Sandra Costa | Birmingham City University (original) (raw)

Papers by Sandra Costa

Routledge eBooks, Jan 27, 2023

Specifics

ABSTRACT Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used... more ABSTRACT Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used were highly dependent on static representations and supported on image based-models and where the user is standing detached from the experience. This perspective undervalues experiencing the landscape as a whole and contrasts with our proposal to provide insights on perceiving and sensing it in the course of active engagement, such as walking through, bringing a self-perspective and an interpretative construction of the experience as a participant. This work aims to investigate how people perceive and interact with urban nature, examining the emotional responses to designed landscapes, involving user based narratives, and to explore links between places and individuals, memories and attachment. For research purposes two case study areas have been established, one in Portugal and another in the UK, on the basis that they are both designed landscapes with a certain range of different environments and well established user/visitor groups. Participants were selected from everyday users and landscape architects and invited to engage in a set of environment encounters based on self-narrated walks and reflective diaries during a period of 6-9 months encompassing at least two contrasting seasons. This approach allowed obtaining user complex personal descriptions, meanings and understandings into how the places were experienced. Research identified the unique aspects of place attachment and memory retrieval that accompanies self-narrated walking involving the movement from everyday places to special places. Participants demonstrated that walking on their own allowed them to transcend and explore their “self-world”, to uncover unique feelings, emotions and moments. These are drawn from their memories, the mental and physical reinterpretation and reconstruction of past experiences and spaces. The interactions involved were revealed by the individuals narrations and demonstrated a profound sense of personal renewal involving a closeness with “nature”, reinforcing a sense of the self. Findings emphasized the importance of memory in the ways that individuals interact with the landscape prompted by the immediacy of the moment that they occur and further our understanding of the restorative qualities of urban nature. Additionally, personal narratives exploring emotional responses of individuals to designed landscapes can contribute to landscape architecture research by challenging the design of such places and new ways of engagement.

Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions, 2017

Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning... more Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services as multifunctional nature-based solutions in a city. Besides providing food, urban gardens contribute to water regulation through unsealed soils, to improved air circulation and cooling through plant transpiration and shading, offering microclimate oases to many users, such as gardeners, visitors, and immediate neighbors. In combination with other green and blue infrastructures, urban gardens can thereby help to mitigate and adapt to the urban heat island effect. They also provide important habitat for

The implementation of Urban Allotment Gardens (UAG) in Portuguese cities has increased in the pas... more The implementation of Urban Allotment Gardens (UAG) in Portuguese cities has increased in the past decade. In spite of some research on its benefits and relevance, there is lack of accessible information that addresses the allocation and provision of such places in cities. Accordingly, it is necessary to take into account economic, ecological, social and aesthetic principles of good urban design. The aim of this work is to identify and examine UAG in Portugal regarding its spatial distribution, urban context and inherent characteristics; and to evaluate the role of the programmes in which some are integrated.

Landscape Research, 2018

Walking interviews and mobile ways of engaging participants in research have recently begun to em... more Walking interviews and mobile ways of engaging participants in research have recently begun to emerge as methods to collect data that tries to understand people’s relationships with places. This work explores the self-narrated walk as a method to research people’s encounters and interactions with the landscape and their associated meanings and values. We address the method by explaining and examining how it has been designed, implemented and experienced by participants who engaged in a set of environmental immersive encounters in urban green landscapes. The findings show that this approach offers the user perspective, and facilitates in situ, mobile and in-the-moment, detailed, complex personal descriptions, and meanings into the mechanisms behind physical and emotional person–place interactions. Additionally, they suggest that the method is excellent to empower participants, to stimulate engagement with places and to capture simultaneously different data-sets. Finally, we discuss potential implications for landscape research and for the design process.

