Reconnecting with nature
The Wild Spot
The Wild Spot: for an interspecies nature-based well-being
The Wild Spot is an ecological placemaking project. A participatory process turns an urban green area into a hotspot, the Wild Spot, for connecting with nature via installations and events created by the local community by considering the more-than-human. This interspecies well-being area enlarges the notion of community, raises ecological awareness and promotes nature-based healthy habits. The first Wild Spot was realised at Amsterdam Science Park as a temporary urbanism intervention.
EU Member State, Western Balkans or Ukraine
Netherlands
Local
Amsterdam
No
No
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
2023-06-21
Yes
Horizon2020 / Horizon Europe
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
The Wild Spot format is centred on experiential learning. It targets urban communities and can, e.g., serve schools, neighbourhoods, or vulnerable groups by providing a participatory process to turn a local green area into an interspecies well-being hotspot fostering a connection to nature. Considering the more-than-human, the local community establishes the space organisation, light infrastructures and well-being practices.
The objectives:
- Raise awareness of nature's role in well-being (especially in our highly digital and cognitive society) and provide concrete and affordable techniques to harness nature's effects in the participants' daily routines
- Re-educate participants' attention beyond anthropocentrism towards ecology, pro-environmental behaviours and care for all beings, developing their sense of awe, kinship and aesthetic experience of nature
- Improve the quality of non-human life by including non-humans as stakeholders in the design process.
The methodology was piloted in the T-Factor H2020 project. We involved Amsterdam University College students from the Anthropologies of Community class, addressing their mental health and need for community spaces. The process (February-June 2023) resulted in 12 nature-based installations (i.e. pollinators' garden, insect hotel, nature observation station) and 10 community events (e.g. nature at the microscope, outdoor meditation, cooking with wild herbs), presented in June at the local landscape festival. The installations stayed until October 2023, and the AUC board is willing to replicate the format in 2024.
In line with NEB, we imagine EU cities filled with Wild Spots plugged into urban green areas. They are community spaces equipped to foster a sense of belonging with nature, support biodiversity, educate about affordable and accessible well-being habits rooted in nature connectedness and provide an attention restoration hotspot in the cognitive overload of city life in the attention economy era.
The objectives:
- Raise awareness of nature's role in well-being (especially in our highly digital and cognitive society) and provide concrete and affordable techniques to harness nature's effects in the participants' daily routines
- Re-educate participants' attention beyond anthropocentrism towards ecology, pro-environmental behaviours and care for all beings, developing their sense of awe, kinship and aesthetic experience of nature
- Improve the quality of non-human life by including non-humans as stakeholders in the design process.
The methodology was piloted in the T-Factor H2020 project. We involved Amsterdam University College students from the Anthropologies of Community class, addressing their mental health and need for community spaces. The process (February-June 2023) resulted in 12 nature-based installations (i.e. pollinators' garden, insect hotel, nature observation station) and 10 community events (e.g. nature at the microscope, outdoor meditation, cooking with wild herbs), presented in June at the local landscape festival. The installations stayed until October 2023, and the AUC board is willing to replicate the format in 2024.
In line with NEB, we imagine EU cities filled with Wild Spots plugged into urban green areas. They are community spaces equipped to foster a sense of belonging with nature, support biodiversity, educate about affordable and accessible well-being habits rooted in nature connectedness and provide an attention restoration hotspot in the cognitive overload of city life in the attention economy era.
ecological placemaking
Nature connectedness
participation
nature-based solutions
experiential learning
The project has three sustainability goals:
• Foster pro-environmental behaviours and nature-connectedness habits.
• Include non-humans as stakeholders in conceptualising and realising public space purpose and sustainable infrastructures.
• Experiment with limiting human intervention as a means to support non-human life.
Concerning behaviour, nature connectedness is proven to develop biophilia and an understanding of how all beings are constantly in a web of relations beyond anthropocentrism. In Amsterdam, students had to engage in first-person actions like watering plants or collecting garbage, developing a sense of care for the green area they inhabit. They also could experiment and appropriate nature connection techniques, such as compiling a nature noticing journal or Japanese Shinrin Yoku methodologies to engage with nature through the senses.
