PREHealth
Erasmus+

Promoting education and jobs to enhance the use of urban blue and green infrastructure for health and fitness

This EU / DAAD Erasmus+ project investigates urban open space and how people’s wishes and affordances can be put into the centre of planning in order to maximize their benefits for health and wellbeing. The main aim of the project is to encourage city dwellers to place open spaces more actively in their lives and daily routines.

Exposé (opens in new tab)

PREHealth investigates urban open space and how people’s affordances can be put into the centre of planning in order to maximize their benefits for health and wellbeing. The main aim of the project is to encourage city dwellers to place green and blue infrastructures in open spaces more actively in their lives and daily routines. This includes changing attitudes and behaviours towards the role, shape and maintenance of open spaces, through education at all levels: school, university and adult learning. The project also aims to promote active citizenship, by establishing interactive mechanisms for public participation and co design, allowing the citizens to take a more active role in creating environments that support healthy lifestyles.

1. To raise awareness among the public regarding the contribution public open spaces can make to health and overall wellbeing.

2. To devise formal and informal education tools and methodologies, based on Location Based Games (LBGs), Augmented Reality (AR) and related technologies, that provide learning opportunities in situ, in open spaces; and adapt these tools for use in higher education and secondary school curricula; and for adult learning.

3. To pilot test the devised education tools and methodologies by integrating them in courses of higher education institutions, school curricula and informal adult education.

4. To introduce initiatives to enhance the engagement of citizens in the planning and monitoring of public open spaces, in cooperation with local authorities and the civil society; and encourage volunteering.

The project benefits greatly by its transnational character, which allows the national teams to compare data, benefit from the exchange of best practice, complement each other in terms of expertise and previous experience, and create education and awareness raising tools that would have a wide application across nations and cultures.

Seven partners are committed to the implementation of project activities: Four education/research organizations (Technische Universität Darmstadt – coordinating partner; Utrecht University; PRISMA-Planning and Research Consultants and Széchenyi István University) and three local authorities (the Cities of Darmstadt, Athens, Győr) and 4 associated partners including the municipality BrabantCity, and Darmstadt based not for profit organization “Kulturelle Mitte Darmstadt”.

The results of the project include desk research and user surveys in the partners’ countries; dissemination and publicity campaigns led by the local authorities and civil society organizations, including national workshops and an international conference; the construction of education tools and methodologies based on the technologies of location-based games and augmented reality; the adaptation and pilot-testing of these tools to the needs of higher education, schools and adult learners; the dissemination of the devised learning tools and methodologies by making them available for free, and accompany them with a teachers’/adult learners’ Manual.

Project team

Jun.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Knöll
Dipl.-Ing. Marianne Halblaub Miranda
Gladys Vásquez Fauggier, M.Sc.
Dr.-Ing. Karin Diegelmann
cand. soz. Camilo Pfeffer


Project partners

Technical University Darmstadt
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
PRISMA – Planning and Research Consultants, Athens
Széchenyi István University, Győr
City of Darmstadt
City of Athens, Greece
City of Győr, Hungary
City of Eindhoven, The Netherlands


Duration

The project runs for 32 months, from Dec 2016 to July 2019 and is implemented in Germany, Greece, Hungary and the Netherlands.


Funding

The Project is funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2016-1-DE01-KA203-002919

News

Launch of the Fitness Itinerary for Darmstadt's East

The health and fitness itinerary will be presented on 9 May 2019 in Darmstadt as part of an all-day event on the topics of health and movement in urban open spaces and can be experienced on site.

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»Stimulate« – Studierende stimulieren Freiräume im Kapellplatzviertel!

Stadtgestaltung: Die Altstadtanlage wird zu den Altstadtwiesen, einem Experimentierfeld in Sachen aktive Nutzung von Freiräumen durch Sport, Fitness und Erholung

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UHG presents PREHealth in Bonn

Research associate Gladys Vásquez Fauggier presented the work on the Project PREHealth on the frame of the event »Transnational Cooperation Activity Dissemination, sustainability and impact in Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships« held by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) on May 16 and 17, 2018.

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PREHealth Meeting at UHG

The third leadership gathering of the EU project PREHealth took place in Darmstadt from 5th to 7th of February 2018 with guests from Athen, Utrecht, Győr and Darmstadt. Click to visit project website.

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Online survey on Darmstadt's open spaces

The survey is part of the EU-funded research project PREHealth, in which 4 European cities have joined forces to improve the use and design of active, health-promoting urban areas.

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