Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo, PhD, defines her work as Landscape Architecture & Neurourbanism; Biophilic Design; Researcher; Author; Lecturer and CEO of NeuroLandscape, non-profit reserach NGO, but she also describes herself as an “urban child”. She has forged a fascinating career that bridges her love for nature with a deep interest in neuroscience and urban design. Her journey from landscape architecture to researching how green spaces affect our mental health has made her a prominent voice in the field of neuro-urbanism. Below are her reflections on her life, work, and vision for the future.
Childhood and Nature
“I am, and I was, an urban child, growing up in Warsaw, Poland. But every summer we went with my family to our grandparents’ summer house, some place in the countryside with a lot of nature. And these were the best holidays ever. We were always very upset of leaving also because of nature.
“During my academic years in landscape architecture, I started to notice that a lot of our mental health, how we are feeling and our well-being is related to what we have around us.
“And I started noticing very deeply that the urban environment, especially during the wintertime, during the very gray period in Poland, Warsaw, surrounded with paved concrete infrastructures, is not very good for mental health. I started looking for the most healthy exposures and healthy environments. And this is how my interest in this topic evolved”.
Professional Journey: From Landscape Architecture to Neuroscience
“I was facing the kind of crisis of what to do, divided between the humanities and science. Landscape architecture joins arts, sciences, technical skills and engineering with environmental sciences and biology. During my PhD research when I was struggling to define my topic with some more quantitative methods, I found neuroscience methods can be applied in landscape architecture to see if the landscapes induce any specific brain activity. Yes, a casual conversation with colleagues at some conference coffee break”.
“Could I connect to some group here in Porto where I was studying? Can I get support in this? Can I learn more about the methods? And I eventually teamed up with the laboratory of neuro psychophysiology and saw we can produce very interesting results for informing the design of our spaces, our living spaces”.
Mission and Challenges in Urban Design
“How do our cities look? There are lots of places that are not good for us and the research shows and confirms that already. Now we have to find out what’s actually good and what’s helping and the nature and connection. But it’s not enough to just plant bushes and be happy and tick off the box. This is not enough”.
“There has to be more awareness that was lacking many years before, when we were building our cities. Nobody really considered these issues. The other priorities were always more important. Functionality, connectivity, putting a lot of people in one place, condensing spaces.
“Now we are entering the times where we are also considering mental health as it is a big issue now: without mental health there’s really no enjoyment of life for anyone”.
“I would like to see more within my lifespan the bigger awareness from the land owners and people who are actually deciding about how cities are and look like. Awareness that every decision they make will impact the quality of life of thousands, hundreds of people. And so they might make decisions more carefully and respect the evidence that I’m also hoping to provide more”.
Neuro urbanism and the impact of cities
“We currently work on the neuro urbanism assessment for cities under one European project and this is the way in which cities can see in a quantifiable way how healthy the spaces are, what do they need and how and where to implement nature-based solutions, and what will be the effect of these interventions. It can be huge if it’s implemented in practice, if it’s successful and cities are actually interested in applying these tools”.
“We are also working on the certification scenario where spaces can be certified according to how much potential for mental health improvement they carry. Having places certified would also make it possible for more conscious decisions where people will live or which places they would not want to live.
“Cities can be designed to support mental health — places where well-being is a priority, and communities that care about self-care and mental health feel at home. That would be a powerful shift in how we think about urban life.”
“History shows that we are ready when we are already suffering. People know how it feels losing your senses or connection with reality. Maybe then they wake up to some solutions and live in a more healthy way and really notice that what we surround ourselves with, the structures and what we grasp with our senses it’s very much impacting our whole system.
“With different mobile portable neuroscience tools the technology now allows quite robust measurements in the outdoor setting. There are actually three things. Our relaxation pattern of associated relaxation with positive emotions and with mindfulness is appearing in the brain in exposure to certain types and components of the landscapes”.
“Not all green spaces work in that way. So as a landscape architect I’m interested in getting out, breaking down the landscape and filtering those most beneficial components and elements of landscapes. The results are out already!”.