From a design perspective, participants learn principles of nature-based solutions, circularity, animal-aided design and post-humanist principles. They are encouraged to apply them in the conception of the use of space and the building of the installations. They make use of second-hand or recycled materials as much as possible. In the pilot, students were involved in sourcing materials, learning about circularity stakeholders in Amsterdam, and decided to concentrate most of the installations on a patch of concrete, making nature and community "invade" the artificial space. They also created structures for non-humans, such as bug hotels.
Finally, the process invites participants to reflect on the value of non-intervention and the aesthetics of nature's spontaneousness. Green space managers in Amsterdam supported the project by leaving the vegetation to grow during the experience. It was, for them, a successful test in finding a balance between rewilding and maintaining. In their project for the Wild Spot, the students created zones reserved for non-humans.
• Foster pro-environmental behaviours and nature-connectedness habits.
• Include non-humans as stakeholders in conceptualising and realising public space purpose and sustainable infrastructures.
• Experiment with limiting human intervention as a means to support non-human life.
Concerning behaviour, nature connectedness is proven to develop biophilia and an understanding of how all beings are constantly in a web of relations beyond anthropocentrism. In Amsterdam, students had to engage in first-person actions like watering plants or collecting garbage, developing a sense of care for the green area they inhabit. They also could experiment and appropriate nature connection techniques, such as compiling a nature noticing journal or Japanese Shinrin Yoku methodologies to engage with nature through the senses.
From a design perspective, participants learn principles of nature-based solutions, circularity, animal-aided design and post-humanist principles. They are encouraged to apply them in the conception of the use of space and the building of the installations. They make use of second-hand or recycled materials as much as possible. In the pilot, students were involved in sourcing materials, learning about circularity stakeholders in Amsterdam, and decided to concentrate most of the installations on a patch of concrete, making nature and community "invade" the artificial space. They also created structures for non-humans, such as bug hotels.
Finally, the process invites participants to reflect on the value of non-intervention and the aesthetics of nature's spontaneousness. Green space managers in Amsterdam supported the project by leaving the vegetation to grow during the experience. It was, for them, a successful test in finding a balance between rewilding and maintaining. In their project for the Wild Spot, the students created zones reserved for non-humans.
First, the project aims to develop pro-environmental behaviours by expanding participants' daily attention to nature. It does so with an innovative method: instead of simply sharing notions about nature and climate change, an approach which stops at the cognitive level, the Wild Spot goes through sensorial and experiential activities, acting at a deeper instinctual and emotional level. Students were guided to observe nature in their daily trajectories, developing empathy and a sense of agency in the climate crisis.
Secondly, the project aims to improve the quality of life in cities, which are areas with high cognitive load. To do so, it expands participants' consciousness of the natural spaces around them. It helps them realise they can have aesthetically pleasing and restoring experiences through contact with nature at Km 0 and for free. The aesthetic experiences generated by the sense of awe and the flow (flow theory) that can be encountered in nature connectedness experiences contribute to restoring away from digital and cognitive fatigue. In Amsterdam, the project enhanced the students' well-being and everyday experience on campus, which, from the data collected in the mapping work, is stressful and deprived of time and areas to decompress. The students become aware of how connecting with nature can support them in their everyday mental and physical health.
Finally, it aims at fostering a sense of belonging through bottom-up reappropriation of space. Indeed, the students could form an emotional attachment to the area by rethinking it and proposing community events. Moreover, it was empowering for them to ideate activities and installations with their aesthetic taste. The installations' design was minimalistic, favouring a limited visual and environmental impact on the landscape. The project also built a safe and evidence-based common ground for dialogue between the students and the academic institution, which is considering how the project can live over time.
Secondly, the project aims to improve the quality of life in cities, which are areas with high cognitive load. To do so, it expands participants' consciousness of the natural spaces around them. It helps them realise they can have aesthetically pleasing and restoring experiences through contact with nature at Km 0 and for free. The aesthetic experiences generated by the sense of awe and the flow (flow theory) that can be encountered in nature connectedness experiences contribute to restoring away from digital and cognitive fatigue. In Amsterdam, the project enhanced the students' well-being and everyday experience on campus, which, from the data collected in the mapping work, is stressful and deprived of time and areas to decompress. The students become aware of how connecting with nature can support them in their everyday mental and physical health.
