Virginia Redesigns School Architecture to Address Obesity

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The phrase “move more, sit less” is gaining popularity across community sectors that are not traditionally associated with public health, although they should be.  Teachers, for example, understand that a sitting kid is not necessarily a focus kid, and they are beginning to appreciate that an active body is an active mind.  Additionally, architects understand that most Americans spend about 90% of their day indoors and they are beginning to appreciate how influential the indoor built environment is on health behavior.

Matt Trowbridge, an associate professor at the University of Virginia said, “The environments in which we live affect not just our behaviors, but our lifelong attitudes about things like healthy eating and active lifestyles,” he says.

Buckingham school district (39% minority), in Virginia (8.6% Latino), collaborated with architects and public health professionals to redesign one of their elementary schools in order to positively influence healthy eating and active living.

They focused making the food production process more visible to students by building a school garden adjacent to the kitchen and by designing the kitchen to be open, so students in the dinning room could watch the food being prepared.  They also designed inviting stairwells and walking paths and furnished the building with flexible, movable furniture, rather than stiff, institutional furniture of the past.

Because Latino students are often burdened by their environment, they will benefit when architects and public health professionals coordinate with schools to redesign the school environment to promote healthy eating and active living.

Read more about changes to this Buckingham school.