Sports, Movement and the City

Type of project: Research and publication
Comissioned by: The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sport Facilities
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Svava Riesto, Stig L. Andersson, Martin Søberg
Collaborators: Etnolog Nicolaj Carlberg og Etnolog Søren Møller Christensen
Design phase: 2004

The project was presented at the conference “The significance of surroundings on physical activity”, arranged by Kræftens Bekæmpelse (Danish Cancer Society), Lokale- og Anlægsfonden (The Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities) and the Centre for Sport and Architecture, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture.

Click here to view SLAs masterplan for Valby idrætspark (Sports park)

Bandebaner (Courts with Sides) - A project to integrate sports in urban spaces

Planning methods must be renewed, if the urban space is to become a lively place with skating, petanque or cycling. Two tendencies in the expression of body culture are of importance to planners.

• More and more people practice sport outside the traditional sports clubs.

• People practicing sport increasingly place emphasis on the experiences associated with being active. For many it means that sport moves out of the purpose built arenas to places they choose, because of the possibility of passersby becoming an audience, or because they view spaces in the city as a sequence of potential discoveries.

But is it possible to plan for apparently unplanned activities outside the traditional sportsclubs? In 2004 SLA ’s research section led a qualitative investigation of which requirements and aspirations practitioners of urban space sport have to the city. The study supports earlier research and is published as “Sport’s sense of urban space” and was prepared with Carlberg & Christensen as co-authors. The publication gives 9 suggestions for how future planning can contribute to urban spaces for body culture today and in the future.