Nearsightedness, mental health issues, obesity, and a lack of risk competence - health problems of this kind are increasingly common among children and adolescents, and are now demonstrably occurring even in rural areas (Mu et al., 2025). This effect is further intensified by class-specific factors: socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals are more likely to live in noisy, sparsely green, densely built-up areas and less likely to have access to private outdoor spaces (Zelinka-Roitner, 2011) . One of the main contributing factors, according to current studies, is the fact that children - like all other age groups - are spending more and more time indoors (Xiong et al. 1017).


The students and teachers in the primary schools we support should incorporate more time outdoors into their daily school routine - a minimum of 60 minutes per day is recommended. According to scientific studies, this would be sufficient to reduce the incidence of nearsightedness by 50%, to serve as a buffer in psychologically stressful situations, and - when combined with physical activity - to enhance motor skills.
To achieve this goal, schools require the support of school leadership and teachers, as well as organizational frameworks such as the fixed integration of daily outdoor time into the school development plan, and the necessary physical infrastructure in the outdoor space.


We are currently working with 10 primary schools to redesign their outdoor spaces in ways that make it easier to incorporate outdoor learning and daily school activities. Our key criteria for these redesigns are: cost efficiency, closeness to nature, multifunctionality, and climate resilience.
Some schools have already implemented these changes and now hold regular lessons outdoors as a fixed part of the curriculum. We would like to present these outcomes and gain input and ideas for specific design elements from other fields.