Sports Facilities as a Tool for Urban Development

Across municipalities, large areas are occupied by sports facilities that represent significant — and often overlooked — potential to strengthen public health, create recreational opportunities, and become meeting places.

Many of these are planned from a modernist perspective, where functional separation or specialisation is seen as the primary ideal. As a result, they no longer meet current societal challenges nor reflect contemporary trends in sports and physical activity.

This is problematic — especially at a time when there is increasing competition for land for climate adaptation, enhanced biodiversity, recreational urban spaces, renewable energy, housing development, and infrastructure.

Malin Blomqvist, Sune Oslev, and Bo Vestergård Madsen have written an opinion piece for Byrummonitor, in which they argue that our  sports facilities (also) should be used as a strategic tool for urban planning.

You can read their opinion piece here (text in Danish) → 

Thank you, Byrummonitor, for giving us the opportunity to share our thoughts.