LI Masterclass: Healthcare facilities: Health and wellbeing through landscape-led design

Jane is a Landscape Architect, the Immediate Past President of the Landscape Institute, and the founding director of Fira.

She is a masterplanner and designer with over 40 years of experience of designing and delivering large and complex projects. Jane is particularly experienced in designing the healing landscape in the healthcare sector, having worked on all scales of healthcare facilities and some of the largest healthcare projects in the UK.

Jane is passionate about the psychological and physical benefits that quality landscape design and nature play in all aspects of landscape design. She is a pioneering exponent of evidence-based design and ‘green place-making’, the importance of health and wellbeing in the way that people experience our urban environment and the spaces we create within, around, and connecting places.

Jeremy Parker is a Director of Fira Landscape Limited with over 30 years of landscape design experience. He has developed a particular interest in healthcare environments, especially related to oncology, mental health and end-of-life facilities.

Jeremy wrote a comprehensive landscape design guide on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Environments and continues to work with the charity to deliver quality external environments for their facilities.

Romy has been a landscape architect for over 30 years, during which time she has worked on projects of all scales, from domestic gardens to large urban streetscape designs.

Prior to studying landscape architecture, Romy’s first qualification was in horticulture, and she studied at Pershore, which was then the UK’s only specialist horticultural college. This led to a lifelong passion for plants and their incredible benefits, which are only now being fully understood.

In 1999, driven by an interest in complementary therapies, Romy authored a book, ‘Healing Gardens’, for which she researched several alternative medicinal approaches. These included homeopathy, aromatherapy, and colour therapy – at the heart of each is planting.

During this session, Romy will share her learnings on the healing powers of plants, at physical, visual and molecular levels. Much of Romy’s original research remains valid and will be updated by recent findings in studies such as psychoneuroimmunology.

Liz has worked in project management and senior leadership roles in a diverse range of organisations across the third sector for over 15 years. She is a committed climate campaigner and advocate for systems thinking. Liz is passionate about creating access to green space for marginalised communities, active travel, the move to a plant-based food system and helping people learn how to grow food in small urban spaces. Outside of her role with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, she also sits on the board of a social enterprise in Cardiff which provides learning and opportunities for the local community to take action on the climate and nature crisis.

Bob leads the London Studio alongside fellow Director Ruairi Reeves. He has over 34 years of experience as an architect, with more than 25 years in healthcare design in the UK and around the world, and has played a key role in the delivery of various large-scale mental health and acute health projects. His interest lies in the use of research and development methodologies to improve the quality of the built environment. He oversees innovation and sustainability and is responsible for driving quality, health, and safety within the practice, and steering our approach to environmental design. His specialist technical knowledge has been invaluable on many of the practice’s key projects. His richly diverse experience informs the strategic contextual focus from project initiation through to production detail.

Luke sits on the Landscape Institute Policy and Communications Committee and a number of design review panels. Research to provide an evidence base for designing for health creation, interwoven with with addressing the linked twin environmental emergencies, has been a constant thread in Studio Engleback’s work for over 25 years.  This has been shared through teaching and at confiecenes. Most recently in Queensland University of Technology, Australia and Lincoln University in New Zealand, and, for the past 6 years, contributions at the SALUS Healthy City Design International congresses. We were pleased to receive the SALUS Healthy Neighbourhood Award 2024 for Cannock Mill Co-housing led by Anne Thorne who was both lead architect (ATAP) and a member of the client body. Significant environmental change is a significant driver of an emerging health and welling crisis, Studio Engleback is a founder signatory of UK Landscape Architects Declare a Climate & Biodiversity Emergency, crises theatre creating a health emergency.