Norwell Form Function Brings Award-Winning Design to Outdoor Fitness Equipments

Public Health has become one of the western countries’ most debated issues and the various solutions have sprung up in municipal level. The undeniable fact remains that we all need to raise our level of fitness and enjoy the feel good factor that fitness brings.

One way for the cities to tackle the quest for fitness is to provide public outdoor gym equipment, free for anyone and everyone to use. The key criteria when deciding on the outdoor gym (in Finnish: ulkoliikuntapaikka) equipment are easy accessibility, ease of use and durability.

Norwell Form function is a new range of sculpted outdoor fitness equipment from Lappset. Designed so all people, despite their age, can enjoy it in the park, or at work, in the schoolyard for children with their teachers, or in the sports club.

The outdoor equipment consists of 12 individual outdoor fitness stations, shaped after a classic design feature of beautifully curved steel. Norwell Form Function equipment is based on a simple Scandinavian design, which gives the parks an architecturally designed equipment and visual beauty while it providing the basic functions it takes to train and maintain the body.

Designed by the acclaimed Danish design company, DOK 54, the Norwell Form Function's outdoor fitness line follows the Scandinavian design tradition. DOK54 was established by Jacob M. Lund and Thomas Brinch-Møller in 2001, after completing their studies at Design Seminariet in Højer, Denmark. Their work centers on product design, focusing on innovative products that are at once novel and functional. With their backgrounds as toolmaker and model maker respectively, they pursue a practical approach to design using their extensive knowledge of materials and production processes.

Their objective was to make the equipment appear as simple and functional as well as intuitive for the users. The main element - the curve - creates the wanted lightness and simple construction which makes the equipment unique in its design. The choice of material, the form and the overall simple appearance together promote the aesthetics, which is the characteristics of Scandinavian design.

To live a healthy and active lifestyle is more relevant in today's society than ever before. Norwell Form Function provides aesthetically pleasing yet durable and thus wise solution for many different environments and climates.

Lappset Designs World’s First Angry Birds themed Playgrounds

The leading manufacturer of playground equipment worldwide, Lappset has struck a co-operation deal with another innovative Finnish company, Rovio Entertainment, famous for their record-smashing mobile game Angry Birds.

According to the agreement, the Rovaniemi based Lappset, which designs and manufactures playgrounds, outdoor fitness (in Finnish: ulkoliikunta) and outdoor gym, parkour and senior fitness equipment, will create and entire collection of the playground equipment themed after the world’s favorite avian heroes. Alongside equipment, Lappset will also deliver complete Angry Birds Activity Parks, called Angry Birds Magic Places.

The parks include swings, sandboxes, climbing towers, slides, swing animals featuring the Red Bird, Yellow Bird, Green Bird, Blue Bird, Black Bird and even some of those nasty egg-hogging antagonists, the Pigs. The company will also introduce a playground novelty, a specially designed Angry Birds outdoor pajazzo.

In addition to creating the necessary playing equipment for the parks, Lappset has designed park and street furniture and safety surfaces. The first Angry Birds Magic Places will be opened in the Finnish towns of Rovaniemi and Espoo, which has commissioned tentatively 5 activity parks from Lappset. According to an interview with the managing director Juha Laakkonen, they also have letters of intent to build similar Angry Birds playgrounds in various other countries in Europe and Asia.

Business-wise the agreement marks a huge jump for the family owned Lappset, which has been producing playground equipment and other outdoor products for over forty years. The company has grown from a one-man band to an international group with subsidiaries in five different countries. Their aim is to get people moving and spend time together, to bring the joy of play to people of all ages.

As Angry Birds continues to attract more and more fans across the globe (the mobile hit has now more than 600 millions fans and the developer Rovio is expecting to hit the magical and unprecedented 1 billion mark in the future), they are also seeking ways to expand their brand reach beyond mobiles and tablets. Taking the Angry Birds phenomenon to the playgrounds around the world with the help of Lappset is a win-win for both companies: they are growing a new generation of Angry Birds fans as well as keeping the current generation happy.

Parkour – A Brief History of the Urban Sport

What started out in France as an freedom of movement and expression, is now a widely spread form of sports. Parkour is a method of movement focused on moving around obstacles with speed and efficiency. At the heart of parkour is an effortless way of moving that utilizes the entire body as a whole rather than consciously employing isolated muscle groups

The aim of the parkour practitioners (also called as traceurs) is to be able to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping in various ways. The trendy sport is accessible to anyone and it’s easy for beginners, as you only need a pair of basic running shoes, loose pants and a t-shirt to get started. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles offer many different training opportunities.

