I have recently found a great piece of literature about designing urban gardens for well-being. “Restorative commons: Creating health and well-being through urban landscapes” by Campbell, Lindsay; Wiesen, Anne published in 2009 under USDA – Forest Service. Here is the link to the online resource – available free pdf version! What specifically caught my attention there 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.
Where Government Listens to Scientists: Urban Sustainability R&D Congress, Singapore
Singapore is one of the most prominent examples of Urban Sustainability through new technologies, research and development. It is also one of the few countries where the government is actively supporting science and innovation in order to inform the practice of urban design and solve urban living issues. The Urban Sustainability R&D Congress is organized Read More
Maintenance of green in the city and health
Different initiatives undertaken by the urban authorities can contribute to the improvement of urban dweller’s contact with nature and the nature exposure These include: Leaving unmowed areas in the urban green spaces, for developing a small ecosystems for flora & fauna, (urban meadows) Promoting the spontaneous habitat creation Leaving the fallen leaves on the ground Read More
April – the World Landscape Architecture Month by ASLA
When I went to my first scientific conference, as a PhD candidate, I was surprised that the main topic of the post-conference discussion was about “what is the landscape architecture?”. For more than 1 hour landscape architects (teachers, academics, and proffessionals) were discussing vividly about what it is that what they do. I found it Read More
WHO to fund a systematic review about blue spaces and health
In our ongoing collaboration with the EKLIPSE mechanism, together with Expert Working Group from different European countries and representing various disciplines, we are trying to answer the question: Which types and components of urban and peri-urban blue / green spaces have a significant impact on human mental health and mental well-being? EKLIPSE is project funded Read More
Follow the awakening in urban green spaces for health!
Our newest publication XSection Journal features the process of evolution in perception of urban green spaces in terms of the health benefits they can deliver, through a popular “expanding brain meme. Check out this short article and how to interpret the image here: https://www.xsectionjournal.com/edition-8/2018/11/22/generations-of-urban-green-for-health-dr-agnieszka-olszewska-guizzo
RIVER. A powerful landscape component restoring the human nervous system.
The more we know about the interactions between the landscape and human nervous system the better we can plan and design our living environments to serve our health. With water being the essential component of any form of life, it is not surprising that it also influence our psychophysiological response, even if we are just Read More
A landscape architect’s experience of Chelsea Flower Show 2018 (PART_4)
These three very special gardens of the Chelseas Flower Show 2018, were featured this year on the NeuroLandscape blog: Feel good garden Morgan Stanley garden Lemon Tree Garden They are a great source of information and inspiration on how to create healthy space through the landscape design, right selection of plants, materials, textures and shapes. Read More
Scenic vs urban landscapes
A lot of studies have been performed comparing the reaction to urban vs scenic, or natural landscapes in the lab. This is one of them and we decided to feature it because it is performed with the most advanced method of brain scanning that we know thus far , fMRI. From the figure we can Read More
NeuroURBANISM, NeuroARCHITECTURE, NeuroLANDSCAPE!
Many aspects of our lives are far more interlinked than we normally imagine. Breakthroughs in neuroscience have made these links even more sensible than ever. Read more at the practical design and construction site Houzz, how nouroarchitecture can look like in practice. Photo credits: #Houzz