FOLAR
Friends of the Landscape Archive at Reading

The Landscape of Public Health - FOLAR Annual Symposium 2024

Landscape of Public Health - FOLAR Symposium 2024

The Landscape of Public Health is possibly one of the most important subjects FOLAR has tackled - not just health, but how public open space and designed landscapes have been used in the past for the benefit of the general public. As populations have becomes increasingly more urban in the 20C, landscape architects and managers working today in this area as academics and practitioners can demonstrate, with confidence and research-based evidence, to landscape and associated professions, local and central government politicians, and the public, what can be achieved today, and how this can be done, and how long term management needs to be part of this healthy uplift for the population. The most important benefit, apart from nurturing a generally healthier population, is reducing the differences in health between the most economically deprived populations and those better off .

One theme for the FOLAR symposia is how the past can inform the present and the future. There is definitely a lot of past when it comes to wise city elders understanding and believing ie knowing the connection between being outside and being healthy. One speaker at this event looks back to ancient civilisations to demonstrate this. But for some time now this ‘knowing’ is deemed not enough to convince leaders today to provide funding to create or maintain green spaces, they want evidence. Another of the speakers says enough - we have more than enough research, stop please! As can be expected - with two or so serial career researchers present – this view was swiftly challenged.

It is not enough to be outside. The quality of public green space has to be of a particular standard, and it has to be accessible for all ages and all people. Green space is equigenic - ie it is associated with reducing the difference in health between the most economically deprived people and those better off. This has been proven through research. And the mechanisms linking landscape and health are explained in the final talk.

This was a thought provoking symposium, and it generated one of the best question and answer sessions we have had so far.

2. Design for health in public parks - the archaeology of outdoor health provision

It was surprising to hear Jan Woudstra start his presentation saying that this is not a subject he has spent time researching (until he received FOLAR’s invitation). The reason is that he always thought in creating good landscapes you are taking care of peoples health, and and that remains his conclusion having prepared this presentation – that landscape is for peoples’ health. He is interested and curious about so many landscape related topics, and in his literature search on this subject he wanted to know how design is addressed in connection with public health and what are the sources. He takes us on a richly informative tour from ancient civilisations and then predominantly in the UK though to the 21st century, presenting town walks, diverse outdoor activities, major public health issues eventually dealt with by legislation, and the creation of more open spaces, including urban public parks.

Jan Woudstra is a landscape architect and historian. After working in private practice and teaching part-time at the Architectural Association, he joined the University of Sheffield in 1995, where he is a Reader in Landscape History and Theory. He has published widely, including The Regeneration of Public Parks (2000), and has provided critical reviews of conservation practice and public parks. He has recently published Teaching Landscape History, together with David Jacques and Robert Holden, and his forthcoming book is on Robert Marnock, the ‘most successful landscape gardener’ of the nineteenth century. Since this symposium, Jan Woudstra has been appointed Honorary Professor at University of Sheffield.

Annabel DownsComment