Physical Activities with in a Built Space

Obesity and sedentary lifestyles are increasing becoming linked as contributing factors to a range of health issues worldwide. Technology has played a crucial role in making Homo sapiens into a sedentary animal from an erstwhile hunter or a civilised animal who earned his bread through hard labour in agriculture. Advent in technology made him lazy as modern day gadgets and instruments met his daily requirements without moving out of his seat. Most of his daily jobs can be accomplished through the labour of just pressing a button or some cases even giving vocal instructions. However we have not reached a stage where the vast majority share such a lifestyle and fortunately but lately there has been an upsurge of message sent across various media to the society regarding the importance of physical well being and ways to achieve it through physical movement. Yoga, exercise, dance etc is increasingly getting popularised for this reason. It is estimated many of us spend up to 90% of our days within a built environment. As the famous words say, Built Environments (from a building to a city scale) are shaped or designed by us, which in turn shape our lives. The built environments control the way we move and do our activities. Architects who shape the spaces we all move in, can thus play a role in determining the way people move and thereby influence the health levels through activity controls especially within our dwellings and work places. The study aims at an investigation into this aspect of an architect's role to the society health through various possibilities of ‘Designing for a Healthy Living’