Landscape People: Staff and Research Students
Interests within the Group are wide ranging, but we find that the most successful collaborations between staff supervisors, PhD or MPhil students and visiting researchers are where the research questions are closely linked to the interests of supervisors. Although landscape staff are currently supervising relatively high numbers of research students, prospective students are always welcome to approach us with proposals for discussion in relation to research possibilities or programmes. A good starting point is to look at our guidelines for a research proposal. All students are assigned two supervisors; these may both be within the School, and may be from the same or different disciplines, or one supervisor may be situated within a completely different department of the University – it just depends on who may be the most appropriate staff member in relation to your area of study. This means that it is common for students to undertake cross-disciplinary research which pushes the boundaries of disciplinary thinking. The School has a large body of Postgraduate Research (PGR) students housed in a specially designed PGR suite. The School is embedded within the wider Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Research students in SAPL join others in the Faculty training sessions within the Graduate School, which is situated in the same building as the SAPL PGR suite.
The Landscape Group is:
Faziawati ABDUL AZIZ (Malaysia), The Investigation of Safe City Programme for High-Risk Neighbourhoods in Malaysia, PhD candidate, full-time (Supervisors: Tim Townshend and Ian Thompson). My research looks into how urban design can prevent and reduce (or may not be able to) the occurrence of crimes in areas that have been identified as high-risk neighbourhoods. I am using a range of qualitative methods including focus groups, interviews with residents and practitioners, visual analysis and secondary document reviews. A comparative study of other countries that have applied crime preventive measures in areas with similar issues will also be conducted. faziawati.abdul-aziz@newcastle.ac.uk
Tamer AHMED (Egypt), Landscape infrastructure and liveable communities: the case of New-Cairo, Egypt, PhD candidate, full-time (Supervisors: Peter Kellett and Maggie Roe). My research interests are connected to liveable community issues. I am particularly interested in developing the links between liveability and landscape planning. I am trying to get a much clearer picture of these links in order to assess the new suburban settlements growing up around Cairo and to make the case for landscape infrastructure as an important tool in creating successful communities. I am using a range of qualitative methods including interviews with residents, practitioners and policy makers as well as on site observations. tamer.ahmed@ncl.ac.uk
Kyung-Jin AN, (Korea) Implementation of Landscape Visualisation for Planning Process: Consultation & Assessment, PhD candidate, part-time (Supervisors: Neil Powe and Maggie Roe). In my research the planning implications of computer visualisation are assessed. The research investigates the scepticism concerning the use of technology in planning and the possible difficulties of the use of such technologies within consultation processes. Following construction of a visualization model I carried out interviews with planners, landscape consultants, forest managers, and GIS specialists to help answer my research questions. kyungjin.an@ncl.ac.uk
David DAVIES (UK) Identity in Central European Architecture; Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland (1918-1939), PhD candidate, part-time (Supervisors: Andrew Ballantyne and David Haney). My research interest is identifying and exploring identity and organisation in central and Eastern European modernist architecture. By searching for patterns and themes in Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Polish architecture in the interwar years I hope to better understand how architecture facilitates relationships between people, specific to a defined place and time. In response to the scarcity of readily accessible information my study demands for a rigorous contextual approach to demonstrate a thorough understanding of central and Eastern Europe before I commence the field work research of my final hypothesis. A secondary theme of the research is to celebrate diversity embodied in European architecture. david.davies1@ncl.ac.uk.
