Editor's NoteStephanie Stroud
It’s nearly summer—warm, triumphant summer—and the landscape is alive with sound and color! I hope you’re making use of your lunch breaks and those glorious weekend days, because although landscape architects design exterior spaces, we find ourselves inside and seated, our backs slouched, eyes droopy, a pile of discarded coffee cups beside us…um…an awful lot. So here’s my reminder to you, if you need one, to get outside and take a deep breath of fresh air, if only for a few minutes. As LAs, you’re hopefully aware of the numerous health benefits of going outside (vitamin D, improved mood, helps your vision, fresh air, etc). But landscape architects are creative types, and we make our livings based on the work we produce with our minds at our desks. So what to do? My argument this month is to go outside, every day, for a short walk. A study from Stanford University argues that a person walking outside in the fresh air produced two times as many creative responses compared to a person sitting down. Feeling too busy? There are sneaky ways to incorporate walking. Plan a meeting that takes place on foot, like Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, two guys that definitely aren’t known for slacking off. Bring your work outside; your mind and eyeballs with thank you. You never know what may come to you. Once you have some new, creative ideas, you should consider using them for PARK(ing) Day: a worldwide event to showcase how awesome landscape architecture is, and how we can modify our surroundings to embrace change for good. Details below in this very newsletter! Thank you, and enjoy! Steph Stroud
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