Parkour’s origins are in the French military training. The term "parkour" was coined by Hubert Koundé. It derives from "parcours du combattant", the classic obstacle course method of military training proposed by Georges Hébert.

Hébert was a French naval officers who, while traveling the world before World War I was impressed by physical development the African tribesmen and their natural gymnastic prowess. Once he returned to France, inspired by his experiences of natural movement and athletic skills, he set out to create his own system of physical education, called ”méthode naturelle”.

During World War I and II Hébert’s method gained popularity and expanded so that it become the standard for the French military education and training and obstacle courses, parcours become widely used in fitness training for firefighters and soldiers.

Later in 1990’s, a Frenchman called David Belle was seeking a way to express himself through athletic exercise, martial arts and gymnastics. His father, Raymond Belle was trained in Vietnam’s military and later served in Paris as a firefighter and was encouraging his son to train hard as well as develop his strength and dexterity in order to be useful in life. David left school at age 17 and in 1997 he an influential group Yamakasi, which is recognized as the first parkour group in the world.

The movement spread slowly in the underground from Paris to London other cities. Parkour was used in popular films, such as Taxi 2, District 13 and in a feature named Yamakasi. Finally the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale and its chase sequence in the beginning catapulted parkour in to the mainstream and began a new wave of parkour-inspired stunts in Western film and television.

Outdoors exercise enhances the development of children’s motor skills

Children’s gross and fine motor can be trained and give them opportunities to develop as good as possible through giving right incentives and tasks on the right time of the developmental phase. When around 12 months old child stands alone taking her first steps or learns how to climb up the stairs and later on discovers the joys of running, a journey of a discovery begins. Children around two year old already know how to jump and can keep their body stable on a balance beam. A three year old child can jump with one foot and stand on it for awhile.

Good places to develop both fine and gross motor skills are for example parks and playground areas (in Finnish: leikkialue), where there is a safe environment to search the boundaries of ones abilities and reach over them learning new skills. On playground areas there is possibility to practice for example jumping over object and rope climbing or glide on slides and have a safe landing, usually on the soft sandy ground. Even if the child seems to be confident and solid with his physical skills the safety rules are good to remember on the playground areas.

Playing games and taking part on child’s journey through new and greatly inspiring environments makes the learning a discovery not only for the child, but for the parent as well. Outdoor activities together build also the bond between the parent and the child. Exercising with the family helps to mediate healthy way of living for next generation. It also gives to a child a non-competitive environment to practice motor skill, without having the pressure to succeed and having a go to try again and again and learn through mistakes. The learning and discovering of the new abilities and motor skills also improves child’s self-esteem and gives positive experiences.

Parkour and freerun

Parkour is a method of movement originally developed by such French guys as David Belle and Sebastian Foucan. The sports concentrate on moving around obstacles as fast and efficiently as possible. The term parkour was coined by Hubert Kounde, a French actor and film director and it derives from the military training courses called parkours du combattant. It has no set movements and is said to be more of a state of mind than a specific way of moving. Parkour avoids rivalry and competition and drives towards the international unification, breaking through the economic and social boundaries which are separating people from one another.

The ideology of the breaking through and finding bondages across countries and nationalities eventually resulted in parkour to spread all over the world. English speaking world was introduced into to the sports through the movie Jump London, which was directed by Sebastian Foucan. The term free running was coined in the film as an translation of the word parkour in English, but it came to mean later on slightly different things than the original parkour was.

Foucan was dissatisfied by the limitations in parkour and stated that free running was a discipline of the self-development and emphasizes the freedom of movement and creativity. According to Foucan acrobatics, which were incorporated in free running, is not parkour, since parkour takes advantages of movement’s efficiency and ultimately was a way of the French soldiers to escape or reach in the emergency situation in Vietnam.

In free running the acrobatics in urban landscapes play a major role. The movements are performed through structure of the landscape and the sport emphasizes especially the creativity of the movement. Free running features athletic and aesthetically pleasing movement which takes advantage of the urban obstacles unlike parkour, which is more about crossing the obstacle efficiently and quickly.

Mostly parkour and free running diverge in their philosophy. In parkour, as already stated, practitioner finds his way through the landscape passing the obstacles and barriers with efficient and fast movements. Parkour is about getting into places which are inaccessible and escaping the chasers, while free running is about creativity of the movement and beauty of the motion.

