Next week sees the International Healthy Streets Summit take place in Glasgow. The two day programme will see over 250 delegates will discuss the key issues relating to our streets, including how we can deliver healthier, more people-friendly streets, our responsibility to think differently and explore how we respond to the climate challenges. Our Founding Director, Stephen O’Malley will be speaking about our work on the Avenues project and how this will help to shape a Future Scotland, whilst Director, Paul Morris will be sharing our thoughts on how we make our streets climate resilient. As part of the Summit, the winners of the Healthy Streets awards will also be announced. We’re keeping everything crossed for the work we did on London’s White Hart Lane, alongside muf architecture and Robert Bray Associates, to win an award in the Best Healthy Streets Innovation Category.

We believe people should be at the heart of any design for our streets, so to celebrate our involvement in the Summit, we’ve asked some of our team to share with us what their favourite street is and explain why. To kick us off, Senior Structural Engineers, Jessica Foster, from our London Studio talks about why the street she lives on is her favourite…………

“Once every few months, my street in East London puts up a temporary road block and becomes a playground.  Without the constant risk of traffic, the children take over the road, on bikes, scooters, running and playing.  The adults too are able to meet and talk, and so a community grows.  

The play street movement has grown in popularity in recent years.  Local authorities can use their existing powers under road traffic legislation to allow temporary street closures so the streets can be used for play.  On the recent World Car Free day, over 340 play street events were supported across London, in addition to the 27km of central London that was closed to traffic.

Traffic free roads are good for air quality, good for our health and good for our communities.  My favourite streets are simply, ones without cars.”