World Soil Day ERDE exhibition and screening | tHEIR Gallery London & World Soil Museum Netherlands

The collaborative exhibition by sisters Jo Gibbons & Kate Blee put the spotlight on World Soil Day. The exhibition encapsulated the residue of years of research with Wild Olive Artisans in the form of hand crafted small batch perfumes of the soil, Erde & Verda. It drew attention to the complexities of soil dynamics through film and installation, alongside a collection of Kate’s drawing in charcoal and watercolour which continue her work concerned with gravity and friction.

Europan 17

Europan interdisciplinary competitions are held every two years and synchronised throughout Europe, engaging with urgent and threatening situations. They are aimed at the emerging generation of architects, urban and landscape planners under the age of 40, for the development and implementation of forward-looking projects. Jo was invited to launch the competition with a Keynote speech asking how comprehensive care-taking can be integrated into site development, and she was appointed as part of the international jury.

The Essential Tree Selection Guide – Book launch

Hosted by the Garden Museum, Jo chaired the book launch discussion with authors Arit Anderson and Henrik Sjöman. The book is richly detailed with layers of pithy and fascinating scientific reference for real world application. It highlights the sublime complexities of trees, elucidating the fine art of design with nature, while revealing the innate beauty and heroic versatility of a kaleidoscope of tree planting possibilities.

2nd World Forum on Urban Forests in Washington DC

The conference acted as a call for action - to plan the urban forest as an integrated part of city planning process if greener and more resilient urban environments are to be realised. The resultant WFUF Washington DC Declaration sends out a reminder - that urban forests are multi-functional, and address social and health inequalities. Jo formed part of a panel on inclusive cities to reassert the value of urban forests in making cities a place where people want to live, love and thrive.

Erderverda

The passion for preserving nature brought together JOJO GIBBONS and Wild Olive Artisans, in an ongoing collaboration to capture the scent of soil. This is how ERDEVERDA perfume extracts were born, daring to explore the landscape at olfactory level. To purchase, visit our shop.

https://erdeverda.com

https://www.wildolive.eu

The Meadow at Inger Munch’s Pier

A short film of Lily Vikki, Project Manager at Oslo's Kulturetaten, responsible for commissioning Tracey Emin's 'The Mother', in conversation with Johanna Gibbons about how the landscape that forms a soft plinth, is integral to the work of art. Click here to watch it.

Urban Mind reveals mental health benefit of birdlife

Who hasn’t tuned into the melodic complexities of the dawn chorus? Led by Kings College London in collaboration with J&L Gibbons and Nomad Projects, published in Scientific Reports and reported by The Guardian and the Washington Post among others, the research underpins how much the sight and sound of birdsong lifts the spirits. It captures, through our Urban Mind smartphone app, the first evidence that specifically recognises birdsong as restorative to mental wellbeing - a daily ‘dose’ of nature, that is precious and time-lasting.

Schiehallion Seed Project | J&L Gibbons are collaborating with the John Muir Trust to restore and connect mountain woodland habitats

A key part of this project is engaging with local schools, offering a great way for young people to feel connected to the work of the Trust, understand the importance of different upland habitats, while playing a practical role in woodland restoration. Read more about the project here. Head to this link to listen to the podcast that Jo and Neil have recorded with BBC Radio Scotland.

New research finds links between time spent by canals and rivers and positive mood

A unique collaboration between Urban Mind and Canal & River Trust is the first of its kind. The research, carried out by King’s College London, Nomad Projects and J&L Gibbons shows that spending time by water is linked to feeling happy and healthy and that this connection is stronger for water than for other types of environment such as indoors, urban environments and greenspaces. www.urbanmind.info/canal-and-river-trust-study

What is the Urban Nature project?

“The future of the natural world is in our hands, and everyone can play a part in helping it”. Furnitube hosted podcast with Lauren Hyams from the Natural History Museum and Neil Davidson from J&L Gibbons discuss the ambitious Urban Nature Project, how it came about, what they hope to achieve with it and how local communities, tech and science come together to make this unique concept come to life.
www.furnitubes.com/blog/2021/08/the-green-room-our-monthly-podcast

Johanna Gibbons: The Wanderful Podcast with David Pearl at COP 26

Wanderful the podcast is created and hosted by arts-in-business innovator David Pearl. “Eco-worrier David Pearl goes backstage at COP ’26 in Glasgow, meets some narrative ninjas and returns with tales to tell…”. The Green Room at COP 26 – What (On Earth’s) The Story, broadcast stories of hope with Johanna and other climate innovators. Here Jo focuses on soil biodiversity, how to connect and with an earth(l)y medium that provides the critical infrastructure of the planet. Link to the podcast.

