Landscape, Well-Being and Environment

Well-being is now firmly established as an overarching theme of key concern to all professionals that work, manage or design the environment. However, well-being is a complex multi-dimensional issue rooted in the ways that we encounter, perceive and interpret the environment. No single discipline can claim to have sufficient knowledge to fully explain the types of interactions that occur, therefore there is a need to draw together a wide range of professions who are exploring the consequences of their actions upon the well-being of individuals and communities.

This edited work addresses the above, consisting of a collection of studies which embrace different aspects of environment, landscape and well-being to consider current approaches to well-being research and practice that fall outside the traditional concepts of well-being as part of medical research, making links with architecture, landscape design, environmental perception, social interaction and environmental sustainability.

The contributors originally presented at the international conference, ‘Well-Being 2011’ jointly hosted by Birmingham City University and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA); the chapters have been developed to present a coherent series of themes reviewing a wide range of literature, presenting case studies appropriate to diverse audiences.

Richard Coles is Professor of Urban Landscape and Environmental Interaction, with a background in forestry and issues relating to urban greening. He has a particular interest in examining how individuals perceive the landscape and has developed a range of theoretical perspectives which model user/environment interaction and from which the current emphasis on well-being stems. His initial training in biological sciences and current work within a design school of architecture allows him to adopt a unique stance to investigation and where he has received grant funding from the UK research councils and the EU. With Zoe Millman he has developed a range of well-being initiatives which target the landscape, walking, memory, and cultural engagement.

Zoe Millman is a post-doctoral researcher at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, with a background in museums and the history of art and architecture. She was awarded her PhD, ‘Landscape narratives and the construction of meaning in the contemporary urban canal-scape’ in 2012 (Birmingham City University / British Waterways). Her current research relates to how we perceive, remember, give meaning to and express our understanding of the landscape. Zoe’s recent work has used creative research methods to investigate landscape perceptions, identities and well-being in partnership with community groups and national organisations.