LI Webinar: Designing better together – The positive impact of play in housing developments, presented by Jupiter Play

In this webinar Jupiter Play are joined by Laura Bradley, of Bradley Murphy Design and Johanne Thomas from Urban & Civic, to discuss the positive impacts that partnership working has delivered and is continuing to deliver at Houlton a new strategic housing site on the outskirts of Rugby.   

Open spaces are one of the most important assets we own. Linked to health benefits, mitigating climate change, reducing stress and for the past year an important social meeting place. Hundreds of policies are linked to open space, but little actual research has been undertaken on how they can make a direct impact on promoting life-long active habits for children. 

Physical Literacy and Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) are key areas in which children (and adults) are measured in how well they can perform certain key activities, such as running, throwing, catching and hopping.   

The science suggests that if children perform all these well, either with high confidence or high competence and at an early age (before social pressures come in to play) the more likely they are to lead healthy active lives, known to be crucial for health and wellbeing 

Urban & Civic are developing some of the most unique strategic developments across the UK, where green space is a priority. 

Together with Bradley Murphy Design (BMD) and Jupiter Play & Leisure Ltd, Urban &Civic are delivering key developments at Award Winning Alconbury Weald and Rugby’s Houlton, where green space is prime and promoting active outdoor living is fundamental to the strategy. The need to understand the principles of Physical Literacy and FMS is therefore an important part of a successful landscape and open space strategy. 

Coventry University, together with the consortium, have created an Active Landscapes Collaboration and will be carrying out a pioneering piece of research to better understand the principles of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) and how green spaces can be designed to provide the opportunities for children to develop their FMS. There will be an in-depth analysis on routines, activities and habits formed in the open spaces across the Houlton development and how they contribute to practicing and facilitating FMS.