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Obesity and the built environment

Turning the Tide

Obesity is a significant health challenge that relates to the built environment. The design of buildings, neighbourhoods and cities can create places where people can balance physical activity with a healthy diet. Being overweight may also be linked to sleep and stress, and the built environment can also help with these areas of our lives.

I was delighted to contribute to the new Obesity Health Alliance report ‘Turning the Tide: A 10-year Healthy Weight Strategy’ as an expert advisor with Julia Thrift and Michael Chang. We reviewed evidence and drafted content for Chapter 6 ‘The environment around us’.

This report provides many clear recommendations for policy-makers and I’m particularly pleased that our point about the purpose of planning being to support public health was included.

Read ‘Turning the Tide: A 10-Year Healthy Weight Strategy‘

Read the ‘Summary for Policy-Makers‘

Published September 2021

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Via Verde

Via Verde Housing Complex, Bronx, NY - Designed by Grimshaw Architects and Dattner Architects.

The Via Verde project was a response to several challenges for the South Bronx community of New York City: lack of high-quality affordable housing and high rates of asthma and obesity. Delivered through a public-private partnership with a complex financing model, Via Verde offers affordable high-quality homes for a broad range of income levels. Based on existing case study reports, its most successful features are the health-focused amenities and sustainable design, alongside the project’s value in changing perceptions about high-rise housing in America.

Green roofs and food gardens are planted on the rooftops of each building – the organising design feature behind the project’s name, Via Verde, meaning green way in Spanish. The project was the winning design in the New Housing New York Legacy Project (NHNY) competition. The multi-award-winning project is hailed as ‘a model for affordable, green, and healthy urban living’ by the Urban Land Institute.(1)

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies.

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