RESUME
Since obtaining a Graduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1999 my professional career has been complimented by research and teaching. The research activity led to the foundation of the Experiential Landscape Place Research and Development Unit (www.elprdu.com) with Dr. K. Thwaites of the University of Sheffield. I am also an active member of the "core team" of UStED (Urban Sustainability through Environmental Design) an International network of researcher's educationalists and practitioners, gathering, updating, co-ordinating and disseminating tools of Sustainable Urban Design, with special emphasis on ‘public space’ (www.usted-urbandesign.org).

My teaching has been in both Further Education (from 2004 to 2007), where I taught garden design, and in Higher Education (since 2000), currently at The University of Sheffield, where I lecture and tutor on various urban design related modules. In November 2005 Dr. Kevin Thwaites and myself were invited to tutor a group of postgraduate students at the Politecnico di Milan in a four day workshop as part of an EUSF funded course.

Current PhD Research (The development of an approach and methods to reveal the place experiences of primary school aged children) is conceived to develop a design language to assist landscape architects and other environmental design professionals improve quality of life for young children by enhancing the experiential potential of places routinely encountered. The research responds to the importance of encouraging an increase in young people’s use of the outdoor environment, and in particular to promote positive behaviour in children through contact with experientially rich outdoor settings.
The research is now in the writing-up phase, for completion June 2008. It focuses on primary school age children and the spatial experiences encountered on their routine journey from home to school. It explores a range of experiences related to place attachment, orientation and the development of a sense of neighbourhood, or home ground. Work in progress has been disseminated since 2004 through a number of articles, international conferences and symposia presentations and in a recent co-authored book: Experiential Landscape:
An approach to people, place and space.

2003 to date THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
Reading for PhD, Department of Landscape.

Sept 98 LEEDS METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
- June 99 GradDip Landscape Architecture (with Distinction)

1995 - 1998 LEEDS METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
(Part time) MA/GradDip Bridging Course in Landscape Architecture

1994 - 1995 ASKHAM BRYAN COLLEGE YORK
BSc (with Distinction) [University of Leeds]
Land Management and Technology

1991 - 1994 ASKHAM BRYAN COLLEGE YORK
HND (with Distinction)
Landscape and Horticultural Technology

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
Graduate Diploma Landscape Architecture - Distinction
Attained one of five distinctions awarded on the Graduate Diploma Course.

BSc Land Management and Technology - Distinction
Achieved highest ever marks on the BSc course, and awarded one of only two distinctions.

HND Landscape and Horticultural Technology - Distinction
Achieved second highest mark amongst HND peer group.

HND design selected to represent Askham Bryan at the 1994 Chelsea Flower Show, final design received a Silver Medal.

Ibstock cup winner “Best first year Landscape Design Student”.

RECENT CAREER HISTORY
Nov 03 to Date FREELANCE LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT

TUTORING EXPERIENCE
Higher Education Tutoring
Nov 2000 to date
Taught/tutored modules at Post Graduate/Undergraduate levels:

The University of Sheffield
Undergraduate:
Basic Landscape Construction - 06/07
Technical Drawing - 05/06, 06/07
Integrated Urban Design - 04/05, 05/06, 06/07
Advanced Landscape Construction - 04/05, 05/06, 06/07
Post graduate:
Urban Landscape Design – 03/04, 04/05, 05/06, 06/07, 07/08
Special Design (Master planning/Whole site proposals) - 04/05, 05/06
Special Design (Planting) - 04/05, 05/06, 06/07
Special Project (formerly special design) – 07/08
Exam Panel Moderating: Special Design – 2003/2004

Leeds Metropolitan University
Habitation Option - 2000 to 2003
Autocad additional support following departure of staff member.

Further Education Tutoring
Askham Bryan College York
September 2006 to March 2007- Northern College for Further Education (NCFE) Level 2 Certificate in Garden Design.
July-August 2006 – Course design: (NCFE) Level 2 Certificate in
Garden Design.
September 2005 to February 2006 - Open College Network Level 2
Certificate in Garden Design.
September 2004 to July 2005 - City & Guilds Level 2
Certificate in Garden Design.

Dec 02 to Nov 03 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL
Senior Landscape Architect
Portfolio of work included several primary school projects involving the Borough Architects and members of Partnering teams and SRB and Heritage Lottery work.

Sept ’99 to Dec 02 HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL
Community Landscape Architect (SRB funded post)
Provision of a comprehensive Landscape Design and project management service.
• Green Corridors and Gateways Project (SRB)
Development and implementation of a landscape strategy of environmental improvements on strategic and major corridors throughout the two SRB areas. Schemes were executed with involvement of the local community, ward members, agencies and public bodies together with business stakeholders. The projects also required the maximisation of local employment, training and safety initiatives. The schemes were driven by consultation and participation of the community through workshops and exhibitions.
• Grounds for Learning Project (SRB)
This project involved a variety of landscape improvements to schools within the SRB area. The improvements were developed through workshops with pupils, teachers and governors. Proposals were then finalised and managed to completion.
• Intermediate Labour Market (ILM)
Various projects of environmental improvement implemented by the management of the ILM, basic horticultural techniques demonstrated at induction lectures and handbook compiled for reference.

