Fit Parks: When Cities Start Moving Their People
Author
Vishakha Tiwari
Date
21 dec, 2025
.png)
Cities have a movement problem—but not the kind you'd expect.
Not the kind measured in traffic flow or pedestrian counts, but something more fundamental: urban life has quietly engineered physical activity out of our daily routines. Long commutes, sedentary work, privatized fitness, and shrinking public spaces have turned movement into something we schedule rather than something we simply do.
Walk through any urban park at 2 PM on a Tuesday. You'll see empty lawns, unused benches, and maybe a handful of people scrolling their phones. Now walk past a commercial gym at the same time. Packed. Waitlists for equipment. Monthly memberships costing what some families spend on groceries.
Something doesn't add up.
We've built public parks as green ornaments—beautiful to look at, pleasant for a Sunday picnic, but fundamentally passive. Meanwhile, the demand for active, movement-focused spaces is exploding. Yoga groups occupy park corners at dawn. Running clubs claim pathways. Calisthenics enthusiasts improvise workouts on benches never designed for pull-ups.
Instead of asking "How do we make people exercise?" they ask "How do we make movement feel like play?"
When climbing structures double as sculpture, when jogging paths weave through art installations, when fitness spaces invite spectators and conversations—activity stops being a chore and becomes a shared urban experience.
Healthy cities won't emerge from individual discipline alone—but from urban environments that make movement natural, social, and joyful.
Form Follows People
At Form Follows People, we believe design must respond not just to form and function, but to human behavior, emotion, and movement.
Fit Parks embody this belief—they place people, not programs, at the center of urban design.
Because a city that moves its people is ultimately a city that cares for them.



.png)


.png)
Citations:
-
Picture 2: Photo by Dan Tuykavin on Unsplash, Photo by Leo Lee on Unsplash
-
Picture 4: Illustration by author
-
Picture 5: https://www.archdaily.com/286223/superkilen-topotek-1-big-architects-superflex> ISSN 0719-8884
-
Picture 6: https://www.archdaily.com/976389/oxygen-park-aecom ISSN 0719-8884
-
Picture 7: Illustration by author