This special issue considers food growing in the city. It presents a series of papers which exp... more This special issue considers food growing in the city. It presents a series of papers which explore the interface between urban growing initiatives and the planned city, and identifies the development of the movement in different world regions and situations. It explores the characteristics of different food growing and urban gardening scenarios regarding the inherent properties of the urban agriculture/food growing complex as an urban movement, its drivers and the niche that it occupies within the city. The papers address circumstances of food growing in highly developed western planning systems, typically represented in Europe, but also other global regions which show different historical and development contexts. These demonstrate that urban food growing initiatives are largely activist-led and tend to fall outside of, or conflict with current city planning models. Where these initiatives are incorporated, they have the potential to provide effective urban landscape solutions that respond to local circumstances, new markets, engendering social and environmental improvement. Taken together, the papers suggest that urban agriculture models need to be recognised more widely within mainstream urban planning and the urban development process.

The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cu... more The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site. Shaped by the meandering water plan of the river, this landscape produces the Porto wine on sloping hillsides, terraced and extensively cultivated with vineyards, often bordered by olive trees and punctuated by the Italian-cypress. The basic unit of production is the large estate known as Quinta. It integrates the vineyards and other productive areas, the rural constructions, and sometimes, not far away from the main house, a vegetable garden and an ornamental garden and woodland.
This study intends to analyse the integration and scenic value of the Quintas in the landscape of Douro. It focuses on the exceptional recreational and ornamental characteristics of these Quintas and aims at describing and analysing the existing types of ornamental gardens. It is based on the collection of data on 28 sites and on the analysis of their structure, the aesthetical and functional principles, the visual relations and the elements that compose them.
The authors aimed at revealing the information collected on sites and opening perspectives for new and further detailed studies in the Douro Cultural Landscape, namely on the contribution of Quintas to landscape quality and identity.

Conference Presentations by Sandra Costa

The paper aims to explore the meanings individuals give to particular places in gardens/parks and... more The paper aims to explore the meanings individuals give to particular places in gardens/parks and their effect on senses of well-being. The study was carried out with selected participants, in urban green spaces of Portugal and the UK, who were invited to engage in self-narrated walks. Findings suggest that feelings perceived by individuals to particular places are associated with the sensory qualities and attractiveness of the place and with personal constructs such as memories and expectations. These aspects are crucial to reshape experiences, reassure attachments and to foster personal well-being. Research furthers our understanding of the sensory qualities of nature and its ability to prompt and construct life course attachments and produce bridges to positive states of being. It employs mobile methods in landscape research that contribute to developing insights of place perception while in movement.

The idea of the therapeutic garden dates back to ancient times. History has demonstrated that hea... more The idea of the therapeutic garden dates back to ancient times. History has demonstrated that healthcare institutions from the past used nature and gardens for therapeutic purposes. It is important to remind the temples dedicated to Asclepius, God of Healing, located in pastoral environments, the cloisters of the monastery gardens, the gardens influenced by the Romantic Movement in the early modern hospitals and in the pavilion style hospitals, as well as the great importance given to nature concerning the location and integration of hospices and sanatoriums.
This work presents an overview of gardens in Portuguese healthcare settings since Middle Age to mid-twentieth century. It identifies and discusses its importance and value demonstrating that over the centuries gardens, natural ventilation and lighting were seen as key elements in health and in the therapeutic process.
Most of the important Portuguese healthcare settings were influenced by some of the great European examples. Nevertheless, the Dona Estefânia Pediatric Hospital was, at the time, pointed out by Florence Nightingale as an example to be followed, emphasizing the favourable relationship between nature and location and the possibility given to convalescents to access and walking in the garden.

Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used were hig... more Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used were highly dependent on static representations and supported on image based-models
and where the user is standing detached from the experience. This perspective undervalues experiencing the landscape as a whole and contrasts with our proposal to provide insights on perceiving and sensing it in the course of active engagement, such as walking through, bringing a self-perspective and an interpretative construction of the experience as a participant.
This work aims to investigate how people perceive and interact with urban nature, examining the emotional responses to designed landscapes, involving user based narratives, and to explore links between places and individuals, memories and attachment.
For research purposes two case study areas have been established, one in Portugal and another in the UK, on the basis that they are both designed landscapes with a certain range
of different environments and well established user/visitor groups. Participants were selected from everyday users and landscape architects and invited to engage in a set of environment encounters based on self-narrated walks and reflective diaries during a period of 6-9 months encompassing at least two contrasting seasons. This approach allowed obtaining user complex personal descriptions, meanings and understandings into how the places were experienced.
Research identified the unique aspects of place attachment and memory retrieval that accompanies self-narrated walking involving the movement from everyday places to special
places. Participants demonstrated that walking on their own allowed them to transcend and explore their “self-world”, to uncover unique feelings, emotions and moments. These are drawn from their memories, the mental and physical reinterpretation and reconstruction of past experiences and spaces. The interactions involved were revealed by the individuals narrations and demonstrated a profound sense of personal renewal involving a closeness with “nature”, reinforcing a sense of the self.
Findings emphasized the importance of memory in the ways that individuals interact with the landscape prompted by the immediacy of the moment that they occur and further our
understanding of the restorative qualities of urban nature. Additionally, personal narratives exploring emotional responses of individuals to designed landscapes can contribute to landscape architecture research by challenging the design of such places and new ways of engagement.

The authors invite participants to a discussion on innovative practices in landscape research tha... more The authors invite participants to a discussion on innovative practices in landscape research that contribute to developing an understanding of landscape perception in transition, from the users’ perspective, and how such moments are revisited and magnified. Research findings in recent years have identified a lack of understanding of landscape perception in transition, appealing for further investigation using research methods, which move away from a reliance on static representations.

This paper presents findings examining the particular changes in rhythm arising from in-the-moment experience and the immediacy of the moment, focusing on the value and meaning of pauses, movements, verbal and non-verbal expression. Whereas other research has tended to undervalue or ignore these moments, the authors suggest focussing on such embodied attentions furthers our understanding of landscape perception. This was achieved using innovative research methods, which elucidated the interpretive construction of landscape experience as lived by the participant.

The findings are drawn from studies, carried out with adults and children, which enabled participants to capture and reflect on in-the-moment experience, involving a variety of creative methods, such as film-making, photography, drawing, dairies and writing - generating outputs for further investigation, allowing participants to experiment with voice and creative interpretations.

Keywords
creative methods, in-the-moment experience, geographical imagination, immaterial realities, nature, movement, rhythms

The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cu... more The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site. Shaped by the meandering water plan of the river, this landscape produces the Porto wine on sloping hillsides, terraced and extensively cultivated with vineyards, often bordered by olive trees and punctuated by the Italian-cypress. The basic unit of production is the large estate known as Quinta. It integrates the vineyards and other productive areas, the rural constructions, and sometimes, not far away from the main house, a vegetable garden and an ornamental garden and woodland. This study intends to analyse the integration and scenic value of the Quintas in the landscape of Douro. It focuses on the exceptional recreational and ornamental characteristics of these Quintas and aims at describing and analysing the existing types of ornamental gardens. It is based on the collection of data on 28 sites and on the analysis of their structure, the aesthetical and functional principles, the visual relations and the elements that compose them. The authors aimed at revealing the information collected on sites and opening perspectives for new and further detailed studies in the Douro Cultural Landscape, namely on the contribution of Quintas to landscape quality and identity.

Talks by Sandra Costa

The main focus of this talk is the study of the garden as a therapeutic place, highlighting its c... more The main focus of this talk is the study of the garden as a therapeutic place, highlighting its contribution to the humanization of hospitals, namely, to the input to therapeutic processes enhancement, to improve patients wellbeing, to increase of the staff satisfaction and quality of the services provided by them, and to offer better conditions of comfort and support to families and visitors.
Several gardens in healthcare institutions were analysed. They underline its importance towards the establishment of the concept of therapeutic garden, demonstrating that on several periods in history nature and gardens where interpreted as therapeutic agents, healing places and as promoters of pain and stress relief. Furthermore, we discuss the specific and possible benefits of therapeutic gardens on health and wellbeing of hospital users with special focus on patients. For benefits to occur, the planning and design of the therapeutic garden as well as its integration with the hospital as a whole are of crucial importance. Therefore, in this communication a set of guiding design principles is presented able to be applied in a flexible way in hospitals.
Taking into consideration that a void exists in this subject in Portugal, contradicting the international tendency, as project and construction of therapeutic gardens is concerned, a case study – the Pedro Hispano Hospital - is analysed and conceptualised as a small contribution and incentive towards the implementation of therapeutic gardens in Portuguese hospitals. The therapeutic garden design principles are applied to the outdoors of Pedro Hispano Hospital opposing and going beyond the present situation.
Finally, we concluded the therapeutic garden is an effective tool, able to promote and consolidate the objective of hospitals humanization, maximizing the quality and intensity of positive interactions presented to the user.

