Category Archives: Simon Bell

Activities in the Joint Lab of Healthy Space

In July 2025, Prof. Simon Bell and Iain Scott visited the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), where they co-taught a summer school attended by a diverse group of students. They also participated in a research symposium on Healthy Design.

Work is underway to complete the Chinese translation of the Urban Blue Spaces book and to develop a proposal for a major international conference, OpenSpace:HealthySpace, planned for October 2026. The event will be co-organised with OPENspace to mark 25 years since OPENspace was founded.

Preparations are also progressing for the launch of the International Journal of Healthy Space, expected by the end of 2025. The inaugural issue will feature editorial contributions from Prof. Simon Bell, Chief Editor, and Ziwen Sun, Executive Editor.

Prof. Simon Bell takes on the role of Director of the IFLA Working Programme on Urban Health and Well-being

In time for the 2025 IFLA World Congress held in Nantes, France in September, 19 new Working Programmes were set up representing a wide range of the many issues landscape architects face. This ambitious initiative seeks to unite the expertise of IFLA members to confront global challenges and elevate the profession’s impact on an international scale.

Working Programme 17 covers Urban Health and Well-being. It has a director (Prof Simon Bell), a co-director (Dr Gayle Souter-Brown) and several working members from around the world, representing academia and practice. A work programme and terms of reference have been prepared for approval by the IFLA Executive Committee.

Prof Simon Bell and Iain Scott visit the Beijing Institute of Technology, strengthening ongoing collaboration

In early July 2024, Professor Simon Bell and Iain Scott visited the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), where they took part in a number of activities including a summer school with students, academic meetings with Tsinghua and Peking Universities in Beijing, and a seminar on BlueHealth at the BIT campus in Zhuhai, in the south of China.

The summer school focused on students designing a blue space in a local park and Simon and Iain introduced the theories and practical usages of the BlueHealth Behaviour Assessment Tool (BBAT) and the BlueHealth Environmental Assessment Tool (BEAT) to the students. Iain was also appointed as a visiting professor during the visit.

This visit follows the establishment of the Joint Lab on Healthy Spaces by BIT and OPENspace in the Summer of 2023 and a successful visit by faculty and students from BIT in early May (Read News post here). Looking ahead, another visit by the Edinburgh College of Art’s Head of School and Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) and OPENspace researchers is planned for December 2024, and there’s potential for a Joint Lab conference in 2026. There are a few other exciting initiatives in the works, including the launch of an ‘International Journal of Healthy Space.’

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 – Research Papers

A transdisciplinary approach to recovering natural and cultural landscape and place identification: A case study of Can Moritz Spring (Rubí, Spain). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), [1709]. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041709
Testing the reliability and effectiveness of a new tool for assessing urban blue spaces. Health & Place, 68, [102526]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102526.
Time distances to residential food amenities and daily walking duration. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020839
Traditional versus Modern? Perceptions and Preferences of Urban Park Users in Iran. Sustainability, 13(4), [2036]. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042036.

We’re launching a new MSc in Landscape and Wellbeing!

OPENspace is delighted to announce a new MSc in Landscape and Wellbeing at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) at the University of Edinburgh.

The one-year programme will take an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the importance of the environment for human health and wellbeing.

Delivered by an expert academic team led by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson, it will draw on the most advanced theoretical and methodological research in the field and is aimed at academics and practitioners working in landscape architecture, planning, design, geography, public health, psychology, epidemiology, horticulture and ecology.

It is designed to help you understand the evidence base on salutogenic landscapes (those that support and enhance human health and wellbeing), translate research into practice, and guide more effective environmental interventions.

> Find out more about the programme on the ECA website

> Watch a recording of an online Q&A about the programme
(Please note that this requires you to install and run Blackboard Collaborate)

Dr. Simon Bell- Academic Papers

OPENspace is delighted to announce a new MSc in Landscape and Wellbeing at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) at the University of Edinburgh.