve the health, climate adaptation and social inclusivity within our cities.

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Walking Individual Dimension
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Walking Community Dimension
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Walking Society Dimension
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Test Case – Rotterdam Roads and Places
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Testcase – Rotterdam Oude Western District
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Testcase – Rotterdam Oude Western District

Towards A Healthy City By Foot

Location: The Netherlands

Landscape Architect: Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners

Felixx Team: Michiel van Driessche, Marnix Vink, Deborah Lambert, Eduardo Marin Salinas, Elan Redekop van der Meulen, Cherk Ga Leung

Stipo Team: Sander van der Ham (City Psychologist & Advisor)

Client: College of Government Advisors

Image Credits: Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners

About Damian Holmes 3401 Articles
Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture (WLA). He is a registered landscape architect (AILA) working in international design practice in Australia. Damian founded WLA in 2007 to provide a website for landscape architects written by landscape architects. Connect on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianholmes/