Author Archives: openspaceeditor

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson makes a guest appearance on Podparks, a World Urban Parks podcast

OPENspace Director, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson, has made two guest appearances on the first season of the Podparks; A podcast for parks professionals, parks enthusiasts, travelers, historians, conservationists, and anybody with an interest in learning about the green spaces they occupy and enjoy.

In Episode 1, ‘A park through the ages‘, Prof Ward Thompson shares how the conception of parks has changed over time. Episode 3, ‘The rise of parks‘ goes on to explore the evolution of parks in the 20th century.

Dr Simon Bell awarded Data-Driven Innovation funding to build community evidence for urban parklets in Edinburgh

Dr Simon Bell is the Principal Investigator in a project funded by the Data-Driven Initiative programme, together with City of Edinburgh Council, looking at the potential for parklets.

Parklets (typically repurposed car parking spaces into public community spaces) have the potential to provide community-led interventions in the public realm that can have a positive social and environmental impact on the local area, as demonstrated in numerous cities around the world. In cities where parklets have been delivered, they have usually been initiated by local parties interested in this model that have come together to bring forward a proposal to the local authority.

There is, however, no precedent for this in Edinburgh and there is a lack of local evidence as to whether communities have the appetite to initiate this type of public space intervention, as well as whether they have the capacity to lead the delivery and maintenance of the associated infrastructure. This project will work with local communities to build the evidence base and assess whether there is potential to create parklets in key locations within Edinburgh city.

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson keynote speaker at 49th PARJAP Congress in Madrid

OPENspace Director, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson, was a keynote speaker at last week’s 49^th PARJAP Congress in Madrid. The event, organised by the Spanish Association of Public Parks and Gardens (AEPJP), focused on the health benefits of public parks and gardens across four key themes:

‘Green city and health’
‘Wellbeing as an urban planning objective’
‘Therapeutic designs of green spaces’
‘Lived experiences and real solutions (case studies)’

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson shared her research on the impact of green spaces on public health, highlighting how green spaces can reduce stress, encourage physical activity, and mitigate against climate change.

Urban Transitions 2022 conference – Poster presentation by Dr Charlotte Wendelboe-Nelson

OPENspace Research Associate, Dr Charlotte Wendelboe-Nelson, recently presented a poster at the Urban Transitions 2022 conference in Barcelona, Spain. Her poster, ‘Your favourite park is not my favourite park: A participatory geographic information system approach to improve urban green and blue spaces: A case study in Edinburgh, Scotland’ highlighted research work done as part of the project Edinburgh’s Thriving Green Spaces. The poster illustrated a Maptionnaire approach, which was successfully used to obtain information through a public participation process, highlighting the presence of contested spaces in Edinburgh and the need for gender-focused UGBS research to minimise gender-related barriers.

The conference aimed to promote healthy urban development by bringing together different disciplines working within cities. World leading experts on urban and transport planning, architecture, environmental exposure assessment, environmental epidemiology, physical activity, climate change, and public health and governance came together to discuss current challenges and solutions.

UrbanTransitionsPosterFinal Download

https://www.elsevier.com/events/conferences/urban-transitions

National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) highlights the work of OPENspace Research Fellow, Scott Ogletree

A recent article published by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) highlights the work of OPENspace Research Fellow, Scott Ogletree, and colleagues at North Carolina State University in evaluating changes to local parks in Baltimore, MD, USA. The piece in NRPA’s Parks & Recreation Magazine covers evaluation of park improvements compared to a control park. Work included observations, interviews, and the use of mobile phone location data. Scott’s experience in location data helped him obtain and analyse multiple years of mobile phone data to determine how visits changed after the renovation of park features, such as updating play areas and adding a new splash pad. Overall, the evaluation found positive results of the park improvements. The mobile phone data corroborated evidence from interviews about how park use increased.

Hipp, J.A., Deutsch, K., Dunstan, C., Jones, J. and Ogletree, S. (2022) Evaluating the 2019 Parks Build Community Project. Parks & Recreation Magazine. December, 2022. https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2022/index.php#/p/40

Landscape and Wellbeing Research Fellow post

Applications are invited for a Research Fellow in the field of Landscape and Wellbeing. The post will be based in the OPENspace Research Centre, within the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), in collaboration with colleagues in the Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH) in the School of GeoSciences, and the School of Health in Social Sciences.

The successful post-holder will work across two interdisciplinary research projects:

GroundsWell, a UK Prevention Research Partnership-funded consortium that applies systems science theory to maximise the contribution of Urban Green and Blue Space to the primary prevention of, and reduction of inequalities in, non-communicable diseases in urban settings; and
WIAT2, an ESRC-funded study using secondary data to examine whether a programme of physical and social interventions in urban forests enhances community health and wellbeing.

Depending on the successful candidate, we can offer the role at 0.8FTE (28 hours per week) for 45 months or 1.0FTE (35 hours per week) for 31 months.

The closing date for applications is 9^th January 2023, and the job posting (as well as the link to apply) can be found in its entirety here.