July ’95 to June ’98
Freelance Landscape Designer
Provision of bespoke designs for commercial and domestic clients.

May ’97 to Nov ’97 CITY PARKS SERVICES
(Division of City of Sunderland Direct Services)
Software application design (freelance)

June ’94 – Sept’94 CITY PARKS SERVICES
(Division of City of Sunderland Direct Services)
System auditing and re-organisation.

Aug ’92 – Sept’93 CITY OF SUNDERLAND PARKS CONTRACTS SECTION
(Division of City of Sunderland Dept. of Leisure)
Assistant to Landscape Manager (undertaken as part of HND course)
Part of Landscape team that undertook all new landscaping works awarded to the department.

April ’92 LAND RECLAMATION SITE St. HELENS
A Groundwork Trust project in the reclamation of a derelict spoil heap in Lancashire.
Sub-contract Drawing
Working under the direction of the freelance Landscape Architect for the site interpreting sketches, provision of formal drawings for planning application and original detail design work.

PhD RESEARCH:
The development of an approach and methods to reveal the place experiences of primary school aged children
This research is focused mainly on primary school age children and the spatial experiences encountered on their routine journey from home to school. It responds to a reawakening of the importance of encouraging an increase in young people’s use of the outdoor environment, and in particular to promote positive behaviour in children through contact with experientially rich outdoor settings. A significant part of the research has included developing a variety of ways to engage children in design processes by helping them express their feelings about the places they use.

The research aim is to develop methodology amenable to revealing spatial aspects of the place experience of primary school aged children in ways relevant to landscape design decision making.

The everyday ‘local environment’ routinely encountered by children is increasingly highlighted as an important contributor to their social development and general health and well-being. Evidence suggests that there is significant loss of connection between children and outdoor settings and that this may have long term implications (Worpole,2003). Ken Worpole recently highlighted this, placing the importance of providing for, and giving voice to, children in policy, planning, design and management of public open space within the Urban Renaissance agenda. One important issue is that the voices of children must play a pivotal role in the arrangement and content of places they routinely encounter and ways to understand their notions of place as an essential component of individual and social development are required (Titman,1994; Worpole,2003).

Although children’s participative techniques exist, for example in school grounds design projects (Adams and Ingham 1998), in practice they can be deficient and frequently tokenistic: what Sanoff has referred to as pseudo-participation (Sanoff 2000). Frequently lacking, for example, is sufficient consideration of aspects of children’s experience of place that can promote positive behaviour, place attachment and a sense of emotional wellbeing (Canter,1977; Tuan,1980; Proshansky et al.,1983). Additionally, how to effectively translate experiential issues into a form amenable to spatial design disciplines, landscape architecture and urban design, for example is far from well developed. Literature, particularly in the general field of socially responsive environmental planning and design, in the previous four decades highlights the continuing concealment of the spatial dimension of experience to be an important limitation to environmental design disciplines (Norberg-Schulz,1971; Alexander,1977; Hillier and Hanson,1984;Thwaites,2001; Thwaites and Simkins,2005).

The study (now in its final year) focuses on the ‘school run’ as an example of a routinely encountered spatial continuity, and because the DfES has recently highlighted the importance of enhancing the school run’s potential to promote positive behaviour and choice by giving children a say on improving school journeys (DfES 2003). The study has evolved through a programme of pilot field work undertaken over the past 6 years augmented by literature research.

The research employs a range of participative techniques, each capable of accessing different facets of children’s place perceptions, to determine the components and procedures of a provisional method applied to the study of three sites focussing on children at year 3 and year 6 of primary school education. The resulting data is analysed for its operational effectiveness and for the contribution it makes to provide an insight into children’s place perception. This analysis will help refine initial techniques into a developed method proposed for use by design professionals.

References
Adams, E. and Ingham S. (1998) Changing Places: Children’s Participation in Environmental Planning. London: The Children’s Society.
Alexander.C., Ishikawa.S., Silverstein.M., Jacobson.M., Fiksdahl-King.I. and Angel.S. (1977) A Pattern Language. New York: Oxford University Press.
Canter.D. (1977) The Psychology of Place. London: The Architectural Press.
DfES. (2003) Travelling to School: an action plan. Nottingham: Department for Education and Skills.
Hillier.B. and Hanson.J. (1984) The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norberg-Schulz.C. (1971) Existence, Space, and Architecture. New York: Praeger.
Proshansky,H.M., Fabian, A.K. and Kaminoff, R. (1983) “Place-Identity: Physical World Socialisation of the Self.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 3 (3): 57-83.
Sanoff, H. (2000) Community Participation Methods in Design and Planning. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Thwaites.K. (2001) Experiential Landscape Place: An Exploration of Place and Neighbourhood in Landscape Architecture. Landscape Research, vol.26, no.3, pp.245-255.
Thwaites.K. and Simkins. I.M. (2005) Experiential Landscape Place: Place Making and Quality of Life in Neighbourhood Settings. Urban Design International (publication pending)
Titman, W. (1994) Special Places; Special People – The hidden curriculum of school grounds, Surrey: WWF UK
Tuan,Y.F. (1980) “Rootedness versus Sense of Place.” Landscape 24 (1):3-8.
Worpole,K. (2003) No Particular Place to Go: children, young people and public space, Groundwork UK