Finally, it aims at fostering a sense of belonging through bottom-up reappropriation of space. Indeed, the students could form an emotional attachment to the area by rethinking it and proposing community events. Moreover, it was empowering for them to ideate activities and installations with their aesthetic taste. The installations' design was minimalistic, favouring a limited visual and environmental impact on the landscape. The project also built a safe and evidence-based common ground for dialogue between the students and the academic institution, which is considering how the project can live over time.
The Wild Spot educates participants on diversity from an expanded ecological perspective: community well-being is interspecies well-being. Participants are guided to adopt the view of other living species and consider the elements of nature as part of the decision-making for the area's transformation. This movement is facilitated by increasing awareness of their dependency on nature and kinship with other species. By raising awareness of the role of senses in navigating the world, they are also sensitised about how most urban spaces are designed from an ableist perspective. In Amsterdam, students could expand their sensemaking to their colleagues by organising free community events to collect data about suggestions for using the place in relationship with well-being and nature. In organising the events, they were prompted to reflect on their inclusiveness in language, activities proposed and accessibility.
Secondly, the project aims to create a safe, inclusive space in its implementation. Hence, the encounters approach pays attention to vulnerable groups and topics. Intervenants adopt an inclusive language, i.e. avoiding gendered pronouns or preferring expressions such as "natural elements" to "natural objects". Moreover, participating does not require specific prior knowledge and the outcomes are based on community wisdom built during the process. At AUC, each session started with open questions about the well-being and stress level of the class and was tailored to provide a restoring moment in the students' agenda for engaging in well-being activities, contact with nature and collective experiences. This approach allowed open discussions about taboo topics such as financial insecurity and anxiety.
Finally, affordability is a crucial value of the project since it teaches participants to leverage public green areas that are accessible for free for their everyday well-being. In the long run, nature-based prevention can reduce health-related social inequalities.
Secondly, the project aims to create a safe, inclusive space in its implementation. Hence, the encounters approach pays attention to vulnerable groups and topics. Intervenants adopt an inclusive language, i.e. avoiding gendered pronouns or preferring expressions such as "natural elements" to "natural objects". Moreover, participating does not require specific prior knowledge and the outcomes are based on community wisdom built during the process. At AUC, each session started with open questions about the well-being and stress level of the class and was tailored to provide a restoring moment in the students' agenda for engaging in well-being activities, contact with nature and collective experiences. This approach allowed open discussions about taboo topics such as financial insecurity and anxiety.
Finally, affordability is a crucial value of the project since it teaches participants to leverage public green areas that are accessible for free for their everyday well-being. In the long run, nature-based prevention can reduce health-related social inequalities.
Every project step is participatory, from community sensemaking to designing and building installations. The open-ended approach guides the community to define in their own terms what their local Wild Spot will look like and be utilised for. Participants have the role of nature stewards and custodians in their larger community. They are empowered to be actors of local change. A high importance is given to gaining confidence, developing solidarity and improving well-being through direct experience of nature and building something concrete together.
The pilot directly involved 20 students enrolled in the Anthropologies of Community course. They were engaged through a structured series of experiential and participatory encounters (described more in detail in the methodology session). They had an active role in each phase and engaged other students via assignments and events. They conceived and built both the community animation activities and the final installations. In particular, they could involve other students by holding semi-structured interviews on nature and well-being and by organising a cycle of three events at the Wild Spot (nature observation workshop, open-air yoga, and wild garlic pesto workshop). At the end of the teaching period, a small group of students chose the Wild Spot as the object of their community internship, animating the area with further community events (e.g. chalk drawing, open-air yoga, open-air meditation) and providing maintenance of the vertical garden built by students.
By creating the Wild Spot, the students could appreciate the interconnection between many disciplines, such as anthropology of communities, ecology, sociology of technology, design, medicine and urbanism and apply them to real life. They have learnt to approach complex systems in a participatory way, structuring an intervention from data collection to co-design and realising something concrete that a whole community can use.