Crista ERMIYA, Editorial Assistant, Landscape Research. Crista.ermiya@ncl.ac.uk
Dr. Andy LAW (UK) (Lecturer in Town Planning). My interests are in Social Theory and Identity studies. However, rather than a purely theoretical researcher, I have often sought to develop these wider interests through specific studies of the landscape and particularly the notion of townscape. In my PhD, entitled The built heritage conservation movement: landscapes of Englishness and social class, I looked at the way notions of class and Englishness became entwined with wider ideas of the contemporary English townscape. Taking these interests further I am keen to explore the idea of the 'post-landscape' and whether notions of landscape now mean very different things to contemporary social actors. Moreover, with a rise of new research on non-representational theory I am keen to look at the way that landscapes and townscapes are being re-theorised in new ways that draw more attention to senses and the body. a.m.law@ncl.ac.uk
Ahmad LONG (Malaysia) ICZM: Process Evaluation Framework for Malaysia, PhD candidate, part-time (Supervisors: Maggie Roe and Jean Hillier). My research explores the problems and issues of implementing sustainable Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) programmes. The purpose of the research is to provide an Evaluation Framework which aims to assist in the planning and implementation of effective ICZM processes. I am presently in Malaysia working at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, while completing the writing up my thesis. ahmad.long@ncl.ac.uk
Joseph MACARTHY (Sierra Leone): Integrating climate change considerations in planning for urban development: The case of Freetown, PhD candidate, full-time (Supervisors: Graham Tipple and Maggie Roe). Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, is a settlement where decades of under-investment and poor maintenance of infrastructure has made the city les well equipped to cope with the effects of climate change. My research investigates the linkages between planning processes and climate change as they affect or are affected by urban development using Freetown as a case study. j.m.macarthy@ncl.ac.uk
M. Y. MOHD-YUNOS (Malaysia): Public Participation in the Redesign and Planning of a Neighbourhood Park in Malaysia: with special reference to the use of the ‘Planning for Real’® method in Datuk Keramat Lake Garden, PhD candidate, full-time (Supervisors: Ian Thompson and Jean Hillier). The aim of my research is to improve the effectiveness and the efficiencies of community participation methods in the redesign and planning process of neighbourhood parks in Kuala Lumpur using the ‘Planning for Real’ method in the Malaysian context. M.Y.Mohd-Yunos@ncl.ac.uk
Maggie ROE (UK) (Senior Lecturer & Convenor of the Landscape Research Group). My research interests are based on large scale landscape planning and sustainability issues, particularly in relation to people’s perception of and relationship with the landscape. My recent research focuses on the implementation of the European Landscape Convention, the development of Green Infrastructure theory and methods, coastal and small island landscape planning and cultural landscape planning. I am Editor of Landscape Research and a Board Member of the national Landscape Research Group (LRG). m.h.roe@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Ian THOMPSON (UK) (Reader in Landscape Architecture). My research interests include landscape design theory and environmental values, landscape and art, the history of the designed landscape and the cultural landscape. My study of the creation of the gardens of Versailles, The Sun King’s Garden, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006 and my history of scenic tourism in the Lake District is due to be published in 2010. I am Chair of the national Landscape Research Group (LRG), a founding member of the Landscape and Art Group and Consulting Editor of Landscape Research.i.h.thompson@ncl.ac.uk
PhD Candidates Recently Submitted/Completed:
Fuad AL-ANSARI (Bahrain) Public Space on the Urban Waterfront: The Case of Manama, Bahrain Statement (Supervisors: Ian Thompson and Ali Madanipour).
Hemavathy KUPPUSWAMY (India): Quantifying the benefits of public health on tree planting as a strategy to reduce air pollution using GIS (Supervisors: Neil Powe and Maggie Roe).
Dr Hannah MACPHERSON (UK) Landscape, Embodiment and Blindness (ESRC Studentship) (Supervisors: Maggie Roe, Alistair Bonnet and Anoop Nyak).
Ian H MELL (UK) Green Infrastructure, Environmental Perception and Spatial Behaviour (ESRC/CASE Studentship), (Supervisors: Maggie Roe, Geoff Vigar & Clive Davies).
Nattika, NAVAPAN (Thailand): The Development of Urban Open Spaces: A Case Study of Bangkok, Thailand (Supervisors: John Pendlebury and Ian Thompson).
Dr Hossein ZAREI (Iran) An Investigation into the Planting Design of Contemporary Botanic Gardens in the United Kingdom (Supervisors: Ian Thompson and John Ollerenshaw).
Recent Visiting Academics and Researchers:
Clive DAVIES (UK) (Research Fellow & Principal of Clive Davies Associates). Clive Davies’s interests are in green infrastructure planning, urban forestry, stakeholder engagement and climate change adaptation. He has a long association with public policy development in the urban fringe and working & planning at the landscape scale. His present three-year honorary fellowship with the University builds upon a number of collaborative projects with the Landscape Research Group. Clive Davies is a founding member of EFUF, serves on the Forestry Commission RAC and Environment Agency REPAC, is Convenor of the Le-Notre II Green Infrastructure e-learning platform and was appointed to the CABE Space enabling panel in 2009. clive.davies@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Albert Llausàs i PASCUAL (Spain) (Assistant Professor, University of Girona, Spain). Albert completed his PhD in Environmental Sciences at the University of Girona in 2008. He obtained a grant for postdoctoral studies at Newcastle for three months in 2009 examining issues relating to Landscape Character Assessment as the basis for Green Infrastructure planning.
Professor Ole Rømer SANDBERG (Professor in Landscape Architecture). Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway). Ole is spending three months in 2009 as a Visiting Professor in Newcastle researching information for a comparative study between Scandinavia, UK and New Zealand on large scale landscape changes and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).