News
HRH gives a speech on health and urban design
26th January 2006
The Prince of Wales called today for pedestrians to be put at the heart of town planning and linked poorly planned towns and cities with the growing obesity epidemic in Britain.
The Prince was addressing a conference at St James's Palace on the subject of health and urban design in his capacity as President of both The Prince‘s Foundation for the Built Environment and The King‘s Fund.
In a speech, The Prince raised concerns that Britain was catching up with the US through its worrying numbers of overweight people, especially children.
He said: “We are perhaps not far behind our American cousins in the ‘supersizing' epidemic”, and added that as well as believing “we are what we eat”, he felt that we are also “what we are surrounded by”.
The Prince said that the poor infrastructure of towns and cities played a role in discouraging pedestrians and physical activity and spoke of the benefit of walking or cycling for half an hour a day.
He said: “The secret, I am sure, is to place the patient at the centre of the design process, not the technology - in the same way that more liveable communities can be created by putting the pedestrian at the centre of the design process and not the car.”
“We all now live in a noisy world and yet silence, peace and stillness are often the keys to recovery, perhaps broken only by the sound of running water together with controlled exposure to fresh air.”
The Prince's Foundation and The King's Fund are jointly hosted the conference to explore how the design of buildings, towns and cities affects public health and well-being.
The Prince's Foundation has already been working closely with the NHS and The King's Fund to design hospitals that encourage healing and cities that encourage good health.
Among those attending the conference was Dr Richard Jackson, former state health officer for Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In his research, Dr Jackson, who is Professor at the University of California School of Health, warned that rising levels of obesity and mental illness could be directly attributed to poorly designed neighbourhoods.
In his speech, The Prince said: “Research also suggests that walking or cycling for just half an hour a day can have a significant improvement on our state of health - but why don't we do it more?
“Often, as our speaker, Dr Richard Jackson's research suggests, because our towns and cities make it nearly impossible, and because it might help if the built environment was more attractive and appealing to the pedestrian.
“Dr Jackson and his colleagues have pointed to a disturbing link between the built environment, physical inactivity and what he terms a ‘syndemic' of diseases including, perhaps most worryingly, childhood obesity.”
The Prince has been a keen supporter of the Soil Association's Food for Life campaign which aims to improve the health and nutrition of school meals, ensuring the ingredients are as fresh, local and organic as possible.
The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment is an educational charity established by The Prince of Wales to teach and demonstrate a timeless approach to building – an approach which puts people and their communities at the heart of the design process.