Fearnville Leisure Centre PDF

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Reflection on fearnville leisure centre and environmental psychology....

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Select an area, built or natural feature within your work environment: observe how individuals and groups move through and/or use this space. Then using environmental psychological theories/ approaches and your Locus notes -Identify specific issues/ problems and suggest creative solutions. Fearnville Leisure Centre was built in 1980 by Leeds City Council and it is situated within the area of Fearnville, a lower socio-economic area which is part of Roundhay (postcode LS8). With a population of just over 3,654 in 2011, this leisure centre plays a crucial part in providing the community with space to exercise. The areas surrounding Feanrville hold a large number of council housing and rented homes, and contains over a quarter of the residents with no qualifications (Census, 2011). This centre provides a variety of different activities, such as tennis, badminton, basketball, gym, swimming, aqua-aerobics, boxing, gymnastics, 5-a-side. On arrival to the leisure centre, the dated red brick stands out against the green fields that surround it. The physical milieu of the centre looks old-fashioned and the windows from the offices are dusty with chipped paint. It is not clear where the entrance is until you get closer to it and this creates an unwelcoming atmosphere. This could be problematic for elderly members who struggle to walk and also people who are in wheelchairs; as they both need to be able to see the entrance so they can aim for it and not have to double back on themselves if they make a wrong turn. I have also noticed also that the car park has very few handrails or designated walkways so when it gets cold or icy, there is no help, also when children arrive to the centre, they run straight out onto the roads and this is a major problem as lots of cars enter and leave the car park and there is not a designated walkway for pedestrians. This is in contrast to privately owned Virgin Active leisure centres that have open and clear entrances to welcome you in. The main implication of the small entrance is the metaphorical barrier to exercise that is provides, mainly to people who are new members to the centre and may be nervous and do not feel confident to walk in- unlike the open, colourful and wide entrance that Virgin Active provides. To improve this, the entrance should be colourful and wide, enabling people to feel confident about going into the centre, and this breaks down the physical and metaphorical ‘barriers’ to exercise. As you enter, the dark grey paint on the walls darkens the room and the lack of windows makes it feel depressing. The floral chairs opposite the reception are dusty and make the space feel dated. To improve this, with aesthetics in mind, the walls could be painted in a brighter colour to make up for the lack of windows such as a white colour contrasted with a red. Although the area feels dormant and dark, the reception is composed of a large glass screen which makes the interaction between the public and the staff very impersonal, however it is there for security over the till and reception desk. The centre is run by local managers who know most the members on first name terms so the glass screen makes conversations very impersonal and informal. This could have an effect on new members who are anxious about joining and want to feel welcome and relaxed. To improve this, the glass screen should be removed and replaced by a lower screen so people can talk comfortably, and whilst keeping the till secure. A standard pattern of behaviour, first introduced by Roger Barker (1968), which I have noticed during my observations is that people scan their membership card on the machine in front of reception before they enter the centre and this is what is expected of them. This is a very informal way for members to enter the centre and this also allows the reception to be unmanned, thus any questions that members have cannot be answered straight away. Furthermore, the scanner replaces the receptionist and creates another barrier which could put off new members from coming back.

Select an area, built or natural feature within your work environment: observe how individuals and groups move through and/or use this space. Then using environmental psychological theories/ approaches and your Locus notes -Identify specific issues/ problems and suggest creative solutions. Opposite the reception area, people seem to loiter around the vending machines when they are waiting for friends to finish exercise sessions or getting changed. This is a problem regarding space because it blocks people from being able to walk up to reception and ask questions or staff members to be able to walk into the staff room. If the area gets too busy, it could cause anxiety for some people and according to the optimum stimulation chart, this impairs overall performance, socially and physically. Therefore, this loitering should be removed outside as you do not want some members who are already anxious to struggle to come back or stop doing the exercise they enjoy. Walking past the reception you enter a 19-station gym. This gym is very popular and is constantly used by members and this can cause problems because although the machines are brand-new, they are all crammed into one small room. Regarding space and place, this can create difficulties when the gym is busy because people are having to wait for machines and when being used, the machines bump into people and this could result in anxiety for some people as they find the area too busy and referring to the optimum stimulation chart, a busy gym would inevitably impair performance. To improve this, it would be useful to place the machines in a larger room or split up the machines into two rooms, one room for cardio machines and one for weights. This problem introduces the debate between functionality and aesthetics. Feanrville gets a limited budget each year from the council to spend on the centre and so, more often than not, they have to focus on functionality of the centre rather than the aesthetics. Onto the next space, the sports hall is the largest area in the leisure centre which has options for 4 badminton courts, 2 basketball courts, a 5-a-side football pitch and an arena for gymnastics. This space is very popular and people, young and old, hire it out to play the sports available. The main problems for this hall is concerned with the climate. The centre is overall very cold and drafty but the spots hall is the coldest, and this can affect members when they are exercising and also staff members when they are setting up sports sessions, increasing the risk of becoming ill. The leisure centre also has a 25m swimming pool which is very dated. The tiles alongside the pool area are cracked and some are even broken. This is a problem for aesthetics because it looks messy and also members might not want to come back again and risk getting hurt. This pool provides a number of different sessions such as lane swimming, aqua-cise, general swimming and also school and private lessons. Every day, 6 schools from across the area benefit from a half an hour swimming lesson and this means that the whole pool is hired out. During this time, school children scatter across the pool area and are taught different strokes, along with having lots of fun! During the morning or in the evening, an hour is set aside for the lane swimming session and this is only for adults who want to swim up and down the pool undisturbed by general swimmers playing about. This is a very popular session especially for older people who enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning and also benefit from the exercise.

Select an area, built or natural feature within your work environment: observe how individuals and groups move through and/or use this space. Then using environmental psychological theories/ approaches and your Locus notes -Identify specific issues/ problems and suggest creative solutions. Another issue with the swimming pool is that the aesthetics are very dated, for example the lights above the pool are very bright and do not create a very relaxed atmosphere, which would benefit both the swimmers and also the lifeguards. These bright lights also flick on and off occasionally and this means that areas of the swimming pool become dark for a few seconds. This can be applied to the effects of light and dark. If an area is too bright, people’s performance decreases and if an area is too dark, people’s performances decreases too. Therefore, the bright lights to no lights doesn’t help relax the members and make them feel welcome. To improve this, it would be beneficial to change the bright lights to some calmer lights and maybe a set of lights could be place on the bottom of each wall so people can see where they are walking. The calmer lights would suit lane swimming sessions and aqua-cise sessions because they would relax the members of the centre and create a friendly atmosphere, thus helping break down the physical and metaphorical barriers to exercise for people who feel too conscious about going swimming or feel nervous about swimming in front of people.

Regarding the aesthetics of the centre, it’s is noticeable that it is council-run because they have placed functionality ahead of aesthetics, and they run the centre as a non-profit organisation. They also just see the centre as providing a function to the local community. This is compared to privately owned centres that spend large amounts of money on making the centre look nice and exclusive as people are paying expensive memberships to enter the centre.

References Census (2011) Barker, R. (1968) Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environment of Human Behaviour. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Office for National Statistics & Department for Work & Pensions (2011) Helm, R. & Landschulze, S. (2009) Optimum stimulation level theory, exploratory consumer behaviour and product adoption: an analysis of underlying structures across product categories. Review of Managerial Science, 3 (1), pp.41-73....