Museum of Design Atlanta’s popular original exhibition Design for Healthy Living will extend through Sunday, September 6, 2015.

The design of the physical environments in which humans live, work, learn and play greatly impacts health and wellbeing. Too often, however, healthy habits have been designed out of our daily lives. Sedentary jobs have taken the place of manual labor; cars have replaced walking or biking; elevators and escalators have supplanted stair climbing; and televisions, computers, and video games have displaced active leisure pursuits. Furthermore, the design of our buildings, streets, neighborhoods and cities often make community interaction and physical activity unnatural or difficult to achieve. As a result, Americans today are faced with serious health consequences, which result from a lack of physical activity and social connectedness.

Fortunately, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, industrial designers, graphic designers and urban planners are responding to this problem by creating built environments that make healthy options available, accessible, and affordable for everyone.

Design for Healthy Living explores the impact of the built environment on human health and presents specific design strategies that are used to promote routine physical activity and healthy living. The exhibition provides real-world examples of these design strategies in use and highlights the impact that these designs are making on the communities they support. This highly interactive exhibition will encourage participation and dialogue as visitors consider the spaces they use each day and how these spaces can be used to improve their health and wellbeing.