Experiential Landscape is directed by Kevin Thwaites and Ian Simkins. Kevin teaches and researches urban design and landscape architecture at the University of Sheffield and along with Ian is co-founder of the elp:rdu, a research facility concerned with the development of experiential landscape (www.elprdu.com). Ian practises as a Chartered Landscape Architect and tutors urban design and related topics at the University of Sheffield.

Experiential Landscape offers new ways of looking at the relationship between people and the outdoor open spaces they use in their everyday lives by taking a holistic view of the relationship between humans and their environment and integrating experiential and spatial dimensions of the outdoors. Through this approach outdoor places can take on new and dynamic meanings even in routine settings. A deeper understanding of how humans experience open spaces can ultimately feed into and change the design process for such spaces, and we explore theories, methods and practices for achieving this goal. Experiential landscape will be of interest to anyone seeking reflective but practical guidance on how to approach outdoor place-making and the analysis and design of everyday outdoor spaces.

The methods and techniques of experiential landscape have been applied in various field trials including, urban settings, residential and educational environments. One of our most active areas of inquiry at present involves the use of experiential landscape as a basis for a multi-method participatory approach to the investigation of place perceptions of primary school age children, focusing on their routine experiences of their journey to and from school. This work is reaching a conclusion as PhD research by Ian Simkins. Other active aspects of experiential landscape research involve exploring the place perceptions and experiences of people with learning disabilities and the relationship between certain types of outdoor spatial configuration with restorative benefit and human well-being.