Edinburgh College of Art

Faculty Member, Landscape Architecture

Research Professor of Landscape Architecture

OPENspace Research Centre

About

I am a Professor at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and the University of Edinburgh.  My research focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments, environment-behaviour interactions, historic landscapes and contemporary needs, landscape design for older people, for children and for teenagers, and salutogenic environments. Since 2001, I have been Director of OPENspace – the research centre for inclusive access to outdoor environments – based at Edinburgh College of Art and Heriot-Watt University. See www.openspace.eca.ac.uk

I currently direct the I’DGO (Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors) research consortium, a collaboration with Salford and Oxford Brookes Universities focused on ensuring that the outdoor environment is designed inclusively and with sensitivity to the needs and desires of older people, to improve their quality of life (see www.idgo.ac.uk). I am also member of SPARColl, the Scottish Physical Activity Research Collaboration, led by Strathclyde University, contributing expertise on relationships between physical environment and health.

Contact Information

Homepage: http://www.eca.ac.uk/staff_profiles/view/catharine-ward-thompson/

Address: Edinburgh College of Art
Lauriston Place
Edinburgh
EH3 9DF

Telephone: +44 131 221 6176