Ageing of the population affects the design of urban areas

In Finland the ageing of population will be exceptionally fast comparing to the rest of the European Union countries due to big baby boom after the war period. According to statistic 17 percent of the people living in cities were pensioners in the year 2010.

The generations born in 40´s and 50´s will have special needs for their living environments when they get older. This will affect also design and planning of the living spaces and their surrounding outdoors. Especially challenging will be the planning of the living environments of the people with a decreased ability to function in their everyday life. Flexibility and ability to transform with the inhabitants age challenges the planning of the living spaces and the design of the interiors not to mention the opportunities for senior fitness (in Finnish: senioriliikunta).

The ability of the elderly people to handle the everyday tasks and function without outside help can be improved with a careful planning of the living environments. Accessible apartments and for example assisting technology can make the living of an old aged person easier. Environments can be also inspiring, attracting people into, for example senior sports by having an exercise ground on the apartment building yard or having a common gym. These can also serve as a social hot spots, meeting points for the elderly as well as other generations. Living environments can be an obstacle or a possibility. The ageing of the population affects as well the community structure and planning as the accessibility of the services grows more important. The local grocery stores and public transportation enable the flow of everyday life.

The World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day was passed on November 14th. The day is for to remind of the seriousness of the illness and to support proper research and treatment for patients. Diabetes is categorized as a national illness in Finland. According to estimations, half a million adults in Finland are suffering from type 2 diabetes, half of them without knowing it, and other half having a diagnose. The disease causes increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases, decline of the kidneys and higher risk for retinopathy.

Diabetes has spread vast and it´s commonness is increasing rapidly. According to specialists and researchers, this is connected with lifestyle, nutrition, increasing overweight and bad fitness. The key factors in growing diabetes risk are the same as in cardiovascular diseases. Diabetes can develop itself in quiet without any symptoms for many years. Tiredness, increased blood sugar levels and constant feel of thirst can be signs of diabetes in progress. The highest risk for type 2 diabetes is with people over 60 years and with overweight. The Finnish Diabetes Association recommends all those who belong to risk groups to make a diabetes risk test found in their homepage. The early discovery of the illness will prevent the more serious symptoms.

Diabetes can however be prevented and counter acted, by reviewing the risks of the lifestyle and nutrition, and increasing exercise and fitness. The necessary changes in lifestyle to prevent diabetes are not always inevitably massive. Avoiding excessive amounts of sugar and fat and eating at list half a kilogram of veggies per day is by nutrition enough to make a difference.

In older age, senior fitness (in Finnish: senioriliikunta) and being active physically in general are the best ways to prevent and treat diabetes. According to specialists, the exercise should be at least thrice a week, get you sweaty and rise your pulse at least a little, but even a half an hour walk can help to keep the condition. For good senior fitness it is recommended for example Nordic walking, light jogging, golf and gymnastic exercises. According to researches regular exercise minimizes 60 percent of the risk of the diabetes even in older age.

Children’s computer gaming useful

It is more than often comprehended that spending too much time with computers and video games just isn´t good for children and teenagers, making them, in the worst case scenario, an unsociable nerd incubating evil thoughts in their dark rooms and gaining massive overweight while using their muscles mostly to only open cola cans.

This idea has been turned around in recent years by several new applications and solutions, which use new technologies of player movement and touch screens. New IT technologies make it possible for players to use their bodies and movements to advance in the game and the game itself can simulate the actual sports, such as tennis or yoga. Technology has been used also to create interactive spaces and sporting environments, where gaming and outdoor sports, using your brain and using your body movements are combined. The possibilities of these technologies are almost limitless and give chance to develop games we never could imagine before. They make people move, dance, play, and do sports.

Lappset offers the DigiPlay concept which introduces IT-based games to outdoors and public spaces. The series includes interactive learning environment, a game unit and Lappset Mobile Playground (in Finnish: leikkialue), which takes gaming outdoors. SmartUs application enables contacts to other children in other physical locations, and the newest solutions features mobile applications as well. 

Designing an enjoyable garden for your house

When building a house most people concentrate on the planning and design on the interiors and outlooks, but forget to give detailed attention to houses exteriors as well. This concerns most public spaces around apartment buildings as well. Gardens and yards can however be designed in a way that they give even more joy for their respective householders.