Contact with nature in cities reduces loneliness

Between 2018 and 2020 Urban Mind - a collaboration between King’s College London, Nomad Projects and J&L Gibbons - has collected data via the Urban Mind app from 750 UK citizen scientists investigating associations between feelings of loneliness with the social and built environment. Our research showed that feelings of overcrowding increased ‘momentary loneliness’ by 39%; but when people were able to see trees or hear birds, feelings of loneliness fell by 28%. Our research was published in Scientific Reports, and covered in The Guardian, Daily Mail and Treehugger.

250 Things a Landscape Architect Should Know

Jo was invited to be one of 50 international ‘thinkers’ to communicate their top 5 fundamentals to the landscape profession. The compendium, curated by B. Cannon Ivers, has resulted in a diverse cross-section of knowledge and expertise that communicates the depth and breadth of landscape architecture. The book covers divergent and wide-reaching topics and features both theorist and practitioners. It is available to purchase online from all the major book retailers.

Can Dirt Save Us All?

To coincide with COP26, U+I Think invited Jo to speak about DIRT - the beauty of soil as critical infrastructure and a much overlooked natural climate solution. The talk at Brighton Circus Street is available to watch here. Alongside the talk, Jo curated a series of essays from Ellen Fay, Maria Smith, Neil Davidson, Michael Smythe, Anton Blackie and Matthew Gandy in response to her own, that dug deep, revealing diverse perspectives. Click here to read them.

The Tai Treeist

Fiona Banner speaks to Jo about her love of trees, soil and the wood wide web. The podcast, part of the series The Squirrel’s Heartbeat, was recorded at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve (Phytology), where Fiona was artist in residence for much of 2020. Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical.

Urban Mind for Canal & River Trust

Do you feel happier when you’re beside water? What is the effect of canals on mental wellbeing? A citizen science project that provides scientific answers to these and other questions, an ongoing collaboration with the Canal & River Trust and Urban Mind.

The results are looking fascinating and will be made public soon.

Open House Festival 2020

Commissioned for the Open House Festival 2020, this short film made in conjunction with Dezeen explores the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden. During the pandemic, London rediscovered the immense value of its outdoor public space and Open City celebrated it through a series of bike rides, video tours and outdoor events. Jo was part of the panel discussion hosted at the Boundary Estate’s Arnold Circus discussing land, justice and landscape, how to create a more equitable city and empower this change.  

Tangible Territory

Jo was invited to a contribute to the first issue of Tangible Territory, the journal created by Tereza Stehlikova. Tereza is an artist, filmmaker and senior lecturer at the RCA, with whom J&L Gibbons and Landscape Learn have an ongoing collaboration based on overlapping interests. Tangible Territory, Tereza says: ‘is not a real physical location, but a place that lies in the liminal land between the real world and its representation (or evocation) on the screen (…) Hopefully a transformative, living space, where we can meet, interact, grow…’

The Landscapists Seminars

Hosted by Ed Wall, The Landscapists Seminars are short daily conversations with landscape architects and designers from around the world focused on their design and research projects. The 20-minute informal seminars, provide insights into the unique project approaches, techniques and methods employed by leading designers and researchers. Jo focused on a project in the making at the new Munch Museum in Oslo, an exciting collaboration with Tracey Emin. Visit The Landscape website for more information.

Co-Creation | Architecture Gala

The Architecture Gala is the Nordic region's largest meeting place for architecture with international and national speakers. The 2020 theme of co-creation focused on the cooperative efforts required to highlight the possibility of new angles, new collaborations, new results. Johanna focused on the deep ecology of her collaborative approach to design. She referenced the work of J&L Gibbons and the ambitions of her social enterprise Landscape Learn in the context of the climate and biodiversity emergency. Watch the lecture here.

Fundamentals Lecture Series: The City

This series of Fundamentals, chaired by Professor Jeremy Till, discussed the climate change emergency, the most urgent issue facing the planet today in the context of the wider territory of the city. The talks asked if there is to be systemic change, how does that play out spatially. Johanna contributed to the debate by discussing the urban forest as a city habitat, with reference to her recent publication, ‘Conversation on Urban Forestry’. Watch the lecture here.

Women in Design 2020+

The International Conference and Exhibition fostered an open dialogue on current and future design practices between women designers of global repute. Johanna explored how J&L Gibbons develops design and critical engagement strategies to connect city communities with natural processes, the urban forest and the soil that lies beneath our feet.

Conversations on Urban Forestry

The first book published by Landscape Learn, Conversations on Urban Forestry, by Johanna Gibbons explores the implicit interconnection of people and trees in the city through a number of conversations with extraordinary individuals. These are artists, engineers, ecologists and arborists who champion the urban forest as a dynamic organic structure of remarkable biodiversity and biomass embedded within the fabric of a city. In the face of a climate change emergency these conversations highlight, through different lenses, how urban forestry creates a collective capacity for caring for our ecosystem. Purchase the book from Landscape Learn.