RESEARCH:
Experiential Landscape Place (elp:rdu)
www.elprdu.com
elp:rdu is a UK based research unit concerned with exploring the relationship between human experience and its spatial expression in urban open spaces. It develops, publishes and applies tools for the analysis and design of urban settings based on the innate human need to:
• attach significance and value to preferred places
• find their way around
• know and identify their homeground

elp:rdu was formed by Dr. Kevin Thwaites of the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield and Ian Simkins who practices as a Chartered Landscape Architect and freelance Landscape Consultant, IMS Landscape Consultancy based in North Yorkshire, UK.

Experiential Landscape Place is an approach to urban landscape architecture which stresses the importance of place experience to the planning and design of fulfilling urban open space settings.

It is based on increasingly compelling evidence that quality of human life depends, in part, on there being a close bond of association between open space and human experience. Although this is known to be an important contributor to the psychological health of individuals and communities, it is not always given the same level of attention in the planning and design of urban landscape as, for example, technical, aesthetic or economic considerations.

The Experiential Landscape Place Research and Development Unit has been established to research the relationship between human experience and its spatial dimensions and explore how this can be applied to the design of better urban landscape.

The work, as it develops, forms an integral part of our educational practice and consultancy and is widely disseminated via conference presentations and papers in academic and professional journals.

DISSEMINATION
Publications
Simkins, I. M. (2008) The Development of the Insight Method: a participatory approach for primary school children to reveal their place experiences. Doctoral Thesis, University of Sheffield, UK.

Simkins, I.M. and Thwaites, K. (2008) Revealing Hidden Dimensions of Place Experience in Primary School Aged Children. Landscape Research, 33:5, 531-546.

Thwaites.K. and Simkins.I.M. (2007) Experiential Landscape: An approach to people, place and space. London: Taylor and Francis.

Simkins. I.M. (2007) Listening to and understanding the voices of young children in the planning and design process, in Urban Sustainability through Environmental Design, eds: Thwaites. K., Porta. S. and Romice. O. Book commissioned by Spon Press, London.

Thwaites.K. and Simkins.I.M. (2007) Experiential Landscape: revealing hidden dimensions of people-place relations, in Urban Sustainability through Environmental Design, eds: Thwaites. K., Porta. S. and Romice. O. Book commissioned by Spon Press, London.

Thwaites K and Simkins I.M. (2007) Are you experienced? Landscape, 02.07, p.26-31.

Simkins I.M. and Thwaites K. (2006) Potential through Participation. green places, Issue 22, February 2006, pp. 22-27.

Conference Presentations
July 2008 Existing and Aspirational Neighbourhood Place Experiences of Primary School Aged Children. Presentation at the: Safety for Children In The City – A Formula for Children’s Well-Being or for Restraining Children Symposium. IAPS 20th International Conference, Rome, Italy.

July 2008 Experiential Landscape: Approaches to Revealing Place Experience in Primary School Aged Children. Presentation at the: Children's Perspective in Environmental Perception Thematic Session. IAPS 20th International Conference, Rome, Italy.

July 2008 Reading Experiential Village Identity. Joint presentation at the: Home Range: Experiences and Meanings across Cultures and Contexts Symposium. IAPS 20th International Conference, Rome, Italy.

Thwaites K and Simkins I.M. (March 2007) Experiential Landscape: an approach to people, place and space. Invited key note presentation as part of the 'Seven mirrors' conference organised by the Centre for Place and Learning, Stockholm, Sweden.

Simkins I.M. and Thwaites K. (September 2006) Place experience of primary school children: revealing the spatial dimensions. Presentation at the Children, Youth and Environments meeting, IAPS 19th International Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

Simkins I.M. and Thwaites K. (July 2006) Developing tools and techniques for revealing spatial dimensions of place experience in primary school aged children. Seminar presentation and paper at: "Planning and designing healthy public outdoor spaces for young people in the 21st century" conference hosted by the faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, Bristol.

Simkins I.M. and Thwaites K. (2006) Potential through Participation. green places, Issue 22, February 2006, pp. 22-27. view article.

Simkins I.M. (April 2006) The development of tools and techniques for revealing spatial dimensions of place experience in primary school aged children. Seminar presentation at: Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference. Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield.

Simkins I.M. (March 2006) Reflection on Undertaking Reserach into the Spatial Dimensions of Children's Place Experience. Seminar presentation at: Practicalities of Working Inclusively with Children. Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth, The University of Sheffield.

Simkins I.M. (March 2006) Revealing spatial dimensions of place experience in primary school aged children. Presentation at: Recovering Landscape Workshop. Department of Archaeology, University of York.

Simkins.I.M. and Thwaites.K. (2004) The Spatial Experience of Primary School Aged Children: The Development of an Open Space Design Language. Paper and conference presentation at the international Open Space: People Space conference, Edinburgh, 27-29 October 2004.
view paper