About

Bianca Soares Moura, MA (Hons) Landscape Architect
eca | Edinburgh College of Art | School of Landscape Architecture

Landscape Institute Awards 2009 – winner in the Student Dissertation category

Contemplation-Scapes: An enquiry into the strategies, typologies and design concepts of contemplative landscapes

Dissertation tutors: Dr Penny Travlou, Research Fellow, OPENspace, Edinburgh College of Art. Ross Mclean, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art

(download a copy here)

Stress, NDD, Nature and meditation

In post-industrial society motivated by mass consumerist lifestyle, targets and profits, workers increasingly face long working hours, tight deadlines and difficulties balancing work with personal responsibilities. This can place significant pressure on people, leading them to feel stressed. The 2007 Psychosocial Working Conditions survey indicated that around 13.6% of all working individuals thought their job was very or extremely stressful. In addition to these individuals, the Labour Force Survey states that in the financial year of 2007/8 around 442,000 working people in Britain claimed they were experiencing work-related stress ‘at a level that was making them ill.’

Even children are not exempt from stress. The media have recently covered the increased pressures children today face in terms of exams, climate change, the economic climate, the rise of parental divorce, and numerous other factors. According to several authors, many children and even adults are suffering from ‘Nature Deficit Disorder,’ which Stephen Louv refers to in his book Last Child in the Woods. Louv has found that children who spend more time in nature are better off intellectually, physically, and spiritually. The Kaplans and Ulrich have similar findings regarding the direct links between contact with nature and improvement of health, general well-being and reduction of stress. Spending time in nature is thus imperative for children’s development, and extremely beneficial if not just as imperative for adults.

There appears to be considerable support for attempting to counteract the speedy lifestyle, which manifests itself in groups such as the Slow Food movement. Other means of tackling stress and improving well-being are the ever more popular practices of Yoga and meditation. Initially reaching wide audiences through celebrity endorsement, Yoga in particular has become a mainstream hobby. Meditation is widely promoted by best-selling ‘self-help’ authors, and even the NHS recommend the practice.

The argument for Contemplation

Whereas the practice of meditation involves focusing one’s attention towards a specific spiritual purpose, contemplation involves a similar process, only the focus is not confined to the spiritual. Close definitions of contemplation include ‘to ponder’ or ‘to reflect’, implying a deep mode of thought that may be existential by nature.

The practice of contemplation has been proposed as a form of ‘serious leisure’ (Stebbins, 2006, p. 17) by Professor Robert A. Stebbins from the University of Calgary. Although contemplation might not seem like a leisure activity on the surface, the sociologist whose expertise is leisure studies defends his definition, stating that contemplation is a ‘complex reflective activity engaged in for its own sake’. Stebbins also categorizes practices such as playing/creating music, meditating or volunteering as serious leisure. By contrast, he coined the term ‘casual leisure’ to describe activities, such as conversing with friends or strolling in the park, that are pleasant and immediately rewarding but short-lived and require no training (Stebbins, 2001). He is concerned that people are partaking excessively in forms of casual leisure instead of engaging in other, more meaningful, serious leisure activities such as contemplation. His argument echoes that of Aristotle (Stebbins, 2006):

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.  -Aristotle

Beyond the benefits of contemplation to the individual’s well-being, Aristotle implies that contemplation is essential to the value of life. If the practice of contemplation is paired with a natural setting, there is the potential to combine the benefits on health and well-being associated with each one. With these potential benefits in mind, it becomes evident that the creation of spaces which combine contemplation and nature- landscapes of contemplation- merit further investigation.

Landscapes of Contemplation: Restorative Potential, Research Potential

A growing body of research exists on restorative environments, but contemplative landscapes remain under-researched. Landscapes of contemplation provide the opportunity to combine two of the most effective measures for reducing stress and improving well-being. Defined as outdoor spaces conducive to reflection or meditation, they provide a setting with access to nature in harmony with the built environment, where people can retreat into their thoughts and have a moment of inner peace. For these reasons, it would seem that the creation of an urban fabric with integrated landscapes of contemplation has potential for improving the health and well-being of city residents. This calls for more detailed studies into the design concepts of contemplative landscapes, as well as user perceptions and patterns of outdoor space. Three key questions emerge that may initiate a new study into the topic:

1. What are the key design concepts for contemplative landscapes?

2. What types of city landscapes do city residents seek out for their personal moments of contemplation?

3. What strategies can we as designers learn from these spaces, in a local and city-wide context?

-adapted from Contemplation-Scapes:  © Copyright Bianca Soares Moura