We were delighted to welcome esteemed colleagues and students from the Faculty of Design and Arts at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) to Edinburgh on May 3rd for a research visit hosted by OPENspace Research Centre. This event marked another milestone in our ongoing collaboration aimed at advancing research in the realm of healthy spaces.

OPENspace Co-Directors Prof Simon Bell and Prof Catharine Ward Thompson welcomed BIT visitors jointly with Dr Miguel Paredes Maldonado (Head of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)) and Dr Alex Nevill (ECA Director of Internationalisation). Faculty members and postgraduate students from both institutions exchanged ideas and presented their work.

This research visit follows the establishment of a Joint Lab on Healthy Spaces by OPENspace and the BIT Faculty of Design and Arts in Summer 2023, and OPENspace colleagues plan to visit Beijing in July 2024.

The Faculty of Design and Arts at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) welcomed OPENspace Co-Director, Professor Simon Bell, in early March. This visit follows the establishment of a Joint Lab on Healthy Spaces by OPENspace and the BIT Faculty of Design and Arts in Summer 2023.

During this visit, Professor Bell was appointed a visiting professor at BIT and a small ceremony took place to unveil a plaque commemorating the establishment of the joint lab, and underscoring the significance of this partnership in driving forward interdisciplinary research and innovation.

Looking ahead, the collaboration is set to flourish further, with an upcoming exchange programme between OPENspace and BIT. On May 3rd, Faculty members and PhD students from BIT will journey to Edinburgh, so staff and students from both organisations can get to know each other before several staff members from OPENspace visit Beijing in July.

Dr Scott Ogletree has been awarded a visiting research fellowship this coming summer at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. Scott will be collaborating with Agnès Patuano to explore the potential of Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) for testing the effects of design scenarios on the health of urban communities, in an effort to develop Research through Design methodologies. During his stay, Scott will also contribute to selected courses via guest lectures and provide reviews for courses in Landscape Architecture and Planning. The visit will be an opportunity to build networks and collaboration between OPENspace and other researchers in landscape and health.

Agnès is an Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning and a former postdoctoral researcher with OPENspace. She also completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2017 with Professor Catharine Ward Thompson and Prof Peter Aspinall.

Scott’s visit will run from mid-June to mid-July 2024.

OPENspace Co-Director, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson, is contributing to a new parliamentary inquiry into Urban Green Spaces.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee invited Prof Ward Thompson to attend an oral evidence session in the House of Commons, Westminster, on 5^th December 2023 as a witness, covering differences in access to green spaces, the barriers to using them, and how they can be made more inclusive, while linking this to the health and wellbeing benefits of green spaces, and their relationship with health inequalities.

The full Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee event recording is available via Parliamentlive.tv.

Following the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the University of Edinburgh and Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) over the summer of 2023, the two institutions have decided to set up The Joint Laboratory of Healthy Space in the related fields of urban design, landscape architecture and environmental design.

It is an international and interdisciplinary laboratory, with the aim of “creating healthier living environments for the public”. The OPENspace Research Centre in Edinburgh College of Art and the Social Space and Healthy Environment Laboratory at BIT are the two bodies within each institution who are forming research teams to further the collaboration.

To address global health threats and challenges in relation to living environments, the laboratory will join hands with interdisciplinary global experts to investigate new evidence on the impact of built environments on health and well-being, and promote the construction and renewal of healthy spaces around the globe, with a view to improving the health and well-being of all human beings. At the local level, the laboratory will focus on the national strategy of “Healthy China 2030” and the needs of the construction of a healthy China. It has the following mission:

• To promote health and well-being for the public in relation to landscape architecture and design
• To provide the highest-quality research and teaching
• To challenge the boundaries of knowledge, research and disciplines
• To enable our graduates and staff to be exceptional individuals equipped to address global challenges

Activities of the laboratory will facilitate academic exchange, student supervision, bi-lateral workshops and research projects in investigations of the many links between health and the built environment.