Creating cities, places and trails for walking and thrive

Drawings and text by Frits Ahlefeldt, Hiking.org

Other Hiking.org pages: Read more about hiking and:

Thrive – Climate Change – Storytelling – Environment – Place-making – Innovation – Resources

Good places, neighborhoods and architecture often have the same thing in common: They are designed to be used on foot.

Teaching kids outdoors

Teaching kids outdoors helps them understand, move and be more happy. Connecting to nature, instead of screens.

Sea turtle concept shelter

Concept: a observation post and sleeping shelter along the coast for hikers working with monitoring biodiversity and sea turtles

The water bar concept sketch

Keeping water off trails is important to keep them healthy and walkable. Water bars are one of the designs

Gadbury bridge design

Research: One of the classic ways of building hiking trail bridges is the Gadbury bridge, made of local wood

The bridge as place

In our understandings of landscapes bridges often stands out as something special

Wood bridge feel

Bridges can be made in many ways, from the most flimsy to the solid almost ever lasting bridge designs

Using design to support hiking experiences

When a hiking trail cross a stream the passage can be designed in several ways. All having a huge influence on both the hiking experience and on the place

Psychology and ways of crossing a stream

Hiking can teach us new things about our strategies, roles and preferences.

Stairways design study

When trails starts to rise or fall, at a certain angle stairs are one way of making the trails continue when the terrain gets steeper

Timber used to make steps sketch

Research sketch – understanding a simple way to use tree trunks to make steps along trails

Turnpike design research drawing

When a hiking trail cross a stream the passage can be designed in several ways. All having a huge influence on both the hiking experience and on the place

The corduroy timber path concept

Simple timber structure over wet area. ( corduroy) Not recommended any more

When biodiversity and trails face each other

Hikers like to be close to wildlife and walking through landscapes where nature is set free. But it can be a challenge to balance the needs of nature, of habitats and of hikers.

Trails to help biodiversity

Hiking can help us face invasive species in new and better ways

Five reasons dedicated hiking trails works best

Walkers most often loose, when trails can be used for anything but walking

Cityzen Science

Can we design places along the trails that are more open and better support innovation, debate and science