For several years, papers have been published about the positive impact of greenness on health, including some synthesis and systematic reviews. Yet, none of them has so far addressed the question of the type of habitats and components of such habitats that have a significant (and preferably positive) effect on mental health and psychological well-being. Read More
Author: Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo
President and Founder of NeuroLandscape. Ph.D. in Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology, in her research she explores the relationship between the different features of the natural and built environment’s influence on human health and well-being. She has successfully incorporated neuroscience tools to investigate the changes in brainwave oscillation in people exposed to different types of scenery. She has introduced and operationalized the term contemplative landscape and proposed a quantitative assessment scale - a Contemplative Landscapes Model (CLM) - to identify most beneficial landscapes for mental health in terms of passive exposure. She is an author of "Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes", Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health. She is continuing her research on therapeutic landscapes under two ongoing Horizon Europe projects: GreenME and GreenInCities.
Neuro-architecture to promote well-being | MAB 2020 Symposium
JULY 1, 2021 16:30 – 18:00 (CEST) Neuro-architecture transmits knowledge and technologies from the field of neuroscience into the professions of spatial design, aimed to get better-informed design solutions to promote human and non-human well-being in our public spaces. We kick off with the key findings of our 2-year research project Sensing Streetscapes, followed by Read More
Urban Land Institute/Health Leaders Network
In early 2021 our Board Member and Lead researcher Dr Diana Benjumea was selected to join a prestigious Health Leaders Network initiated by the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Health Leaders Network is a platform aimed at sharing knowledge and ideas with health leaders across continents. It gathers professionals across the globe with the skills and Read More
EDRA52 Conference Presentation | Just Environments
Speech presented at the 25th Environmental Design Research Association 25th Conference in the panel “Green Resilience and Behaviour” by Nazwa Tahsin. Part of the Research Program “Nature Connection and Mental Health of Communities”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwGBP0sscNo&t=24s https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.edra.org/resource/resmgr/edra52/subpages/edra52_-_program_book.pdf
Simply Green is Simply not Enough – a Prelude to Mentally Healthy Cities
The fast-paced urbanization and disconnection of people from nature and the current series of lockdowns, contribute to an increasing burden of mental health disease in cities. Researchers have estimated that it is 39% more likely to develop depression when living in urbanized areas as compared to rural regions [source]. Other mental illnesses and neurodegenerative disorders Read More
EASCAPE VR – our first Virtual Healthy Environment
Thanks to Virtual Reality technology, our mission of providing science-based mental health tools through bringing people closer to nature, and specifically Contemplative Landscapes, has taken life in the form of EASCAPE. It’s our free VR app that enables you to enjoy Contemplative Landscapes from the comfort of your home. Why EASCAPE? Because it lets you Read More
Policy Briefs – Urban Health and Wellbeing Programme by Springer
In our most recent contribution to the Volume Two of the book series Urban Health and Wellbeing Systems Approaches, published by Springer and Zhejian University, we discuss the preliminary findings of our research project currently conducted in low-income communities in Medellin Colombia for our program Planting Seeds of Empowerment: Mental Health and Wellbeing of the Read More
NeuroLandscape featured in BBC “My Perfect City”
NeuroLandscape featured in BBC “My Perfect City” Series episode which was released on: 30 Dec 2020 New episode of the BBC World Service “My perfect city” features Dr Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo among other experts. They discuss Singapore as a city which attempts to improve residents’ mental wellbeing through urban design. Generally, people in cities are likely Read More
Annual Scientific Board Meeting 2020
4th NeuroLandscape Scientific Board Meeting took place online on Friday 13th November, 2020. Meeting agenda: 1) Round table of updates from each member 2) A game! – 2 truths and 1 lie 3) “Summary of NGO activity of 2020 , opportunities for 2021 ( Agnieszka O-G & Agnieszka Ch. -10 min ppt + Q&A) Read More
Healthy Cities – Cities for Humans, Conscious Warsaw 2020 (VIDEO)
A speech presented during the “Conscious Warsaw – Sensing our City” webinar organized by the Center for Conscious Design, which took place on October 22, 2020, in Polish (English subtitles available in this video!). Dr. Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo presented a new concept of designing mentally healthy cities based on contact with salutogenic natural landscapes (Contemplative Landscapes) Read More