Author Archives: openspaceeditor

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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 25th 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.

Nature, Health and Well-being CPD course at the University of Exeter

Nature, Health and Wellbeing Continuing Professional Development Course 2022 

I am pleased to share with you a brand new course, Nature, Health and Well-being CPD,which will run virtually on Zoom over 4 days on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 – 13:00 UK  on the 22nd and 24th March and 5th and 7th April 2022 from the comfort of your home and/or office without the need to travel. 

The course will explore how natural environments can benefit the physical and mental health of people in a variety of different ways. It will address the relationship between nature and health, how the relationship works, why this matters for the environment, public health and sustainability, as well as how you can apply these learnings in your own practice. We will investigate the potential for the natural environment to be harnessed as a resource to improve human health and wellbeing.  The potential mechanisms, moderators, and applications for these health benefits will be explored, considering large data sets and key studies linking nature and exposure and health, both within the UK and around the world. 

We have a fantastic team of experts from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health contributing to the course, some of whom have led on the Nature and Prescription Handbook and have authored the WHO ‘call to action’ on nature, biodiversity and health. There are no pre-requisites or specialist knowledge required to undertake this course, which is well suited to interdisciplinary learning. 

For further information about the course programme, please visit our website: https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/cpd/naturehealth/  

Book now at this link

Join Us for our Spring 2021/2022 Seminar Series!

Tuesday 5th April 2022

Speaker: Sara Tilley & Caroline Pearce,  ECA Research Fellow & Research Associate, Architecture and Landscape Architecture  

Book your tickets for this online seminar here!

Tuesday 22nd March 2022

Speaker: Charlotte Wendelboe-Nelson,  ECA Research Associate, Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Book your tickets for this online seminar here!

Tuesday 8th March 2022

Speaker: Weijing Wang,  PhD student with ESALA, Edinburgh College of Art

Book your tickets for this online seminar here!

Weijing is a PhD student interested in the landscape perception, big data, spatio-temporal social practice, human-environment interaction in the age of social media. Her current DPhil research focuses on landscape preference, digital visual culture and visual methodologies. Weijing’s thesis examines 1) The representation of digital images and the practice of how people produce and share them. 2) The relationship between changing urbanisation and sightseeing practice of local people and tourists in contemporary Chinese cities 3) The role of photo-taking and photo-sharing behaviour in understanding landscape preference through using visual methodologies. The over-arching aim is to explore the richness user-generated materials from social media and the visual methodologies in examining landscape perception. Weijing’s current research utilise a wide range of methods, from large scale digital data analytics to in-situ semi-structure interviews.

Seminar Title: Gaze through social media: spatio-temporal activities of photo-taking and photo-sharing in the city

The burgeoning digital images from social media are saturated in people’s everyday life, for instance, a great many of apps on the smart phone are involved with images, such as Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. These user-generated data are commonly utilised in detecting content to explore people’s general perception of study areas, often neglecting the behaviour of photo-taking and photo-sharing from the perspective of landscape perception. Two studies are conducted to examine the “prospect – refuge” theory and further explore more about space of vision and observation.

Dr. Simon Bell – Research Papers

Dr. Simon Bell- Academic Papers

Prof Catharine Ward Thompson- ” Mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic” – Research Paper

 Is rurality, area deprivation, access to outside space and green space associated with mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic?

Hubbard, G., den Daas, C., Johnston, M., Murchie, P., Ward Thompson, C. & Dixon, D. 2021. Is rurality, area deprivation, access to outside space and green space associated with mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic? A cross sectional study from the Covid-19 Health and Adherence Research in Scotland project (CHARIS-E). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, 3869, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083869 

Dr. Victoria Lee- “At the Window: How we ‘use’it and what bugs us”-Seminar Series

At the Window: how we ‘use’ it and what bugs us

Our relationship with the window, as an architectural feature or building element, is manifold. During the pandemic lockdowns, windows were both the metaphorical and literal connection to the outside world for many. From a technical perspective, windows also provide one of the most fundamental ways of ventilating the indoor environment, now a key parameter to ensure safe return to our workplaces. I will discuss some preliminary findings from a questionnaire survey on windows in people’s homes conducted in Scotland at the end of the first lockdown.