The pilot directly involved 20 students enrolled in the Anthropologies of Community course. They were engaged through a structured series of experiential and participatory encounters (described more in detail in the methodology session). They had an active role in each phase and engaged other students via assignments and events. They conceived and built both the community animation activities and the final installations. In particular, they could involve other students by holding semi-structured interviews on nature and well-being and by organising a cycle of three events at the Wild Spot (nature observation workshop, open-air yoga, and wild garlic pesto workshop). At the end of the teaching period, a small group of students chose the Wild Spot as the object of their community internship, animating the area with further community events (e.g. chalk drawing, open-air yoga, open-air meditation) and providing maintenance of the vertical garden built by students.
By creating the Wild Spot, the students could appreciate the interconnection between many disciplines, such as anthropology of communities, ecology, sociology of technology, design, medicine and urbanism and apply them to real life. They have learnt to approach complex systems in a participatory way, structuring an intervention from data collection to co-design and realising something concrete that a whole community can use.
The first Wild Spot engaged a diverse set of stakeholders, creating a channel not only to communicate community needs and desires to decision-makers but also to embody them in a concrete project, improving the collective well-being while generating ideas for future space uses and hard infrastructures.
It was funded by the T-Factor H2020 project, which promotes temporary urbanism to experiment with novel formats for sustainable and inclusive cities. Amsterdam Science Park is one of T-Factor's six urban regeneration pilots. The Wild Spot concept, methodology and facilitation are an original creation of T-Factor partner Futuribile (FR), which launched the Wild Spots organisation to develop further and replicate the format. The Wild Spot was inserted in the local ecological temporary urbanism activities portfolio overseen by pilot leader Waag (NL), which was key in connecting local partners with international ones. Amsterdam University College, particularly Prof. Dalby, provided the first pedagogical validation of the process by integrating it into the Anthropologies of Community course. The Wild Spot provided the university a way to address students' demand for well-being innovatively and in contact with nature.
NWO (NL), the organism administering the local green areas, supported the project by allowing space occupation and accommodating students' requests for vegetation maintenance.
Two further T-Factor partners, Aalborg University (DK) and LAND (IT), intervened to enrich the pedagogical offer from a design and landscape architecture perspective. Their level of engagement was both vertical, as lecturers and facilitators for students and horizontal, in fine-tuning the content and building a seamless narrative across disciplines. If one specific partner is at the project's origin, the Wild Spot proposal intercepted all parties' involved purpose to develop a link between ecology, community and well-being, making the best of their contributions for the greater good.
It was funded by the T-Factor H2020 project, which promotes temporary urbanism to experiment with novel formats for sustainable and inclusive cities. Amsterdam Science Park is one of T-Factor's six urban regeneration pilots. The Wild Spot concept, methodology and facilitation are an original creation of T-Factor partner Futuribile (FR), which launched the Wild Spots organisation to develop further and replicate the format. The Wild Spot was inserted in the local ecological temporary urbanism activities portfolio overseen by pilot leader Waag (NL), which was key in connecting local partners with international ones. Amsterdam University College, particularly Prof. Dalby, provided the first pedagogical validation of the process by integrating it into the Anthropologies of Community course. The Wild Spot provided the university a way to address students' demand for well-being innovatively and in contact with nature.
NWO (NL), the organism administering the local green areas, supported the project by allowing space occupation and accommodating students' requests for vegetation maintenance.
Two further T-Factor partners, Aalborg University (DK) and LAND (IT), intervened to enrich the pedagogical offer from a design and landscape architecture perspective. Their level of engagement was both vertical, as lecturers and facilitators for students and horizontal, in fine-tuning the content and building a seamless narrative across disciplines. If one specific partner is at the project's origin, the Wild Spot proposal intercepted all parties' involved purpose to develop a link between ecology, community and well-being, making the best of their contributions for the greater good.
