Why garden? A simple question, with a very simple answer in that gardening is surely the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything! OK a very personal answer and I might be a tad biased – although I am not alone in this school of thought. The cultural historian Thomas Berry claimed:
Read more…By Jake Robinson
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes to human lifestyles across the world. The impacts of the virus and the social restriction measures have been linked to an increase in mental health conditions including anxiety and depression, insomnia, and suicide ideation.
Read more…By Jake M. Robinson and Dr Ross Cameron, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield
Ever thought about cognitive biases, also known as ‘cognitive blindspots’?
Cognitive biases are systematic errors in judgement. Humans are prone to making them each and every day, and they can have major implications for our relationships and work life. Our new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology proposes a novel cognitive bias called The Holobiont Blindspot. We’ll come back to this later in the article, but for now, let’s take a look at some examples of blindspots that have already been identified.
Read more…By Nadine Khayat
On 4 August 2020, a powerful explosion in Beirut’s port left the city devastated with thousands of people injured and dozens dead. It took a few seconds to destroy around 40% of the city’s urban, social and architectural fabric and heritage.
In the aftermath of the explosion, we have a rare opportunity to instil social justice in the city and commemorate the victims by reimagining the destroyed port; linking the city’s seafront public spaces and reinstating historic links that the port had to the seafront, the city and its inhabitants.
Read more…
The mental and physical benefits of gardens are commonly acknowledged and enthusiastically celebrated. Despite this, there is still a lack of scientific evidence proving their value: until now.
Read more…
A new book co-edited by Dr Nicola Dempsey highlights the damaging mismatches between what we know about nature and what we do in practice. Online book launch of Naturally Challenged, 08 October 2020, 17.00 BST.
Read more…Nadine Khayat
Last year, I embarked on a PhD investigating multiculturalism in public spaces in my hometown Beirut. One of the goals of my work was to learn from Beirut’s crowded and multicultural seafront lessons that could be applicable to the city’s less used green public spaces. And while we tend to think about public spaces as spaces for leisure and respite, in the context I was working on, Beirut- I was also looking at these spaces as spaces of insurgency, temporality, contestation and collective action.
How is it possible that in a period where climate warming is one of the major issues affecting the survival of humanity that street trees are not considered as a vital part of the urban ecosystem, and thus integrated in the political debate?
Dr Nicola Dempsey
This is the second of two blogs sharing the debate we held as part of the recent The Great Outdoors exhibition in the Winter Gardens, Sheffield.
Co-hosted with colleagues Jill Dickinson and Will Easdon at Sheffield Institute of Policy Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, we asked four speakers to debate the financial future of urban parks. The speakers were Councillor Mary Lea (Cabinet Member for Culture, Parks and Leisure, Sheffield City Council), Sue France (Green Estate which is custodian of Manor Fields Park), Peter Neal (landscape architect and environmental planner), Andy Jackson (Heeley Trust which is custodian of Heeley People’s Park). The debate was chaired by Dr Julian Dobson (Department of Landscape Architecture) who asked the following questions:
Dr Nicola Dempsey
I recently co-convened The Great Outdoors exhibition in the Winter Gardens, Sheffield with the Sheffield Institute of Policy Studies (Sheffield Hallam University), Drink Wise: Age Well and Sheffield City Council (Parks & Countryside). As part of this I hosted a debate on the future of urban parks with Hallam colleagues Jill Dickinson and Will Easdon.
Sheffield Landscape BLOG 