Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo is the president and founder of NeuroLandscape and editor in chief of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health.She is the author of Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes (2023).
Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo is the president and founder of NeuroLandscape and editor in chief of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health.She is the author of Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes (2023).
Conducted by Devin Zuckerman, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Contemplative Sciences Center and Guest Editor of JCS Special Issue #03: Contemplative Ecology.
JCS: To begin, we would love to have you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you and your work, for our readers.
AOG: My name is Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo. I hold a PhD in Landscape Architecture and Urban Ecology, but after my doctoral studies, I became interested in Neuroscience. After over a decade of applying neuroscience methods in assessment and design of landscape, I can say I represent the field of Environmental Neuroscience. I’m the president and founder of NeuroLandscape, a research NGO that brings together scientists from different disciplines—Landscape and Environmental Studies, Psychology, Neuroscience, and Computer Science—with the aim of building mentally healthy cities and living environments. Additionally, I’m the editor in chief of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health. I’m also an advocate for incorporating green and blue spaces into health care systems and for providing equal access to nature for all urban residents. Outside of work, I’m a mom of a two-year-old daughter, a nature and travel lover, and someone who is also just curious about the world. I hope that’s enough as an introduction.
JCS: Yes, that’s great. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces, either your recent book or the concept more broadly.
Landscape architects, artists, painters, designers have known for many years—many decades, centuries—that nature has the power to induce a contemplative state of mind.
AOG:Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces came out only last year, so quite recently. This book sums up around 15 years of learning and conducting my own research about contemplative landscapes. So, basically, what is the scientific background behind the concept? How did the concept come into life? How was it operationalized, put into a scientific frame, and tested using scientific and neuroscientific methods? And then I think the most needed and important parts of the book are the guidelines for designers and the scientific support for these guidelines. There are also case studies—examples of how these specific design strategies and guidelines have been used in real life and in real spaces. So, in fact, I was trying to translate all the research that I gathered and developed over the years in this book to be more hands-on and accessible for designers. But, luckily for me, it also turned out to be very interesting for the general public and anyone who likes exploring nature or is sensitive to the therapeutic, healing, restorative impact of nature. So, actually, it’s a book for anyone who likes exploring nature or who wants to better understand the benefits we can get from even passive contact with nature.
JCS: I hear in your answer, and also in your introduction, so many intersections with the world of Contemplative Studies. You mentioned in particular the idea of contemplative landscapes. I wonder if you could tell me a little bit about the role of contemplation in your work.
AOG: Well, contemplation is a state of mind that we’ve known for ages. Landscape architects, artists, painters, designers have known for many years—many decades, centuries—that nature has the power to induce a contemplative state of mind. We use different words to talk about contemplating nature—not only contemplation but also pondering, reflecting, and others. I felt the vocabulary around contemplation was not very specific or systematic, and this was the first challenge for me as a researcher—to clarify what the term “contemplation” actually means. I decided contemplation should capture the specific state of mind that can be triggered by certain—though not all—natural views or exposures or by certain sensory experiences of contact with nature. This contemplation of nature can lead to different outcomes. Putting together all the literature on the topic from different sources, I came to the conclusion that contemplating nature can have dual character. It can either eliminate thought and make us calmer, or it can induce certain thoughts and insights like feeling small in comparison to some big elements, it can make us feel like a part of the big circle of life, it can induce memories from childhood, and so forth. Contemplation can perhaps also give us more insights about life and death and how everything is connected. It can have healing or transformative effects. These are some of the topics we need to face when studying the contemplation of nature.
JCS: Cool. Thank you. I wonder if you can say a little bit about the neuroscience side—how do these contemplative experiences impact individuals or, more specifically, the brain?
AOG: What we know is that, in most people, highly contemplative landscapes induce patterns of brain activity related to both relaxation and mindfulness. These landscapes have been found to induce a pattern of brain activity called frontal alpha asymmetry in people suffering from depression, which is very beneficial for these patients. It signals the treatment is starting to work. So, it is quite promising. Of course, a lot of research is still needed to confirm and replicate the experiments, but it was quite promising to see that contact with contemplative landscapes provided these benefits, especially for vulnerable groups.
But not all green spaces provide the same benefits. Some urban green spaces did not manage to induce the same brain patterns for the individuals in that experiment. So, not all green is working the same. This is something quite obvious for architects and designers, but not as obvious for urban decision-makers, who might just want to add more greenery everywhere through so-called, urban greening initiatives—yet, we already know that for mental health it is more about quality than quantity of nature.
Returning to the original question, we have evidence that the benefits include relaxation, mindfulness, and a frontal alpha symmetry pattern in depressed individuals. Beyond this neuroscientific evidence, we have self-reports on mood improvement in contemplative environments compared to other green spaces or urban environments. So, these are a few of the short-term benefits we get from contemplative landscapes. The long-term benefits are still not fully described or researched, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest they exist. Of course, there is still a lot in this area that is yet to be researched.
Not all green is working the same. This is something quite obvious for architects and designers, but not as obvious for urban decision-makers, who might just want to add more greenery everywhere through so-called, urban greening initiatives—yet, we already know that for mental health it is more about quality than quantity of nature.
JCS: That’s fascinating. I’m interested in the idea that not all green spaces are equal in terms of the effects that they elicit. Can you give an example—maybe anecdotally from your research—of how green spaces in general are different from contemplative green spaces?
AOG: In contemporary cities, most of the urban parks and gardens do not induce these specific effects in most people. I sometimes refer to these as “generic green spaces.” We classify landscapes as highly contemplative based on seven key components. As an example, one component is the presence of long-distance views, which is quite difficult to achieve in the compact urban environment. This has to do with the visibility of three planes along the fore, middle, and background, and the ability for our eyes to switch between the distance zones. So, you are distant from some elements and closer to other elements. You see some elements with great detail, like the leaves and flowers, but you also see things that are very far away, where we can’t see any detail—like a distant forest. It creates some sort of psychological comfort to have distance, and be away from things. That’s just the first, and most straightforward, of the seven key components that make a landscape highly contemplative. Others are related to landform, biodiversity, dynamics of color and light, spatial order, harmony, and composition. Archetypal elements are also important in these landscapes, which means having symbolically loaded elements within the view—rare or scarce elements of specific value, like a waterfall in the middle of the woods, or a pond or lake. Finally, the general character of peace and silence is the seventh component of the contemplative landscape. Of course, the landscape doesn’t need all of these qualities to be classified as highly contemplative, but it does require a certain aggregation of scores across each category. Highly contemplative landscapes can, therefore, look very different from one another.
JCS: Yeah, that is so interesting. I’m especially interested in the idea that biodiversity has an impact on an individual level. And related to that, we know, or at least it’s indicated from your research, that contemplative green spaces are good for people. They are healthy for individuals and for individual wellbeing. I’m curious what impacts contemplative green spaces may have on systematic planetary health issues, such as climate change or environmental justice. In other words, what impact might contemplative green spaces have on the planet?
AOG: To answer this question, we should first note that our future will be very urbanized. We are already mostly living in cities, and this is a worldwide trend, one of the most prevalent trends. Rapidly growing population and urbanization bring about all sorts of spatial issues. At the same time the ecosystems—natural ecosystems—are being degraded, so it is very important to optimize the quality of green spaces in our cities. This means not just introducing more green spaces but also tailoring them to meet all sorts of other goals: environmental, social, but also our mental health and our wellbeing.
Highly contemplative landscapes are then environmentally friendly, leading to better functioning of ecosystems and improved climate resilience.
So, the quality and optimization of urban and suburban environments and their green spaces plays an important role in our health and the health local ecosystems. Considering various aspects and values the green spaces can give us (the so-called ecosystem services approach) has already started as a trend, but for many years, it wasn’t a priority when designing green spaces in cities. Fortunately, there is now a shift toward including diverse benefits to the environmental design. This shapes up our neighborhoods at a local scale and builds up the big picture of more resilient and sustainable world. This is how we can go from small interventions—looking at the very nuanced, fine aspects of design of green spaces—to things like planetary health and environmental justice.
For the second, it was proven that introducing green spaces in communities with the lowest socioeconomic status has a much more profound positive impact than introducing these spaces in, you know, the city centers, the touristic places, and so on. In terms of return on investment, it is much more profitable to include good quality green spaces in the poorest neighborhoods. So, that’s the case for environmental justice and accessibility to these spaces. There are lots of benefits of doing that.
With all that being said the Contemplative Landscape Model serves very well as a green space optimization tool, it promotes mental health and wellbeing at an individual and community level, but it also happened to promote high-quality public spaces contributing to social resilience, and environmental stewardship. And it promotes biodiversity, native species, spaces with a natural, spontaneous look, as opposed to a more manicured style of landscaping. Highly contemplative landscapes are then environmentally friendly, leading to better functioning of ecosystems and improved climate resilience.
JCS: Yes, that was a very thorough answer! Thank you so much. Related to your answer and, in fact, all that you’ve shared, I’m wondering: What is the future of contemplative landscape design that you most hope to see?
I would like to see nature not just as a place to visit, a destination for a weekend, but also as a backdrop to our everyday life—something that is an elemental part of our everyday life. This vision, I think, would mean a much-reduced burden of mental health issues caused by our urban environments.
AOG: So, I would first like to see more awareness from designers, from the people who are shaping our everyday environments, specifically in the cities. By awareness here I mean that what we design has a profound influence on our mental health and our wellbeing. The research is already there, and we can use this research in design. The researchers present evidence, and we need to translate this research into actionable, real-world solutions. This is what we have been striving for with my NGO—using research to inform our design and planning.
I would also like to see more nature in cities, though not just any nature—and not just the color green. It’s not about “shrubbing it up” but about providing high-quality, functional, and accessible spaces that strengthen our health and wellbeing. And I would like to see nature not just as a place to visit, a destination for a weekend, but also as a backdrop to our everyday life—something that is an elemental part of our everyday life. This vision, I think, would mean a much-reduced burden of mental health issues caused by our urban environments.
Finally, I would like to see us conduct more research about the impact of contemplative landscapes. Reliable and replicable evidence from multiple places and research teams will help convince more groups, like medical practitioners and doctors, to incorporate these findings. And I would like to see nature-based prescription programs and green spaces become part of our health care systems. So, yes, these are the things I would like to see, and I hope our current initiatives are contributing a little to that vision.
JCS: What a wonderful vision that is! Thank you so much.
Contemplation + is an ongoing series that interviews leading scholars in Contemplative Studies to address how contemplation plays an interdisciplinary role in various fields of research and study.
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