At Krook & Tjäder Architects, understanding movement has become a positive tool in the toolbox for building socially sustainable on a broad front.
IngaKarin Sundqvist coordinates the architectural firm's research and development and in that role is involved in Make a Move. As their assignments range all the way from landscape to interior design, she sees that understanding movement has an important place in all environments and scales.
"In both urban spaces and interiors, we focus on how people live and move, the body's need for space and ability to move in space, and what we experience with our hands and senses. As a disabled mother, I perhaps have an extra understanding of the fact that we have different conditions for activating ourselves and getting moving," she says.
Krook & Tjäder works actively to include multifunctional and movement-encouraging elements in its design, for example in offices, where the working day is usually much more sedentary than health would wish. From inviting stairwells that make it easier to choose the stairs over the elevator, to furniture that provides a more active working position. Or why not a nice rubber mat that is always in place to shorten the step to a moment of micro-training in the break between tasks.
"We would like to do a lot more than we do today, but we are client-driven and need more clients who want the same thing. Now that we are learning more about understanding movement, we can raise it early in the assignments and get more people on board."
IngaKarin Sundqvist believes that the most important factor for progress is to produce more concrete and good examples of different sites, which subsequent architects and clients can be inspired by and follow.
In her view, a clear strength of movement understanding is that the positive effects extend far beyond the body.
"The beauty is the self-reinforcing wheel where physical activity provides physical literacy, which in turn increases people's confidence and engagement. If we build a society where physical literacy grows and produces safer and more confident citizens, they will be more engaged in politics, equality and quality of life."
