People have increasingly sedentary lifestyles leading to a multitude of health issues, also because playing in the build environment becomes increasingly difficult and unattractive. This is particularly so for young children and pupils in prevocational education. In this project you will find solutions to reverse the trend of physical inactivity in these two target groups to bring homo ludens back to life.
Playing and an active lifestyle is crucial for the development of young children. Early play sets the stage for a longstanding active and healthy life. Still, places for free play have diminished over the years, and children spent an increasing amount of time in sedentary activities, such as screen time. In this project you will find solutions to reverse this trend together with two clients.
First, the municipality of Nijmegen has constructed a number of playgrounds and play facilities to promote playing outside. As of yet, there are a lot of unknowns, such as: how often, and in what way are these playgrounds used, how to best promote their use, how to best design them, what legal issues are effective?
Second, schools in prevocational educational areas encounter an increasingly inactive student population. Activities to increase active play and active behavior have thus far not been very effective. What can be done to reverse this? A recent study at the Mondial college in Nijmegen showed for example that community building in students in combination with facilities to be active had positive effects. Still, questions remain such as: how can playgrounds be made more attractive for play, how can active transport to and from school be promoted, what social aspects play a role?
Together, these two clients have a similar challenge: how to promote active living and play, via changes in the built (and social) environment.
Clients
There are two clients in this project: the municipality of Nijmegen and Mondial college (prevocational education). The municipality’s primary aim (and assignment by the government) is to promote vitality of their citizens via changes in the built (and social) environment. Mondial college is a so-called ‘healthy school’ which implies that they have to promote health and wellbeing of their students. Both clients face this multidisciplinary challenge. Contacts with both clients are already present such that collaboration is facilitated.
Assignment
The ultimate goal of this project is to reverse the inactivity trend in the next generation. Together with both clients you will work on effective and feasible solutions that likely involve a multitude of perspectives, from spatial planning, legal issues, health aspects, communication, and pedagogical and psychological aspects.
Kick-off weekend
The kick-off weekend of this project impact will be on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 October 2025. The kick-off weekend is a mandatory part of the project impact.
Weekly meetings
The weekly meetings start after the kick-off weekend and will take place on Monday evenings from 18:30-20:30 unless the group decides otherwise in consultation with the supervisors. The supervisors attend the meetings once every three weeks.
Study trip
A study trip of three or four days is also part of this project impact. The dates and location will be determined in consultation with the group.