Books by Sandra Costa

Biophilic Connections and Environmental Encounters in the Urban Age takes a multi-disciplinary ap... more Biophilic Connections and Environmental Encounters in the Urban Age takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on the authors’ wide range of experience, to provide a greater understanding of the different dimensions of environmental engagement. It considers the ways that we interact with our environments, presenting a comprehensive account of how people negotiate and use the urban landscape.

Set within current debates concerning urban futures, societal issues, sustainable cities, health and well-being, the book explores our innate need for contact with the natural world through biophilic design thinking to expand our knowledge base and promote a wider understanding of the importance of these interactions on our collective well-being. It responds to questions such as, what are the urban qualities that support our well-being? As an urbanised society what are the environmental determinants that promote healthy and satisfying lifestyles? Beginning with an overview of concepts relating to biophilia and environmental engagement, it moves through current theory and practice, different pathways and their characteristics, before presenting real world examples and applications through illustrated case studies in different world situations.

With a particular focus on the experience of individuals, the book is essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, design and health sciences, interested in the future of our cities and the importance of green spaces.

How can we achieve and promote well-being? Drawing on examples from the arts, humanities and desi... more How can we achieve and promote well-being? Drawing on examples from the arts, humanities and design, this book brings together work from a wide range of areas to reveal the unique ways in which different disciplines approach the universal goal of supporting well-being.

Pathways to Well-Being in Design recognises that the distinction between academics and practitioners often becomes blurred, where, when working together, a fusion of thoughts and ideas takes place and provides a powerful platform for dialogue.

Providing new insights into the approaches and issues associated with promoting well-being, the book's multi-disciplinary coverage invites readers to consider these ideas within the framework of their own work.

The book's 12 chapters are authored by academics who are involved in practice or are working with practitioners and features real world case studies which cover a range of situations, circumstances, environments, and social groups.

Pathways to Well-Being in Design responds to those wishing to enquire further about well-being, taking the reader through different circumstances to consider approaches, discussing practice and theory, real world and virtual world considerations.

This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand well-being, including students and professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, design and health sciences.

Springer - Nature-based Solutions to Climate Change in Urban Areas, 2017

Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning... more Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services as multifunctional nature-based solutions in a city. Besides providing food, urban gardens contribute to water regulation through unsealed soils, to improved air circulation and cooling through plant transpiration and shading, offering microclimate oases to many users, such as gardeners, visitors and immediate neighbors. In combination with other green and blue infrastructures, urban gardens can thereby help to mitigate and adapt to the urban heat island effect. They also provide important habitat for wildlife and genetic diversity. Urban gardens create opportunities for leisure and recreation and thereby promote health and well-being, as well as a sense of place, cultural identity and social cohesion-important factors for societies to adapt to change. Exploring case studies across Europe we discuss differences between garden types and their contribution to achieving sustainability goals for city communities.