The interdisciplinary collaboration involved ecology, anthropology, participatory and inclusive design, animal-aided design, landscape architecture, temporary urbanism, sociology, industrial design and nature-based well-being. Experts from academia and the private sector intervened in the encounters with students, either as lecturers or facilitators. They interacted before meetings to fine-tune their interventions based on the Wild Spots format and make sense of data and proceedings afterwards. The added value of the process was to address disciplinary blind spots, enrich the pedagogical offer, and ensure the project's compliance with regulatory and structural constraints and ecological and inclusiveness ambitions. Community wisdom was central since students could design the space and installations according to the knowledge base they built during the process and by bringing their expertise and sensitivity to ecology and well-being.
On a conceptual level, the project draws upon temporary urbanism as a resource to accelerate Just Transition in European cities. In the Wild Spot, placemaking is a means to enhance a culture of nature, particularly promoting deep ecology, which acknowledges nature's inherent value beyond its usefulness for human beings. The project does so by guiding participants in reappropriating their attention and directing it towards nature and people in their community and seeing them as a unique ecosystem. Moreover, tying identity and a sense of belonging to local green spaces reinforces climate-positive behaviours. Such behaviours are also developed instinctively through nature connectedness, the measure of an individual's trait levels of emotional connection to nature (psychology). Medical research states that connection with nature positively impacts mental and physical well-being, including restoring cognitive attention, which is highly affected by the attention economy and the growing digitalisation.
On a conceptual level, the project draws upon temporary urbanism as a resource to accelerate Just Transition in European cities. In the Wild Spot, placemaking is a means to enhance a culture of nature, particularly promoting deep ecology, which acknowledges nature's inherent value beyond its usefulness for human beings. The project does so by guiding participants in reappropriating their attention and directing it towards nature and people in their community and seeing them as a unique ecosystem. Moreover, tying identity and a sense of belonging to local green spaces reinforces climate-positive behaviours. Such behaviours are also developed instinctively through nature connectedness, the measure of an individual's trait levels of emotional connection to nature (psychology). Medical research states that connection with nature positively impacts mental and physical well-being, including restoring cognitive attention, which is highly affected by the attention economy and the growing digitalisation.
A growing voice of conservation psychologists, ecologists and medical researchers states that connection with nature is key to developing pro-environmental behaviours and enhancing well-being. Nonetheless, nature connectedness has been eradicated from Western culture with the duality between nature and humankind. The main novelty of the project lies in creating an experiential methodology to fill the educational and cultural gap around the connection with nature. In the era of information overload, where news about the climate crisis can generate a disempowering eco-anxiety and digital addiction isolates individuals, highly contributing to the "loneliness crisis", the Wild Spot allows participants to develop a personal and collective relationship with nature through first-hand experience.
Furthermore, the Wild Spot programme includes raising citizens' awareness about the cognitive hyperstimulation and the environmental impact of the digital transformation, increasing their sense of agency in a highly digital everyday by fostering the reappropriation and re-education of attention through nature connection. In the long run, this can result in the more responsible (for personal and planetary health) use of devices.
Through the lens of well-being, described holistically as a state of health at the physical, mental, social, spiritual and planetary level, the Wild Spot creates an empowering discourse around the role and the habits each citizen can adopt in their local everyday to be actors of change. As much as green areas are today an essential part of cities, the project hints symbolically to the possibility that in the near future, areas to break away from information overload and retrain attention towards nature and community will be an indispensable element of urban planning and public health.
Furthermore, the Wild Spot programme includes raising citizens' awareness about the cognitive hyperstimulation and the environmental impact of the digital transformation, increasing their sense of agency in a highly digital everyday by fostering the reappropriation and re-education of attention through nature connection. In the long run, this can result in the more responsible (for personal and planetary health) use of devices.
Through the lens of well-being, described holistically as a state of health at the physical, mental, social, spiritual and planetary level, the Wild Spot creates an empowering discourse around the role and the habits each citizen can adopt in their local everyday to be actors of change. As much as green areas are today an essential part of cities, the project hints symbolically to the possibility that in the near future, areas to break away from information overload and retrain attention towards nature and community will be an indispensable element of urban planning and public health.
The approach maximises the experiential moments and reduces the load of theoretical materials participants must digest. The experiential learning approach is materialised around four pillars:
- Always hold a part of the activities outdoors in the Wild Spot site, if not the totality.