Plans where yard is segmented into spaces according to which purpose and who are using the area help to construct the outer spaces to benefit efficiently and pleasantly the use of all the inhabitants. Especially families with children can benefit more on their exterior spaces when the needs of the all the members of the family have been taken into account when designing the outer spaces of the house. The car park should be in a distance from the areas meant to be hang outs and playground (in Finnish: leikkialue) areas, and football and basketball is best to play away from windows and other fragile items.

For children all kinds of hides, slides and open spaces are inspiration for play, an exciting environment to explore. These can be nicely combined with gardening areas such as plantings and group of bushes or trees. Special playground areas invite children to use their creativity and imagination. For security and especially with small children, good items are a fence around the playground are and a gate, which prevent them to run from the yard into dangers of for example nearby road. Inspirational equipment and scaffoldings to climb on will give children more activity on the exterior spaces. Adventure and imagination lives in children’s play.

Lappset offers great variety of products to suit, beside the needs of the children of all ages, also adults and seniors as well. When a suitable combination of equipment is chosen carefully it can serve generations from grandmother to youngest one in the family. Lappset wooden Finno equipment are classics found in many Finnish children’s park areas, and the designs, materials and colors suits the Finnish habitation landscape well. The equipment include among others swings, sandboxes, slides and climbing frames. 

The founding figure of modern Parkour

Parkour, a French born method of movement focusing on moving in speed and finding efficient and loose ways around obstacles, has its roots in French army training and African indigenous tribes´ model of physical skills. The crucial figure for the sports is David Belle, who grew up in the Parisian suburbs and who was surrounded by a family of sporting heroes.

In early 19th century, a French naval officer Georges Herbert travelled in Africa and was fascinated by the physical skills of the indigenous tribes there. He developed a motto of “be strong to be useful” and inspired by the tribes he created apparatus of exercise called methode naturelle. This method has since become a standard system in French military education and training, which David Bell also took part decades later in French Marine corps at Vannes.

David’s father, Raymond Belle was a firefighter in Parisian brigade and served in French Army in Vietnam. He had vast influence on David’s seeking for physical and mental freedom through discipline, strength and skill. Raymond was trained in methode naturelle at the French army and introduced it to his son as well. In the army service David’s favourite courses were parcours du combattant aka military obstacle courses and he gained the title of Regimental rope-climbing records holder. David however left the military life as he felt the rules were too restricted and the environment too regulated. The quest for overcoming the physical obstacles and gaining such way the freedom of mind had begun.

He did some odd jobs and left for India to study kung-fu for three months. In 1980´s David Belle had founded, together with his childhood friend Yahn Hnautra, a collective of Parkour trainers called Yamakasi, which eventually came to known as the originator of modern day Parkour. The ingredients of the sports came from the things David’s father had taught him from the idea of moving without physical constraints and the feeling of freedom. The idea of Parkour lives in the Yamakasis original Congolese Lingala language term meaning strong man, strong spirit.

Outdoor fitness keeps the health up through old age

It is shown in research that exercise prevents the symptoms of the old age such as the weakening of the general ability to function in everyday life, the stiffening of joints and atrophy of the muscles. Doing outdoor exercise on a regular basis will keep also the mind active and prevents the weakening of cognitive abilities and depression. It is recommended to do exercise at least one hour per day, preferably outdoor fitness (in Finnish: ulkoliikunta). One study tells that staying inside even for one week will affect the general state of mind and vitality. Also, outdoor fitness prevents respiratory disorders and gives your lungs a good lungful of fresh air.

Good sports for elderly people are, for example, cross country skiing, swimming and Nordic walking, but even walking to the food store and carrying the bags back home is a good way of having a day’s dose of exercise. As it is shown, for keeping up the good health any outdoor fitness is good. It is studied that even regular walking will do the thing. Most important is that you do exercise regularly.

In the mid-2000s Lappset carried out a study on everyday life of children and elderly people. The project resulted in the Senior Sport Concept, in which the mission is to get people outside to play and exercise. The Senior Sport Concept equipment is designed to Improve the capacity of elderly people to cope in everyday life. Recent studies tell that muscle brawn can be increased in old age in the same manner as when younger. Equipment feature, for example, Panna Knockout arenas, game walls and multi-activity and sports equipment.

Senior Sport Concept products can be used by people of any age, and this way they offer a meeting point for different generations. Cross generation sports, playing and exercising will also mediate the practice for children, who this way can grow into keeping up their health through regular outdoor fitness.