Articles by subject

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Access and Inclusive Design

• The Access Chain - a tool that shows the chain of events for a good visitor experience, useful for reviewing access and planning improvements
• Access and Audience Development Plans - Sensory Trust was commissioned by ACTA to develop access and audience development plans for Mote Park in Kent
• Audience Development Plans - they can help you win funding, but how do you put one together and what are the ingredients for a successful one?
• Awards for Sensory Trust publications - awards recognise the contribution of the Easy Access to Historic Landscapes publication, produced for English Heritage
• CABE Award for Sensory Trust's work - award is recognition of Sensory Trust's work in setting inclusive design standards for the design of buildings and spaces
• Designing age-friendly landscapes - designing landscapes so they can be enjoyed by older people
• Disabled Ramblers in Cornwall 2003 - Disabled Ramblers trek through Cornwall
• Disabled Ramblers explore Cornwall 2006 - a look at some of the benefits of getting disabled people and site managers together out in the elements
• Eden No. 1 - The Rough Guide places the Eden Project as the number one visitor attraction in the Parks and Gardens category for disabled visitors in the UK
• Eden Sessions - making live music accessible to everyone
• Equality Act 2010 - an overview of the new equality act that brings together the previously separate areas of anti-disrimination legislation
• Evaluating Access at Quarry Bank Mill - The Sensory Trust completed a round of training around the UK to help the National Trust improve accessibility of their sites
• Getting into Inclusive Design - Worthy? Dull? Where can I sign up?
• Go Outside and Play - the benefits of play and time outdoors
• The Green Flag Award Scheme: Inclusive Training - Sensory Trust provides important training for the judges
• Inclusion by Design - publication focused on inclusive play by the KIDS charity
• Inclusive Design: the new Core building at Eden Project - Grimshaw architect Jerry Tate tells us why it's so imperative to consider inclusive design from the earliest stages of a new design
• The Inclusive Destination - making school visits accessible for all
• Inclusive greenspace - what are the barriers that prevent access and what can we do to remove them and make our parks and greenspaces great for everyone?
• Inclusive water fountains at Eden - Sensory Trust worked with Eden's designer makers to design new water fountains that everyone can use
• Inclusive Design : Why Wouldn't You? - food for thought
• UK Guides to Improve Outdoor Access - essential reading for managers and owners of heritage sites and other outdoor landscapes
• Inclusive water fountains at Eden - Sensory Trust worked with Eden's designer makers to design new water fountains that everyone can use

Experience and Sense of Place

• Aiding and Abetting a Known Felon - Sensory Trust discovers that its work could be of dubious legality
• Australian Sensory Trails Development Framework project - Sensory Trust helps a new project based in Victoria, Australia
• Ban's Best Friend - dog walkers as the regeneration avant garde
• Benefits of contact with nature for everyone? - article outlining barriers that prevent some groups accessing the benefits of spending time outdoors
• The benefits of gardens to people with dementia - Ray Liles reports on the success of a garden visit for people with dementia, organised by the Sensory Trust
• Call for new metrics - a sideways view at good indicators for successful greenspace
• Engaging the Senses - Lynsey Robinson and Jen Bartlett talk about how sensory rich farm visits inspire, connect and educate pupils with special educational needs.
• Equality of Experience - quality of experience is as important as physical access if the spirit of the DDA is to be upheld
• Greener, safer, blander? - where is the sense of place in our contemporary urban spaces?
• How does heritage feel? - Stuart Spurring talks about how sensory experiences build our connections with outdoor places and the use of sensory mapping as a tool for exploring sensory engagement.
• Man Enjoys View From Bench - fear and urban public space
• More than a Room with a View - beneficial plant therapy for mental well being
• Museum access and experience - Sensory Trust undertook an access and visitor experience survey at the National Tramway Museum in Crich in Derbyshire
• Obvious Use of an Urban Park - Urban parks are too precious to be squandered by a single use or single interest group
• Park Experience: holistic roots - using both the UK and the US as examples, just what is a park experience?
• Park life - making the case for combining issues of accessibility with quality of experience
• Private Space Public Lives - how can our public spaces do more to encourage society to be social?
• Quality of life in urban centres, Argentina - Pablo Bullaude writes about new developments on the Asunción coastline
• Sat Nav – the end of hope? - is technology reducing our opportunities to explore the world around us?
• A sense of place - What sort of things can a community identify as a strength or having potential for development? A sense of place can often act as a uniting narrative, particularly for rural communities where narratives are strongly linked with the land
• A Sense of Place 2004 - a look back with a warm glow at our conference in June/July in Devon and Cornwall
• A Sense of Place 2006 - a review of the conference held in Cornwall
• Sensory Garden - what's that then? - to include or to exclude... a designers view
• Sounder Spaces - Sensory Trust talks at a conference highlighting the importance of sound quality in relation to London's open spaces
• Teaching & learning through sensory design - how a sensory approach to landscape design dovetails with making places where people can connect and find meaning in outdoor places
• The Third Place - is a coffee machine commercial the last kick in the teeth for public spaces?
• Two Short Shorts Visit Eden - fantastic first hand account of a visit to Eden Project
• The Unusual Likeness of Being Musical - a sound perspective from Mick Beck, Chair of the Sensory Trust Trustees and blind musician
• 5, 9, 21, 53… how many senses? A Brief History of the Senses to demonstrate that exactly how many senses we have is unlikely to be agreed any time soon