Routledge eBooks, Jan 27, 2023

Specifics

ABSTRACT Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used... more ABSTRACT Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used were highly dependent on static representations and supported on image based-models and where the user is standing detached from the experience. This perspective undervalues experiencing the landscape as a whole and contrasts with our proposal to provide insights on perceiving and sensing it in the course of active engagement, such as walking through, bringing a self-perspective and an interpretative construction of the experience as a participant. This work aims to investigate how people perceive and interact with urban nature, examining the emotional responses to designed landscapes, involving user based narratives, and to explore links between places and individuals, memories and attachment. For research purposes two case study areas have been established, one in Portugal and another in the UK, on the basis that they are both designed landscapes with a certain range of different environments and well established user/visitor groups. Participants were selected from everyday users and landscape architects and invited to engage in a set of environment encounters based on self-narrated walks and reflective diaries during a period of 6-9 months encompassing at least two contrasting seasons. This approach allowed obtaining user complex personal descriptions, meanings and understandings into how the places were experienced. Research identified the unique aspects of place attachment and memory retrieval that accompanies self-narrated walking involving the movement from everyday places to special places. Participants demonstrated that walking on their own allowed them to transcend and explore their “self-world”, to uncover unique feelings, emotions and moments. These are drawn from their memories, the mental and physical reinterpretation and reconstruction of past experiences and spaces. The interactions involved were revealed by the individuals narrations and demonstrated a profound sense of personal renewal involving a closeness with “nature”, reinforcing a sense of the self. Findings emphasized the importance of memory in the ways that individuals interact with the landscape prompted by the immediacy of the moment that they occur and further our understanding of the restorative qualities of urban nature. Additionally, personal narratives exploring emotional responses of individuals to designed landscapes can contribute to landscape architecture research by challenging the design of such places and new ways of engagement.

Theory and Practice of Urban Sustainability Transitions, 2017

Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning... more Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services as multifunctional nature-based solutions in a city. Besides providing food, urban gardens contribute to water regulation through unsealed soils, to improved air circulation and cooling through plant transpiration and shading, offering microclimate oases to many users, such as gardeners, visitors, and immediate neighbors. In combination with other green and blue infrastructures, urban gardens can thereby help to mitigate and adapt to the urban heat island effect. They also provide important habitat for

The implementation of Urban Allotment Gardens (UAG) in Portuguese cities has increased in the pas... more The implementation of Urban Allotment Gardens (UAG) in Portuguese cities has increased in the past decade. In spite of some research on its benefits and relevance, there is lack of accessible information that addresses the allocation and provision of such places in cities. Accordingly, it is necessary to take into account economic, ecological, social and aesthetic principles of good urban design. The aim of this work is to identify and examine UAG in Portugal regarding its spatial distribution, urban context and inherent characteristics; and to evaluate the role of the programmes in which some are integrated.

Landscape Research, 2018

Walking interviews and mobile ways of engaging participants in research have recently begun to em... more Walking interviews and mobile ways of engaging participants in research have recently begun to emerge as methods to collect data that tries to understand people’s relationships with places. This work explores the self-narrated walk as a method to research people’s encounters and interactions with the landscape and their associated meanings and values. We address the method by explaining and examining how it has been designed, implemented and experienced by participants who engaged in a set of environmental immersive encounters in urban green landscapes. The findings show that this approach offers the user perspective, and facilitates in situ, mobile and in-the-moment, detailed, complex personal descriptions, and meanings into the mechanisms behind physical and emotional person–place interactions. Additionally, they suggest that the method is excellent to empower participants, to stimulate engagement with places and to capture simultaneously different data-sets. Finally, we discuss potential implications for landscape research and for the design process.

This special issue considers food growing in the city. It presents a series of papers which exp... more This special issue considers food growing in the city. It presents a series of papers which explore the interface between urban growing initiatives and the planned city, and identifies the development of the movement in different world regions and situations. It explores the characteristics of different food growing and urban gardening scenarios regarding the inherent properties of the urban agriculture/food growing complex as an urban movement, its drivers and the niche that it occupies within the city. The papers address circumstances of food growing in highly developed western planning systems, typically represented in Europe, but also other global regions which show different historical and development contexts. These demonstrate that urban food growing initiatives are largely activist-led and tend to fall outside of, or conflict with current city planning models. Where these initiatives are incorporated, they have the potential to provide effective urban landscape solutions that respond to local circumstances, new markets, engendering social and environmental improvement. Taken together, the papers suggest that urban agriculture models need to be recognised more widely within mainstream urban planning and the urban development process.

