Exercise 8.1—Urban Form and Health This exercise addresses the relation between the main characteristics of urban form and the promotion of public health, through moderate physical activity, as framed by Sect. 8.1. The starting point, as in some previous exercises, is the student’s house.

The student should identify and map an area around his house holding the structural physical conditions (including high density of street intersections, street blocks, plots;

coincidence of building and plot frontages) to have a positive impact on walking (as moderate physical activity) and, as such, on public health. This area is likely to have an irregular geometry. The student should then think of, and map, an expansion of this ‘friendly walking area’ (preferably in its physical continuity), bearing in mind the development of some non-structural changes on urban form—like the promotion of active ground floors, the presence of trees, and the redistribution of street space for pedestrian and cars, to name just a few. The exercise should be prepared as homework and presented in classes. The PowerPoint presentation (5–10 min) should include the two maps (original area and extended area), supported by photographs of both areas, and by the list of extant characteristics and proposed changes on urban form.