Introducing the BlueHealth Toolkit

In this video, produced by the Estonian University of Life Sciences, OPENspace Co-Director Dr Simon Bell introduces the BlueHealth Toolkit – a validated, tested and free resource for urban planners and designers to use when working on new blue space projects. The toolkit is particularly useful for conducting before and after assessments of a blue space, so that the success of a project can be evaluated. The BlueHealth Toolkit was created as part of the EU Horizon 2020-funded BlueHealth project – a pan-European research initiative that investigated the links between urban blue spaces, climate and health.

Video credit: @EestiMaaulikool

The Surprising Benefits of Blue Spaces

On Friday 11 November 2022 the BBC published a long piece on its website under the Future Planet/MentaL Health section on “The Surprising Benefits of Blue Spaces” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221108-the-doctors-prescribing-blue-therapy?utm_source=bbc-news&utm_medium=right-hand-slot .

In it, the EU Horizon 2020 BlueHealth project is specifically mentioned, and a link is made directly to one of Simon Bell’s articles from his work as a Principal Investigator on the BlueHealth project https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4084 which is all about the impact of a small-scale intervention in Plymouth on residents’ health and wellbeing.

The surprising benefits of blue spaces – BBC Future When Homo sapiens first evolved some 300,000 years ago, we lived in grasslands and forests, next to lakes and rivers. It wasn’t until 2007 that we became a majority-urban species. But as … www.bbc.com

(Image credit: Frankie Adkins)

Dr Simon Bell receives ECLAS Lifetime Achievement Award

On Tuesday 13 September, at the annual conference of ECLAS (the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools) held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, it was announced by the President, Dr Ellen Fetzer, that Dr Simon Bell is to receive the 2022 ECLAS Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his long career in and contribution to landscape architecture practice, research and education.

Simon started his career in the British Forestry Commission in 1979 and, after 20 years of work in forests in the UK and internationally, in 2000 he moved into academia at Edinburgh College of Art, co-founding the OPENspace Research Centre of which he is now co-director together with Professor Catharine Ward Thompson.

In the mid-2000s he also took up a position at the Estonian University of Life Sciences where he is currently Chair Professor and Head of the department of Landscape Architecture. He has been active in ECLAS since 2005, serving on the executive committee, culminating with two terms as President between 2012 and 2018.

Great lectureship opportunity to contribute research-led teaching in Landscape and Wellbeing as part of University of Edinburgh, ESALA and OPENspace

The Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) are looking for a Lecturer in Landscape and Wellbeing to join them on a full-time basis. This is an exciting opportunity to teach in one of the few schools to combine teaching, research, and practice in Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

The closing date for applications is 25^th August, and the job posting (as well as the link to apply) can be found in its entirety here.

The Opportunity:

Applications are invited for the post of Lecturer in Landscape and Wellbeing (open-ended, 1.0 FTE, UoE Grade 8) at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) at the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), University of Edinburgh.

Candidates should possess a PhD or equivalent evidence of research experience. The appointee will have good knowledge of a range of theories which attempt to explain the relationship between landscape and wellbeing, and of a range of research paradigms and methods used to explore and understand this relationship. Candidates must have experience in undertaking relevant research projects and should be familiar with a range of quantitative, spatial and qualitative methods for acquiring data and appropriate analysis techniques, including statistics, spatial and textual analysis.

The candidate will have undertaken training in learning and teaching at postgraduate level and/or have experience of teaching at this level in a higher education context and will be able to demonstrate an ability to develop innovative practice in relation to education in landscape and wellbeing.

The appointee is expected to be actively involved in research and situate their own scholarship strategically within ESALA and beyond. Post-holders will be expected to contribute research-led teaching in Landscape and Wellbeing, thereby enhancing the culture of research, learning, and teaching within ECA and the wider University. The appointee will be expected to communicate and disseminate their work effectively, contributing to ESALA’s international reputation for research and scholarly excellence.

The appointee’s teaching contribution will depend in detail on specialism, knowledge and experience, but it will primarily be focussed on supporting the planning, management and delivery of the Master of Science in Landscape and Wellbeing within ESALA, as well as contributing to associated undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Landscape Architecture. ESALA is seeking candidates able to contribute to courses covering theory, research design and methods, data acquisition, and analysis and tutoring support for Masters-level dissertations within the Landscape and Wellbeing programme. The candidate should demonstrate an understanding of the landscape as a planned, designed and managed environment as well as the ways in which people engage with and experience that environment, and the health and wellbeing consequences of such engagement.

The post holder will have the capacity to supervise postgraduate research students through traditional thesis and/or through practice-led scholarship.

Your skills and attributes for success:

PhD or equivalent research experience in a relevant subject such as environmental psychology, planning, landscape architecture, public health, sociology, health geography or epidemiology
Relevant experience in undertaking and contributing to relevant research in landscape and wellbeing
Expertise in research methodologies appropriate to landscape and wellbeing
A research profile as evidenced by a track record of and ongoing commitment to high-quality published research outputs (through published academic research or design-based research outputs).
An ability to contribute to a specialism in landscape and wellbeing education, and to innovative research-led teaching in the subject

Click here for a copy of the full job description and full list of selection criteria

Applications should include a cover letter, a CV, and a portfolio of personal and student work. Applicants either can submit three letters of reference with their initial applications, or can provide contact details for referees to be contacted only if successful at the shortlisting stage.