EDRA « Therapeutic Landscapes Network

EDRA44 Providence Call for Proposals

August 14, 2012 | by Naomi Sachs

September 21 is deadline for EDRA44 proposal submissions

“Healthy and Healing Places” is the theme of the 2013 Environmental Design Research Association Conference. EDRA44 organizers are accepting proposals through Friday, September 21, 2012. Deadline for display poster submissions is November 30, 2012.

For design professionals, health and human service providers and others, the conference represents an opportunity to contribute health policy through environmental design research The conference will take place May 29-June 1, 2013 at the Westin Providence Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island.

EDRA44 will have a special focus on health policy implications for environmental design in addition to promoting the value of research for advancing environmental design and theory building. Among others, consider some of the following hot topics:

Team science: Shaping multidisciplinary environments to promote primary healthcare delivery

Urban planning strategies to promote population health using health indicators in urban planning

Building capacity among public health professionals with regard to environmental design

Strategies for affordable green and healthy housing

Strategies for building health into building design

Place-based health indicators

Integrating health impact assessment into environmental design

Health hazards of buildings and building materials

Environmental health 101 for non-health professionals

Health-related policies and regulations 101: What architects and engineers need to know

For more details about the Call for Proposals please visit the EDRA44Providence site. Proposals can be submitted at the submission site: http://edra44.abstractcentral.com, and questions about proposals or other conference matters can be emailed to edra44providence@edra.org.

Seattle is home to EDRA’s 43rd Annual Conference

May 17, 2012 | by Naomi Sachs

Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, WA. Photo by Henry Domke, http://henrydomke.com

Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, WA. Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com

EDRA Annual Conference: “Emergent Placemaking”
May 30 – June 2, 2012
Seattle, WA

Can mankind embrace a more enlightened commitment to human ecology? Do we know how to design and create communities in which human potential, in harmony with nature, can be fully realized?

These are questions that Denis Hayes, CEO of the Bullitt Foundation in Seattle, will pose at the 43^rd annual Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) conference in Seattle, May 30 to June 2. Hayes will present the keynote address, “Urban Design to Nurture Human Potential” at the four-day, session-packed conference. The conference theme, “Emergent Placemaking,” speaks to both the potentiality and continuity in our cities, communities and neighborhoods. In addition to several plenary talks, the conference features workshops, paper presentations and mobile sessions to such Puget Sound destinations as Bloedel Reserve, a 150-acre estate devoted to offering the public “a tranquil and refreshing experience in nature.”

(more…)

Call for Papers: The Architecture of the Psychiatric Milieu

January 31, 2012 | by Naomi Sachs

Nautilus. Photo by Henry Domke, http://henrydomke.com/index.htm — Photo by Henry Domke, www.henrydomke.com

Thanks to a member of the EDRA (Environmental Design Research Association) group on Linked In for posting this:

Call for Papers: The Architecture of the Psychiatric Milieu

The editorial team of Facilities, a peer reviewed journal, are pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue dedicated to an exploration of evidence based approaches to establish the most appropriate architecture for the psychiatric milieu.

Facilities for psychiatric care have a tradition of standardization in design and treatment dating back to the moral treatment paradigm of the 1850s. As normative approaches to psychiatric care have changed, so too do the facilities used to house, treat and manage patients. The shift to evidence-based design (EBD) in hospital
architecture means that the psychiatric milieu must follow suit. The search for evidence to model psychiatric facilities is an important endeavour. But psychiatric illness is not like orthopaedics or cardiology, where the needs and satisfaction of staff and patients can be relatively easy to assess and evidence can be easily measured. Mental illnesses are a heterogeneous group of disorders, and there is a risk in categorizing all psychiatric illnesses together and treating them alike. Environmental influences that exacerbate one condition frequently assist with another. As such, Facilities is soliciting approaches that are specific to:

geriatric psychiatry
mood disorders
the non-affective psychotic spectrum
psychiatric emergencies
substance-related disorders
facilities for forensic psychiatry

This list is not exhaustive… and interested authors are encouraged to contact the Guest Editor with alternative proposals. Please kindly take note of the following requirements if you wish to have your paper
considered for this special issue:

(more…)

EDRA Great Places Awards – Call for Entries

February 3, 2011 | by Naomi Sachs

Do You Know A GREAT PLACE?

The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is now accepting submissions for the 13th Annual Great Places Awards for Place Design, Planning and Research.

EDRA’s Great Places Awards are unique among programs that recognize professional and scholarly excellence in environmental design. They are distinguished by their interdisciplinary focus, concern for human factors in the design of the built environment, and a commitment to promoting links between design research and practice.

Entries are welcome from the full breadth of environmental design and related research activities, including architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, interior design, lighting design, graphic design, environmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, geography and the physical sciences. Projects should emphasize a link between research and practice, demonstrating how an understanding of human interaction with place can inspire design.

A panel of distinguished jurors will select winners from four categories: place design, place planning, place research, and a book prize. This year’s jurors include: Leon Bridges, FAIA, AIA , Lecturer, Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, Morgan State University; Sidney N. Brower, Professor, Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, University of Maryland; Mark Cameron, Executive Director, Neighborhood Design Center; Carol Macht, ASLA, Senior Principal, Hord Coplan Macht; Glenn LaRue Smith, Assistant Professor, Graduate Landscape Architecture Department, School of Architecture and Planning, Morgan State University; and Patricia Zingsheim, AIA, CPM, Associate Director of Revitalization and Design, D.C. Office of Planning.

For submission guidelines, rules and official entry form visit www.edra.org. All entries for the 2011 Great Places Awards must be received by February 11, 2011.

Call for Papers! Environmental Design Research Association

September 22, 2010 | by Naomi Sachs

I had such a good time at the ASLA conference last week. Saw many beautiful and moving landscapes, learned a ton, and met lots of great people. Two of those great people were from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), an organization that I’ve long admired. In a nutshell, they undertake and share research on all kinds of environmental design (see their full mission statement below). Their next conference will be in May in Chicago, and the call for papers is still open. But not for much longer, so get in gear and submit! And even if you don’t submit a paper, mark the conference as one to attend. Thanks to Executive Director Kate O’Donnell for this write-up:

The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) is currently accepting proposals for paper and display presentations for its 42^nd Annual Conference—but hurry, the deadline to submit is Friday, October 1. Click here for the official Call for Papers. Don’t miss your opportunity to join the world’s leading place-focused researchers and practitioners for new knowledge and tools, information on funding sources, and partnerships with design practitioners.

When EDRA meets in Chicago next May, the ideas of tomorrow will be identified, discussed and disseminated. EDRA members focus professionally on how forms of physical environments affect our lives and work to answer questions such as:

What is the psychological experience of working in a green building?
How do natural pastoral settings impact the lives of people living with dementia?
What classroom design features enhance elementary school age children’s academic performance?
What makes a home welcoming? Supportive? Culturally appropriate?
How can urban designers create places where individuals and groups flourish?
Why do we travel through forests or parks the way that we do? Why does how we navigate through a space matter?
How should place experiences be investigated and how should knowledge gained be reflected in physical forms?

At EDRA, researchers and practitioners work together to create places where people thrive. For more information, visit www.edra.org.

EDRA Mission Statement: The Environmental Design Research Association is an international, interdisciplinary organization founded in 1968 by design professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility managers. The purpose of edra is the advancement and dissemination of environmental design research, thereby improving understanding of the interrelationships between people, their built and natural surroundings, and helping to create environments responsive to human needs.