Move Green - Outdoor design lab will ensure everyone's access to nature

The researchers must use the lab to develop methods to make wilderness areas accessible without simultaneously ruining their health impact. The laboratory forms the foundation for a completely new research area at the University of Copenhagen. Move Green Lab will be the first laboratory of its kind in the world.

Move Green Lab is a 5 hectare outdoor experimental laboratory that is being established in the Arboretum in Hørsholm. Behind the project is the Department of Geoscience and Nature Management at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with a number of foundations.

In the new experimental laboratory, Professor Ulrika K. Stigsdotter and her colleagues will research the design, health and use of natural environments, which are specifically designed to be accessible and health-promoting for people with physical impairments.

Nature has a proven positive effect on human social, physical and mental health. However, many people with mobility impairments are involuntary innards, and they often have more health problems than people without movement disabilities. The health potential is therefore all the greater for this part of the population.

The arboretum in Hørsholm is a unique natural environment, which since 1936 has been used for research and teaching at the University of Copenhagen.

The Move Green project builds on the results of a preliminary project that uncovered what prevents people with mobility disabilities from getting out into nature and benefiting from it. The findings are compiled in the report Health Promoting Nature for People with Movement Disabilities.

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