The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cu... more The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site. Shaped by the meandering water plan of the river, this landscape produces the Porto wine on sloping hillsides, terraced and extensively cultivated with vineyards, often bordered by olive trees and punctuated by the Italian-cypress. The basic unit of production is the large estate known as Quinta. It integrates the vineyards and other productive areas, the rural constructions, and sometimes, not far away from the main house, a vegetable garden and an ornamental garden and woodland.
This study intends to analyse the integration and scenic value of the Quintas in the landscape of Douro. It focuses on the exceptional recreational and ornamental characteristics of these Quintas and aims at describing and analysing the existing types of ornamental gardens. It is based on the collection of data on 28 sites and on the analysis of their structure, the aesthetical and functional principles, the visual relations and the elements that compose them.
The authors aimed at revealing the information collected on sites and opening perspectives for new and further detailed studies in the Douro Cultural Landscape, namely on the contribution of Quintas to landscape quality and identity.

The paper aims to explore the meanings individuals give to particular places in gardens/parks and... more The paper aims to explore the meanings individuals give to particular places in gardens/parks and their effect on senses of well-being. The study was carried out with selected participants, in urban green spaces of Portugal and the UK, who were invited to engage in self-narrated walks. Findings suggest that feelings perceived by individuals to particular places are associated with the sensory qualities and attractiveness of the place and with personal constructs such as memories and expectations. These aspects are crucial to reshape experiences, reassure attachments and to foster personal well-being. Research furthers our understanding of the sensory qualities of nature and its ability to prompt and construct life course attachments and produce bridges to positive states of being. It employs mobile methods in landscape research that contribute to developing insights of place perception while in movement.

The idea of the therapeutic garden dates back to ancient times. History has demonstrated that hea... more The idea of the therapeutic garden dates back to ancient times. History has demonstrated that healthcare institutions from the past used nature and gardens for therapeutic purposes. It is important to remind the temples dedicated to Asclepius, God of Healing, located in pastoral environments, the cloisters of the monastery gardens, the gardens influenced by the Romantic Movement in the early modern hospitals and in the pavilion style hospitals, as well as the great importance given to nature concerning the location and integration of hospices and sanatoriums.
This work presents an overview of gardens in Portuguese healthcare settings since Middle Age to mid-twentieth century. It identifies and discusses its importance and value demonstrating that over the centuries gardens, natural ventilation and lighting were seen as key elements in health and in the therapeutic process.
Most of the important Portuguese healthcare settings were influenced by some of the great European examples. Nevertheless, the Dona Estefânia Pediatric Hospital was, at the time, pointed out by Florence Nightingale as an example to be followed, emphasizing the favourable relationship between nature and location and the possibility given to convalescents to access and walking in the garden.

Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used were hig... more Many studies have investigated users’ interactions with the landscape where methods used were highly dependent on static representations and supported on image based-models
and where the user is standing detached from the experience. This perspective undervalues experiencing the landscape as a whole and contrasts with our proposal to provide insights on perceiving and sensing it in the course of active engagement, such as walking through, bringing a self-perspective and an interpretative construction of the experience as a participant.
This work aims to investigate how people perceive and interact with urban nature, examining the emotional responses to designed landscapes, involving user based narratives, and to explore links between places and individuals, memories and attachment.
For research purposes two case study areas have been established, one in Portugal and another in the UK, on the basis that they are both designed landscapes with a certain range
of different environments and well established user/visitor groups. Participants were selected from everyday users and landscape architects and invited to engage in a set of environment encounters based on self-narrated walks and reflective diaries during a period of 6-9 months encompassing at least two contrasting seasons. This approach allowed obtaining user complex personal descriptions, meanings and understandings into how the places were experienced.
Research identified the unique aspects of place attachment and memory retrieval that accompanies self-narrated walking involving the movement from everyday places to special
places. Participants demonstrated that walking on their own allowed them to transcend and explore their “self-world”, to uncover unique feelings, emotions and moments. These are drawn from their memories, the mental and physical reinterpretation and reconstruction of past experiences and spaces. The interactions involved were revealed by the individuals narrations and demonstrated a profound sense of personal renewal involving a closeness with “nature”, reinforcing a sense of the self.
Findings emphasized the importance of memory in the ways that individuals interact with the landscape prompted by the immediacy of the moment that they occur and further our
understanding of the restorative qualities of urban nature. Additionally, personal narratives exploring emotional responses of individuals to designed landscapes can contribute to landscape architecture research by challenging the design of such places and new ways of engagement.