Royal Designer for Industry

Johanna was honoured to be named a ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ (RDI) by the RSA who said: ‘She has championed landscape design in a world declaring climate emergency, ecological breakdown and a mental health crisis. She's been ahead of the game, always looking for answers and delivering examples of better planning and design’. Visit the RSA website for more information.

How to Measure Baukultur

In January 2018 the European Ministers of Culture adopted the Davos Declaration calling for a high-quality Baukultur to improve the well-being of all. But how do we measure Baukultur or quality of the built environment? Neil presented recent findings from our Urban Mind research, in the context of our social enterprise Landscape Learn and current J&L Gibbons commissions.

The David Skinner Memorial Lecture

Johanna was invited to deliver the annual public Memorial Lecture. She was able to give a personal as well as professional perspective having been one of the early intakes to the course at Edinburgh College of Art where David Skinner was Professor. Jo explained how Skinner’s teachings have influenced the work of her practice over the last 30+ years. Supported by the entire J&L Gibbons team, the studio took the opportunity to follow the lecture with a field trip to ‘Big Tree Country’, Perthshire taking in highlights of The Grand Tour of Scotland.

50th Anniversary of Ian McHarg's: Design With Nature | A Celebration of Influence and Legacy

Preeminent Landscape Architect Ian McHarg reshaped the profession with his revolutionary ecological approach to design captured in his seminal book, Design with Nature, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. Jo was invited to help mark this event in McHarg’s home country of Scotland organised by Landscape Institute Scotland. Speaking at Edinburgh College of Art as one of several ECA alumni the evening acted as a reminder of McHarg’s significant legacy. You can watch Jo’s talk here.

Landscape Institute 90th Anniversary | Landscape Festival of Ideas

Held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP), Jo and Neil were invited to help celebrate the achievements of the profession. Neil spoke about Urban Mind, a research collaboration between Kings College London, Nomad projects and J&L Gibbons. Jo led a walk along the Lea Navigation through Canal Park, one of the three parklands of the QEOP, by lead Landscape Architects J&L Gibbons in collaboration with muf architecture/art, East and Phil Meadowcroft, delivered by LDA.

IDEAL | Rapperswiler Day 2019

The conference addressed the notion of the ideal vision of a city where nature is preserved and a lively living environment is featured, one that is worth living in. Jo talked about the ‘ideal’ being reflected in process collaborative and driven design underpinned by a philosophy of deep ecology, the principle belief that the living environment as a whole should be respected. Watch the conference here.

Middle East Smart Landscape Conference 2019

The two-day summit in Dubai brought together leading landscape architects and sustainability experts to discuss topics on developing healthy happy cities and improving the quality of life within urban communities. Neil focused on London as a case study for considering cities as a landscape network functioning at multiple scales and interdependencies, through exploring the city as ecosystem.

Systemic Design in Urbanism

Systemic design seeks to reintegrate disvalued landscapes into urbanized territories and regional ecologies. Johanna and Neil presented a seminar at the University of Roma Tre talking about action research and the need to interface with natural processes and cultural networks to help sustain life and wellbeing in the city. Jo and Neil also participated in a studio review sharing their knowledge with the students of Landscape Urbanism.

Nature and Wellbeing

The conference hosted by University of Naples Federico II, investigated the relation between health, landscape, architecture and city, focusing on the design of open space; starting from the overcoming of the traditional idea of urban park. Neil considered landscape networks functioning at multiple scales, the need for collective imagination and how Landscape Architects are ideally placed to mediate between these scales.

Landscape designing process reverse reading 

Through a period of Research in Residence spent in the J&L Gibbons studio, PhD graduate Claudia Mezzapesa investigates the unconventional reading of the design process (Reverse Reading) to reveal new relationships between research and practice (research by design). She explores what principles govern the design process, why is it necessary to study and improve processes behind each project and what implications can the application of Reverse Reading have in the practice and theory of landscape architecture. Link.

Scaffold Podcast

Outside of teaching and professional practice Architect Matthew Blunderfield produces Scaffold – a podcast featuring long-form interviews with architects, artists and designers. In an interview with Jo Gibbons, she reflects on how the landscape is viewed, our relationship with natural processes, where we’ve interrupted them and how we can mend and reconfigure them. She says “Stewardship is what my profession is about, we are stewards of the planet.” Listen to the Scaffold podcast here.

Sonic Soil

Commissioned by J & L Gibbons to celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2016. Where do all the earthworms go? There are reminders all around us in the urban landscape, mostly in the form of trees, that we are intricately linked to the soil beneath our feet. Yet we tend to consider it simply as a surface on which we move about. Claudia draws attention to the often ignored and unconsidered sonic world that envelops us. In Where do all the earthworms go? She imagines what a subterranean, soil-based world might sound like: what if we could, like the earthworm, move through soil as we move through air? What new worlds of sensorial experiences might open up to us? Claudia Molitor is a composer/artist whose work draws on traditions of music and sound art but also extends to video, performance and fine art practices. Listen to the piece here.