Community engagement

• Awakening Senses - an award-winning consultation day run by Sensory Trust as part of the Community Service Volunteers (CSV) ‘Making a difference day’
• Beacon Project - Hazel Stuteley OBE tells the story of the Falmouth Estate's regeneration and the power of the community
• Capital Woodlands Project - in 2005/2006 we were involved in running community consultation in six ancient woodland sites around London for the Capital Woodlands Project. What has happened since?
• Connecting with People - publication giving a compelling argument that connecting with people must be at the heart of all public services
• Consulting to make great retirement housing - Sensory Trust ran creative consultation with potential residents of a new retirement housing scheme planned by Gentoo Sunderland
• Historic memory in Valdediós - Simon Manfield talks of his work with the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, locating and excavating mass graves from the Spanish Civil War and the effect of the work on the local communities
• I’d be happier outside - the values of communities past and present for older disabled people
• If You Go Down to the Woods - involving people in the Capital Woodlands Project in London, part of a global initiative by Trees for Cities
• Interview with an Eden Volunteer - Wendy Brewin talks to Jo Burgess about access for disabled people
• Making Community Engagement and Staff Training Creative and Fun - Sensory Trust runs creative community engagement at the National Trust's Lanhydrock estate
• Mending broken communities: as easy as ABCD? - Hazel Stuteley and the Health Complexity Group launch Connecting Communities at the Sense of Place conference at Eden
• New Ground - a partnership project investigating ways to use narrative and heritage to regenerate communities
• People and Gardens - profile of a fantastic social enterprise working with people with disabilities
• The Placemaker's Guide to Building Community - practical handbook for all involved in doing and learning about practice and teaching placemaking and urban development world-wide
• Towards the Edge - Sensory Trust undertook a series of consultation engagement sessions as part of Eden Project's big build plans
• Towards the Edge - a Community Narrative Exhibit - Sensory Trust created an exhibit at the Eden Project to invite people to share their perspectives on community
• TR14ers community dance team - TR14ers is an inspiring police-led community dance team of about 350 young people in the town of Camborne in Cornwall, UK

Healthcare and therapeutic landscapes

• Dementia Strategy - a look at the National Dementia Strategy, introduced in 2009 to improve the lives of people with dementia
• I'm Still Here - a breakthrough approach to understanding someone living with Alzheimer’s, publication by leading authority John Zeisel
• The Importance of Gardens in a Time of Crisis - September 11, a Personal Testimony by Nancy Chambers, Glass Garden, New York
• The Need for Public Spaces - how important gathering spaces are post September 11th
• The Value of Landscaping on Health - Jane Stoneham talks about the therapeutic and social value of landscape at a seminar held by Architects for Health in association with the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London
• When the Drugs don’t Work - A recent review ordered by the Department of Health in the UK on the use of anti-psychotic drugs on dementia sufferers states that as many as 144,000 people are being given the drugs unnecessarily causing an estimated 1,800 deaths each year. Could better care home environments help turn round this appalling state of affairs? We think so

