Healthy design
Rijkswaterstaat and healthy design
BURA has been asked to pinpoint the most important measures that can improve health and quality of life in areas connected to the national infrastructure.
Assignment
Design research about healthy design with regard to RWS and RWS-related real estate
Result
A ‘healthy design menu’ that provides tools for the implementation of healthy design
Location
The Netherlands
Client
Rijkswaterstaat
Period
2016-2017
Marco Broekman, Floris van der Zee, Chloé Charreton and Ginevra Melazzi
More focus on health
More attention to a healthy design of the physical living environment is urgently needed. Rijkswaterstaat is therefore looking for methods to integrate health into its policy and enables designers to think along. BURA has been asked to name the most important measures that can improve health and quality of life in areas connected to the national infrastructure. The final result of the research by design was achieved through intensive workshops with Rijkswaterstaat stakeholders and involved partners of two case studies.
The project is a reflection of a change in mentality within Rijkswaterstaat.
Menu healthy design
BURA has made a ‘healthy design menu’, which has been tested and illustrated on the basis of two concrete cases: (1) the improvement of the bicycle network in the Wilhelmina Canal zone in North Brabant and (2) the health and quality of life potential at the intersection from the A12 with the Europalaan and the Merwedekanaal in Utrecht. In these cases, links have been made between healthy design and other urgent tasks for Rijkswaterstaat, such as accessibility issues, urbanisation and spatial health segregation. The menu provides guidelines for the implementation of healthy design and serves as a communication medium both internally within Rijkswaterstaat and externally to its partners.
