Last year was an action-packed year for football, with England’s Lionesses stealing our hearts in the summer, and an exhilarating finish to the men’s FIFA World Cup. These tournaments will have inspired young people of all backgrounds to take up the game, and sport in general, with many building their passions in community spaces.
So, when creating shared sports areas for communities, how can we use design to be more inclusive? All too often we see community sports pitches in less desirable locations, catering to only one type of sport, and with few or no provisions for the people that use them. We need to do better.
Working in community development, we always apply a sustainability lens to how we design. When we talk about ‘sustainability’ though, we’re not only referring to environmentalism, measuring our carbon footprint and cutting emissions, but to a wider concept that extends beyond our natural environment.
