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
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.
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
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
Neuro-urbanism & Neuro-landscape
A new term has officially been introduced in the scientific world – NEUROURBANISM. It happened together with the publication in Lancet in Psychiatry in March 2017 [link here]. City life has a lot to do with the psychiatric conditions , and this is the path we have been following in NeuroLandscape as well. Our cities Read More
Healthy Landscape Workshop, NTU, Taipei, Taiwan
It was a delightful and very interesting stay in Taipei, Taiwan. We went to visit “Healthy Landscapes x Healthy People Lab” ran by Prof Chun-Yen Chan, after he invited us during the IFLA conference in Singapore (networking works wonders!). Me and Nicolas were happy to join the 2 hour sharing session and the workshop organized Read More
Window View and the Brain – study results
Most people in Asian biggest metropolitan areas live above the ground in multi-storey buildings. Here in Singapore residential blocks can reach up to 50+ floors! Developers try to fit as many housing units on small plots of lands without the consideration of what will be the view from the window. Well, maybe it is about Read More
Gardens for Mental Health – Lessons from Chelsea Flower Show 2018 (PART_1)
Design Well, Live Healthy Being around trees, shrubs and other plants improves people’s mental health and give us more positive outlook onto our lives. Spending time outside every day, decreases the risk of being depressed or stressed, and thus burden on our mental health is greatly reduced. The power of plants for our physical and mental wellbeing is Read More