- Give active tasks to participants to put into practice the learnings (in Amsterdam, students had to apply anthropology methodologies to survey the needs of other students, journal about nature in their everyday, organise events at the Wild Spot)
- Engage participants in the co-design and manual production of installations, empowering them to go from idea to realisation and boosting their manual skills.
- Detect community champions for legacy (at AUC, we involved further students and let them appropriate the area via a community internship).
The participatory design methodology was created from scratch and integrates animal-aided and nature-based design elements. Community sensemaking around the relationship with nature, digital devices and well-being lays the foundation of the knowledge base. A co-design gathering turns this foundation into prompts (e.g. installations, space purpose) for structuring the space. The community is concretely engaged in materialising their ideas with prototypes and community activities, enhancing their sense of agency and strengthening social and ecological bonds.
- Always hold a part of the activities outdoors in the Wild Spot site, if not the totality.
- Give active tasks to participants to put into practice the learnings (in Amsterdam, students had to apply anthropology methodologies to survey the needs of other students, journal about nature in their everyday, organise events at the Wild Spot)
- Engage participants in the co-design and manual production of installations, empowering them to go from idea to realisation and boosting their manual skills.
- Detect community champions for legacy (at AUC, we involved further students and let them appropriate the area via a community internship).
The participatory design methodology was created from scratch and integrates animal-aided and nature-based design elements. Community sensemaking around the relationship with nature, digital devices and well-being lays the foundation of the knowledge base. A co-design gathering turns this foundation into prompts (e.g. installations, space purpose) for structuring the space. The community is concretely engaged in materialising their ideas with prototypes and community activities, enhancing their sense of agency and strengthening social and ecological bonds.
The participatory methodology and the knowledge base of the Wild Spot can be proposed in further contexts, providing a base of participants and a green area allowing for temporary (if not permanent) light interventions. The project can be tailored to local contexts, budgets and thematic foci.
Although developed in the first place to address a student community, participating in the project can be relevant to any urban community, especially those facing well-being challenges or living near areas undergoing urban transformation. We imagine partnerships with:
- Municipalities targeting citizens at large
- Urban developers seeking projects to renew or build the identity of an urban regeneration area
- Researchers in fields related to nature and well-being in search of a methodology to contextualise nature-connectedness activities and build related habits.
- Private companies seeking to improve their employees' well-being.
- Organisations working with vulnerable social groups.
To foster the legacy, the organisation Wild Spots was founded in Paris by participatory designers and landscape experts. It is based in a fab lab and seeks further contexts to implement the format in English, French or Italian. The prize would greatly help gain visibility for partnerships and fund the voluntary work currently implied by the organisation's launch. The establishment of several Wild Spots across Europe would allow many actions to maximise its impact:
- Develop a structured collection of data about well-being, nature connectedness and the evolution of local biodiversity to track long-term impact.
- Create a catalogue of reproducible landscape interventions centred on nature-based well-being
- Create a network to share knowledge and experiences, boosting a European culture of nature connectedness.
- Collaborate with further disciplines (e.g., data science) and expertise (researchers in medicine and social workers).
Although developed in the first place to address a student community, participating in the project can be relevant to any urban community, especially those facing well-being challenges or living near areas undergoing urban transformation. We imagine partnerships with:
- Municipalities targeting citizens at large
- Urban developers seeking projects to renew or build the identity of an urban regeneration area
- Researchers in fields related to nature and well-being in search of a methodology to contextualise nature-connectedness activities and build related habits.
- Private companies seeking to improve their employees' well-being.
- Organisations working with vulnerable social groups.
To foster the legacy, the organisation Wild Spots was founded in Paris by participatory designers and landscape experts. It is based in a fab lab and seeks further contexts to implement the format in English, French or Italian. The prize would greatly help gain visibility for partnerships and fund the voluntary work currently implied by the organisation's launch. The establishment of several Wild Spots across Europe would allow many actions to maximise its impact:
- Develop a structured collection of data about well-being, nature connectedness and the evolution of local biodiversity to track long-term impact.
- Create a catalogue of reproducible landscape interventions centred on nature-based well-being
- Create a network to share knowledge and experiences, boosting a European culture of nature connectedness.