The authors invite participants to a discussion on innovative practices in landscape research tha... more The authors invite participants to a discussion on innovative practices in landscape research that contribute to developing an understanding of landscape perception in transition, from the users’ perspective, and how such moments are revisited and magnified. Research findings in recent years have identified a lack of understanding of landscape perception in transition, appealing for further investigation using research methods, which move away from a reliance on static representations.

This paper presents findings examining the particular changes in rhythm arising from in-the-moment experience and the immediacy of the moment, focusing on the value and meaning of pauses, movements, verbal and non-verbal expression. Whereas other research has tended to undervalue or ignore these moments, the authors suggest focussing on such embodied attentions furthers our understanding of landscape perception. This was achieved using innovative research methods, which elucidated the interpretive construction of landscape experience as lived by the participant.

The findings are drawn from studies, carried out with adults and children, which enabled participants to capture and reflect on in-the-moment experience, involving a variety of creative methods, such as film-making, photography, drawing, dairies and writing - generating outputs for further investigation, allowing participants to experiment with voice and creative interpretations.

Keywords
creative methods, in-the-moment experience, geographical imagination, immaterial realities, nature, movement, rhythms

The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cu... more The Upper River Douro Valley Wine Region, in the northern inland area of Portugal, is a UNESCO Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site. Shaped by the meandering water plan of the river, this landscape produces the Porto wine on sloping hillsides, terraced and extensively cultivated with vineyards, often bordered by olive trees and punctuated by the Italian-cypress. The basic unit of production is the large estate known as Quinta. It integrates the vineyards and other productive areas, the rural constructions, and sometimes, not far away from the main house, a vegetable garden and an ornamental garden and woodland. This study intends to analyse the integration and scenic value of the Quintas in the landscape of Douro. It focuses on the exceptional recreational and ornamental characteristics of these Quintas and aims at describing and analysing the existing types of ornamental gardens. It is based on the collection of data on 28 sites and on the analysis of their structure, the aesthetical and functional principles, the visual relations and the elements that compose them. The authors aimed at revealing the information collected on sites and opening perspectives for new and further detailed studies in the Douro Cultural Landscape, namely on the contribution of Quintas to landscape quality and identity.

The main focus of this talk is the study of the garden as a therapeutic place, highlighting its c... more The main focus of this talk is the study of the garden as a therapeutic place, highlighting its contribution to the humanization of hospitals, namely, to the input to therapeutic processes enhancement, to improve patients wellbeing, to increase of the staff satisfaction and quality of the services provided by them, and to offer better conditions of comfort and support to families and visitors.
Several gardens in healthcare institutions were analysed. They underline its importance towards the establishment of the concept of therapeutic garden, demonstrating that on several periods in history nature and gardens where interpreted as therapeutic agents, healing places and as promoters of pain and stress relief. Furthermore, we discuss the specific and possible benefits of therapeutic gardens on health and wellbeing of hospital users with special focus on patients. For benefits to occur, the planning and design of the therapeutic garden as well as its integration with the hospital as a whole are of crucial importance. Therefore, in this communication a set of guiding design principles is presented able to be applied in a flexible way in hospitals.
Taking into consideration that a void exists in this subject in Portugal, contradicting the international tendency, as project and construction of therapeutic gardens is concerned, a case study – the Pedro Hispano Hospital - is analysed and conceptualised as a small contribution and incentive towards the implementation of therapeutic gardens in Portuguese hospitals. The therapeutic garden design principles are applied to the outdoors of Pedro Hispano Hospital opposing and going beyond the present situation.
Finally, we concluded the therapeutic garden is an effective tool, able to promote and consolidate the objective of hospitals humanization, maximizing the quality and intensity of positive interactions presented to the user.

