City-Gym is a research and design project that explores how everyday urban spaces can encourage physical activity and contribute to healthier urban living. The project focuses on the city of Offenbach and investigates how streets, squares, and other underused urban areas can be transformed into environments that support spontaneous exercise and active lifestyles.

Using Virtual Reality (VR) as an experimental tool, City-Gym allows participants to experience and evaluate different urban design scenarios in immersive environments. Through these simulations, the project studies how spatial design, visual elements, and environmental cues influence people’s willingness to move, exercise, and engage with public space.

By combining urban design research, behavioral insights, and immersive technologies, City-Gym aims to develop evidence-based design strategies for more active and health-supportive cities. The findings will contribute to new approaches for integrating physical activity into everyday urban environments.

Coordination

Chair of Urban Design and Planning, Department of Architecture, TU Darmstadt

• Dr. -Ing. Lanqing Gu (Principal Investigator)
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Knöll
• Robin Kuppler M.Sc.
• Reema Mansour M.Sc.

In Cooperation with

Urban Design, Design Department, Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG)

• Prof. Dr. Kai Vöckler

Design, landscape architecture and urban ecology, Department of Architecture, TU Darmstadt

• Prof. Dr. Martin Roth

Time Period

March 2026 – August 2027

Funding

This project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR, formerly BMBF) within the programme DATIpilot – Innovation & Transfer under the project “Transformation by Design (TraFoDes)”, grant number 03DPC1914.

TraFoDes aims to develop an innovation community that brings together design, urban development, research, industry and public institutions to support sustainable urban transformation through design-driven approaches.

Further information about the project