Author Archives: openspaceeditor

OPENspace at EUROCITIES 2015

We’re at the EUROCITIES 2015 conference in Copenhagen / Malmo, where Catharine Ward Thompson is bringing a focus on the pedestrian environment to a roundtable on urban mobility.

It’s a pleasure to be in such esteemed company. Sitting to Catharine’s right (in the blue scarf) is Hella Dunger-Loeper, Permanent secretary and State of Berlin Delegate to the Federation and former Permanent Secretary for Building and Housing at Berlin’s Senate Department for Urban Development… Catharine Ward Thompson speaking at the Eurocities conference

… and in this photograph, taken after the roundtable, she is pictured with panellist Klaus Bondam, Director of the Danish Cyclists’ Federation and former Chair of the EUROCITIES Mobility Forum…

Máire Cox also attends the conference to promote OPENspace research to policymakers within 130 of Europe’s largest cities.

And finally… we’re delighted to share the news that the City of Edinburgh won a EUROCITIES award at the conference for community participation in making the city more attractive and sustainable.

More about EUROCITIES 2015, the focus of which was ‘sustainable growth and quality of life’

Can landscape design actually improve health?

Catharine Ward Thompson, Director of the OPENspace research centre, has taken part in a free webinar on the potential of landscape design to improve health.

The event was hosted by Routledge, publishers of the Open Space : People Space books.

Screengrab from a landscape and health webinar

Selecting this image will take you to a recording of the webinar on YouTube

Joining Catharine online were Christopher Coutts (Florida State University) and Gayle Souter-Brown (Greenstone Design UK Ltd).

Together, they discussed the prime importance of landscape design on health and the ways that you can change this dynamic through effective design and specific interventions.

> Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube

> Find out more about the Open Space : People Space books

Habitats for Happy Ageing

It’s 20th March, the UN International Day of Happiness, and what better way to mark it than with the first of our Habitats for Happy Ageing events.

Image courtesy of Ben Shmulevitch

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to this free event at the Reid Concert Hall, including our two guest speakers, Neil Thin (University of Edinburgh) and Val Bissland (University of Strathclyde).

As well as bite-sized talks by these two amazing experts in happiness and place, we were delighted to share insights from our current research project, Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP).

Photo of a student talking to guests at Habitats for Happy Ageing

Image courtesy of Ben Shmulevitch

Guests had the chance to talk to the students involved in our co-design research, to try on the EEG headset used in our ‘environment and affect’ study (and see how it articulates brainwaves on a computer) and to take a short, paper-based mood test.

They could also browse a range of visual material, including models, maps of Edinburgh over time, and captioned images from our photography competition.

Photo of participants at Habitats for Happy Ageing

Image courtesy of Ben Shmulevitch

The ‘science festival’ format worked well with our audience, of which most were aged 65 or over. We received really useful feedback, including on the sorts of positive ways in which people might use what they had heard us talk about or discussed with us. 91% of those who attended rated the event as enjoyable and useful.

Here’s a little video providing a taster of what went on…

Screengrab from the trailer for Habitats for Happy Ageing

Selecting this image will take you to the video on vimeo

> Find out more about Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP) on this website

> Find out more about Habitats for Happy Ageing on the MMP website

> Read an article about the event – with reader’s photographs – on the STV Edinburgh website

> Read an article about the event on the Living It Up Scotland website

Catharine gives guest lecture in Prague

Catharine has visited Prague to give a Proměny Foundation lecture on children, greenspace, play and the urban environment.

The Proměny Foundation is a Czech non-profit organisation founded in 2006 by Karel Komárek. Its ‘Playful Garden’ grant scheme holds the International Play Association’s Right to Play Award 2014 for helping to transform Czech school gardens into inspiring environments.

The Foundation facilitates co-design between children, teachers and parents; Catharine’s talk, Child’s play and the outdoors: the importance of access to green and natural environments, is part of a series of events taking place in school gardens and playgrounds, libraries and even a railway station.

You can watch an interview with Catharine on the Proměny Foundation YouTube channel (in English, with Czech subtitles). Her visit has also been covered by The Week, Respekt and Týden.

Watch an interview with Catharine on YouTube

> Find out more about the Proměny Foundation

I’DGO featured in major new report

Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (I’DGO) has been featured in Making the Case for the Social Sciences: Ageing, the second report on the value and impact of research by the Academy of Social Sciences.

Dedicated to research into ageing, and how it supports effective policy making, the report is partnered by AgeUK and the British Society of Gerontology.

Set within the context of recently announced tax changes and public expenditure reductions, its case studies illustrate the growing evidence base on the socio-economic challenges of ageing and how policy can redress wide discrepancies in life expectation, income and health.

Launched at a ministerial event on Tuesday 20th July 2010, “Making the Case…” acknowledges the impact of the built environment on wellbeing and I’DGO’s progress in improving the quality of life of older people through design guidance such as Lifelong Access to Parks and Public Open Spaces.