Information, interpretation and Learning

• Accessible Information : Layout and Language - the words we use
• Accessible Information for Bishop's Forum - Sensory Trust designed accessible information for this inspirational adventure centre
• Accessible Information - an overview
• Braille/Large Print Menu Trials - as shown at the Eden Project
• Children and the natural world - article arguing that children are not over-stimulated by computer games and television as is often claimed in the media
• Design for the senses - the holistic approach to interpretation
• Designing learning environments - exploring the benefits of taking a sensory approach to designing learning environments
• Discovery Bags at Pine Lodge - as part of the ongoing development and testing of our new engagement techniques we arranged a visit by students from Doubletrees special school to the Pine Lodge Gardens in St Austell.
• Hands-on Nature - the value of plants and hands-on activities in engaging students with learning disabilities with the natural world
• Has Anyone Seen My Specs? - some key pointers for applying the principles of accessible information
• It is dangerous to stick your head out - the subtle messaging that can come, intentionally or unintentionally, from the words and pictures we choose to use
• ReDiscover - creating accessible information to enhance the visitor experience to the Core education centre at the Eden Project
• Sensory learning and our environment - article about how we learn through all our senses and implications for connecting with our environment
• Sensory Mapping - new ways of looking at (and sniffing at) spaces
• Sensory Mapping with Students of Doubletrees School - Sensory Trust spends a day working with children at a school in Cornwall to redesign their outdoor space
• Stourhead Sensory Trail - a trail guide designed to encourage visitors to experience the gardens of Stourhead through all their senses
• Stumped - exploring the link between knowledge and experience; do we need to be able to name something to believe that it matters?
• Symbols for People with Learning Difficulties - pioneering the use of Widgits
• Widgit Discover Packs - Sensory Trust works with Widgit in the development of the Discover Eden packs for the Eden Project

Sustainable approaches

• Growing old in a Changing Climate - this article puts the spotlight on the impacts of climate change and resource scarcity on older people, drawing on work with Eden Project and Carnegie Trust UK
• Sustainability and New Urbanism - a bright future?
• Wrestling with leaning towers - Landlife's Richard Scott argues that creative conservation and ecological restoration are likely to become significantly more important in the near future, particularly to address the impacts of an increasingly urbanised and populated world

Great Places - Reviews of Good Examples

• Alnwick Gardens - an informal review of this visitor attraction
• Australian Study Trip part 1 - Wendy Brewin recounts some of her discoveries in the land downunder
• Australian Study Trip part 2 - Wendy continues her Oz odyssey in Sydney and Brisbane
• Bryant Park, New York, USA - review of a great urban space
• Cleveland Botanical Garden - an excellent example of restorative greenspace design
• Great Places - just as it says on the tin, a list of places we think are great
• The Japanese Connection - looking at great examples of sensory and inclusive design in Osaka and Kyoto
• Milton Keynes Parks, UK - a green space review
• Oizumi Ryokuchi Park, Osaka, Japan - a green space review
• A River Runs Through Them: Parks in Melbourne - we review the old and the new in Australia
• Royal Schools for the Deaf Manchester, UK - a green space review
• Seicho School, Tokyo - a featured greenspace, a residential care centre for people with Learning disabilities in Tokyo
• A Sense of Peace at the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris - inspired by a talk at our conference we find vital sensory ingredients in one of the oldest cemeteries in Paris
• Sheffield Peace Gardens, UK - a green space review

People and Organisations

• Making Sense - moving to Cornwall was a chance for the Sensory Trust to develop exciting new work focused on inclusive design and sensory engagement
• Remembering Jane Jacobs - outspoken critic of the planning establishment in the US, we remember the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities
• Therapeutic Landscapes Network - a profile of an organisation in the USA that is a fabulous resource base for anyone interested in restorative and people-centred landscapes
• Tony Bradshaw - in memory of Professor Anthony Bradshaw FRS
• Work experience at Sensory HQ - a student from Fowey Community College describes a week in the Sensory Trust's office
• Ken Worpole - a profile of one of our favourite writers on landscape, community and meaning of place