Join OPENspace Research Centre co-director Professor Simon Bell in the III Global Summit of Science, Nature and Health where he will discuss with Dr Keeren Sundara Rajoo (Malaysia) , Kirsten McEwan (United Kingdom) and Chia-Pin (Simon) Yu (Taiwan) about the topic of Recent Advances in Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy Research. The Summit runs from 9-10 April and the seminar will be held on 9th April, 12pm London time.
We regret to announce the death of Peter Aspinall in 2024. Peter was latterly Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Emeritus Professor of Environmental Studies at Heriot-Watt University. With expertise in environmental psychology and visual science, he worked in the Schools of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art for a number of years, becoming ECA Director of Research in 1997 before moving to Heriot-Watt University in 2000. Peter continued to work actively for many years with the two research groups he co-founded: OPENspace Research Centre (with Professors Catharine Ward Thompson and Simon Bell), focusing on inclusive access outdoors, health and the environment; and VisionCentre3 (with Professor Bal Dhillon), focusing on vision and quality of life, based in the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, NHS Lothian.
Peter is remembered for his expertise and dedication to innovative research of the highest integrity as well as his kind and inspiring mentorship of a great many staff and students in their research careers.
The first Annual Report of the Joint Lab of Healthy Space between the University of Edinburgh and the Beijing Institute of Technology has been published. It highlights the main activities and achievements of 2024 and presents the plans for the coming year.
Congratulations to our researcher Antonio Ross-Perez, who graduated with his PhD on “Data Analytics and Society” from the University of Manchester in December 2024 with his thesis titled “Integrating Data and Simulation Towards a Mobility Services Decision-Support System”.
On 30 October 2024 Professor Simon Bell, who was awarded his personal chair in Landscape and Wellbeing in 2023, gave his inaugural lecture entitled “The role of landscape in supporting human health and wellbeing: what is this and how does it work?” The lecture showed how the human relationship with nature and landscape developed over time, the research undertaken by Simon together with colleagues in OPENspace and elsewhere and some of the challenges ahead. Simon wove into this story some elements of his career which intersected with and helped to build up his work, starting out as a forester and going on to become a landscape architect. The lecture was recorded and can be viewed at this link: Inaugural Lecture – Professor Simon Bell – Media Hopper Create
As the number of older people increases around the world, it is important we create the environments that ensure everyone has the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. In this new research, we look at how key aspects of the places we live across the whole of our lives can support healthy ageing.
Watch our new video showing how research led by CRESH, working with LBC1936 and OPENspace, explores the way key aspects of the places we live across the whole of our lives can support healthy ageing.
OPENspace Research Centre co-director Professor Catharine Ward Thompson will present some of the OPENspace research and understandings at The Landscape of Public Health – FOLAR Annual Symposium 2024 on 2nd November.
From left to right: Prof Frederico Meireles Rodrigues, Prof Catharine Ward Thompson and Dr Ellen Fetzer. Photo taken by Anna Rhodes.
Professor Catharine Ward Thompson has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS) annual conference in Brussels on 10th September 2024.
The award is given to a leading figure in Landscape Architecture, for contributions to research, education, and public service. Catharine has served on the ECLAS steering committee and was involved in hosting an early ECLAS conference in Edinburgh in 1994. She was part of a small group of European colleagues who secured the funding of an EU Culture programme Thematic Network project on Landscape Architecture education, called “Le:Notre”, in 2001.
Catharine was presented with the award by ECLAS president Dr Ellen Fetzer of Nuertingen Geislingen University, Germany, and ECLAS Secretary-General Professor Frederico Meireles Rodrigues of University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal.
Jeroen de Vries, Catharine Ward Thompson, Richard Stiles and Karsten Jorgensen after writing the first ‘Le:Notre’ bid in 2001
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.’
This congress, which is organised by the International Society of Forest Therapy and Association Gyvo Žalio, is a significant collaborating science event in the field of forest medicine and nature therapy, biomedical research, climatology, phytopharmaceuticals and forest-based tourism.
The central objective of the Congress is to present the latest research findings on how forest ecosystem services contribute to the health and well-being of people and communities. Additionally, it serves as a platform to share exemplary case studies of the non-wood forest economy and the application of forest therapies in the fields of public health and forest-based therapeutic tourism. There will be three days of scientific presentations, panel discussions, practical workshops of forest therapy and other healing practices as well as networking and cultural events.