Biophilic Connections and Environmental Encounters in the Urban Age takes a multi-disciplinary ap... more Biophilic Connections and Environmental Encounters in the Urban Age takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on the authors’ wide range of experience, to provide a greater understanding of the different dimensions of environmental engagement. It considers the ways that we interact with our environments, presenting a comprehensive account of how people negotiate and use the urban landscape.

Set within current debates concerning urban futures, societal issues, sustainable cities, health and well-being, the book explores our innate need for contact with the natural world through biophilic design thinking to expand our knowledge base and promote a wider understanding of the importance of these interactions on our collective well-being. It responds to questions such as, what are the urban qualities that support our well-being? As an urbanised society what are the environmental determinants that promote healthy and satisfying lifestyles? Beginning with an overview of concepts relating to biophilia and environmental engagement, it moves through current theory and practice, different pathways and their characteristics, before presenting real world examples and applications through illustrated case studies in different world situations.

With a particular focus on the experience of individuals, the book is essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, design and health sciences, interested in the future of our cities and the importance of green spaces.

How can we achieve and promote well-being? Drawing on examples from the arts, humanities and desi... more How can we achieve and promote well-being? Drawing on examples from the arts, humanities and design, this book brings together work from a wide range of areas to reveal the unique ways in which different disciplines approach the universal goal of supporting well-being.

Pathways to Well-Being in Design recognises that the distinction between academics and practitioners often becomes blurred, where, when working together, a fusion of thoughts and ideas takes place and provides a powerful platform for dialogue.

Providing new insights into the approaches and issues associated with promoting well-being, the book's multi-disciplinary coverage invites readers to consider these ideas within the framework of their own work.

The book's 12 chapters are authored by academics who are involved in practice or are working with practitioners and features real world case studies which cover a range of situations, circumstances, environments, and social groups.

Pathways to Well-Being in Design responds to those wishing to enquire further about well-being, taking the reader through different circumstances to consider approaches, discussing practice and theory, real world and virtual world considerations.

This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand well-being, including students and professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, design and health sciences.

Springer - Nature-based Solutions to Climate Change in Urban Areas, 2017

Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning... more Urban gardens can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation through a range of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services as multifunctional nature-based solutions in a city. Besides providing food, urban gardens contribute to water regulation through unsealed soils, to improved air circulation and cooling through plant transpiration and shading, offering microclimate oases to many users, such as gardeners, visitors and immediate neighbors. In combination with other green and blue infrastructures, urban gardens can thereby help to mitigate and adapt to the urban heat island effect. They also provide important habitat for wildlife and genetic diversity. Urban gardens create opportunities for leisure and recreation and thereby promote health and well-being, as well as a sense of place, cultural identity and social cohesion-important factors for societies to adapt to change. Exploring case studies across Europe we discuss differences between garden types and their contribution to achieving sustainability goals for city communities.

Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe

This chapter aims to gain an understanding of the position of allotment and community gardens wit... more This chapter aims to gain an understanding of the position of allotment and community gardens within the urban fabric. In this context, the term position is used to explore how these spaces have occupied the cityscape and impact(ed) one another, how they are integrated in the urban fabric and connect to other spaces of green infrastructure, and the different points of view among users and non-users. Thus the chapter discusses three main aspects: (1) the location of these gardens in the city and their relation to the surroundings and physical characteristics, (2) their relation to the green infrastructure, and (3) their position in terms of image and perception.

by Richard Coles, Sandra Costa, Miryha Runnerstrom, Alison Mercer, Jacquie McIntosh, Elizabeth Woodcock, Carolyn Blackburn, Elizabeth Freeman, Esther Johnson, Veronica Barry, Gillian McCarthy, Clare Hickman, Paul Magee, W. Connor O'Grady, and amrit phull

SPECIFICS: Discussing Landscape Architecture, 2014