Announcing our Active by Design IdeasTap winners

We've selected two amazing ideas from the IdeasTap creative community to fund and support as part of our Active by Design campaign.

We set the IdeasTap creative network a challenge: we wanted to know what inventive ideas they could muster up in response to our Active by Design movement. The challenge itself was to come up with a simple and practical low cost/ high impact idea that would encourage movement and activity in designated spaces within our built environment.

Among the many innovative and creative ideas that came through we selected our two favourites. Both winners will now receive £1000 in funding as well as professional mentoring from our Active by Design experts to help turn their winning ideas into a reality.  

Our IdeasTap winners are: 

David Banks

Movement Codes

Movement Codes is series of simple video tutorials aimed to help people turn their surrounding environments into free exercise equipment. The videos will be available in locations where the public may stop or pause - bus stops, ramps, staircases and park benches - and will be accessible by scanning a QR code, installed at the chosen location.

As David explains: "These videos will show how to use, or misuse if you prefer, the urban architecture as a ballet bar, climbing wall or yoga mat. Featuring experienced practitioners from various fields, the tutorials will take only a few minutes, involve minimal spoken or written language and be scaled to three levels, so all people of all ages, fitness levels and abilities can engage." 

We love this idea because:

It connects urban spaces and digital technology to encourage activity and movement in inspiring new ways. I was particularly excited about its massive potential for people to share the videos and expand the ideas beyond their initial locations.    

Amy Brown

The Level

The Level uses bicycle power to generate a giant outdoor speaker, giving members of the public the chance to act as DJs and take it in turns to play a tune to passer byers by connecting their mp3 players to a port on the bike.

As Amy points out: "Music and activity go hand in hand, so it makes sense to connect the two". There's also loads of different ways to engage the public and potentials funders and partners. For instance, Amy has suggested that the speakers act as "wireless music hot-spots where you pedal to listen to exclusive tracks from an artist. Think how many teenagers would be pedalling away to listen to an exclusive track from One Direction or Jay Z."

We love this idea because:

It could really help bring dead spaces in the public realm back to life. We see a real potential to connect ethnic communities with their neighbourhoods by giving them an opportunity to share the music from their cultures with each other and others.

Where to now

Over the coming weeks we'll be meeting with David and Amy to provide advice and guidance. So watch this space for developments from our winners.