- Collaborate with further disciplines (e.g., data science) and expertise (researchers in medicine and social workers).
The Wild Spot is a process to address locally, in an experiential, collective and tangible way, global challenges that can be easily disempowering for individuals and communities. The Wild Spot shifts the focus to local interspecies community resilience and an aware use of the limited capacities of human attention span. The project addresses the climate crisis locally by leading a community to care for a nearby green area, thus improving local resilience and adaptation to climate change and developing pro-environmental behaviours as part of the community identity (SDG13, climate action). In particular, the pilot in Amsterdam tackled youth empowerment against the climate crisis. Secondly, in the face of the growing Planet's urbanisation, the Wild Spot provides a sustainable approach to green community areas management and planning through a participatory temporary use that can be easily turned into a stable one (SDG11, sustainable cities and communities). The project answers the devastating biodiversity loss locally by promoting the intrinsic value of biological diversity, considering non-humans in landscape design requirements and reducing through "zones for non-humans" the biodiversity disruption due to human activity (SDG15 life on land). By installing an emotional connection between well-being and frequenting green areas, the project addresses the global mental health crisis that has spiked after Covid, especially in young people, which feeds itself on the extended amounts of time spent online and the easy dopamine released by doom scrolling, resulting in social isolation, depression and anxiety. These phenomena are accompanied by rising obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular problems that an education in physical activity in nature can help tackle. Finally, the proposed attention training can help tackle the polarisation of public opinion and the spread of fake news: individuals with a critical spirit are less prone to getting caught in the disinformation trap.
The process in Amsterdam resulted in a reorganisation of the site with 12 installations ideated and/or built by the students, who also organised 10 community events. The Wild Spot was presented with a talk and a participatory art event at the landscape festival Met Andere Ogen. A short documentary is publicly available, and the Wild Spots organisation was founded in June 2023. The process turned a barely frequented area into a collective place in the students' mental map of the campus. Testing and validating the methodology was also an essential outcome. Proposals for permanent installations (e.g. garbage bins, accessible stairs) coming from students were presented to the university board.
Social impacts:
- Empower students to be actors of change locally on global topics
- Non-anthropocentric community building, social inclusion and well-being
- Educate about the well-being effects of nature and transmit related healthy practices and behaviours
- Raise awareness about the digital landscape and spark self-reflection about digital habits and addiction
- Break taboos around "vulnerabilities": the intervention sparked open conversations about mental health, societal and family pressure to perform in studies and eco-anxiety
- Provide a next-door means to soothe stress and anxiety: students learnt that they can integrate green pauses and intentional use of attention towards nature in their daily schedule
- Create a place for collective interspecies care, breaking the common individualistic approach to well-being
Ecological impacts:
- Non-human & nature conservation practices embedded in design
- Area favouring nature noticing & change of perspective
- Zones reserved for non-humans and rewilding
Urbanism impacts:
- Contribute to the ecological mission of the pilot
- New meanings and employment for a so far under-used area of the campus
- Build a safe and evidence-based common ground for dialogue between the institution and the student
Social impacts:
- Empower students to be actors of change locally on global topics
- Non-anthropocentric community building, social inclusion and well-being
- Educate about the well-being effects of nature and transmit related healthy practices and behaviours
- Raise awareness about the digital landscape and spark self-reflection about digital habits and addiction
- Break taboos around "vulnerabilities": the intervention sparked open conversations about mental health, societal and family pressure to perform in studies and eco-anxiety
- Provide a next-door means to soothe stress and anxiety: students learnt that they can integrate green pauses and intentional use of attention towards nature in their daily schedule
- Create a place for collective interspecies care, breaking the common individualistic approach to well-being
Ecological impacts:
- Non-human & nature conservation practices embedded in design
- Area favouring nature noticing & change of perspective
- Zones reserved for non-humans and rewilding
Urbanism impacts:
- Contribute to the ecological mission of the pilot
- New meanings and employment for a so far under-used area of the campus
- Build a safe and evidence-based common ground for dialogue between the institution and the student
Both
- Downloadpdf-1-171.pdf
{Empty}
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes