Dr Laura MacLean

Research Associate

Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Contact

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Personal statement

Dr. Laura MacLean is a research associate and part 2 architect. Her PhD focused on architecture, urbanism, and people-environment relationships. Currently, her research explores the reciprocal relationship between people and nature, emphasising the benefits derived from natural environments with a focus on health and wellbeing.

Laura joined the DMEM department following three years of post-doctoral experience as a social scientist. Her current role draws on her interdisciplinary background of architecture, design, social science and research to explore innovative solutions to translate health policies into actionable design solutions.

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Professional Activities

From the portfolio_14 Mosaic Landscapes
Interviewee
10/12/2025
Design HOPES From Hope to Health Exhibition: V&A Design Museum, Dundee, UK
Contributor
1/10/2025
Chancellors Associate Programme
Participant
16/9/2025
PRINCE 2 Agile
Participant
9/9/2025
Design HOPES SHIFT Symposium
Organiser
22/4/2025
NHS staff grow edible plants for wellbeing and sustainability
Interviewee
16/4/2025

More professional activities

Projects

Changing spaces from the bottom up understanding emerging community adaptations to Covid19
MacLean, Laura (Principal Investigator) Hopkins, Jonathan (Co-investigator)
Title: Changing spaces from the bottom up: understanding emerging community adaptations to COVID-19
Funded by: The Macaulay Development Trust £
Collaborators: L. MacLean, Dr Jonathan Hopkins (The James Hutton Institute)
Summary: During the COVID-19 pandemic, public and community spaces underwent rapid transformations to accommodate social-distancing, mobility restrictions and new community needs. This project investigates how these adaptations were enacted “from the bottom up” — i.e., emerging at community level rather than only via top-down policy. It focuses on how local groups, neighbourhoods and community organisations responded to the changing physical use of streets, parks and shared spaces; how temporary or informal re-uses of space became more commonplace; and how these adaptations affected social practices, mobility, place-making and community resilience. The study combines qualitative interviews, participatory mapping/documentation of changed spaces and reflections on implications for sustainable community planning in post-pandemic contexts.

Key objectives:
To identify and document the kinds of spatial adaptations that emerged during COVID-19 at neighbourhood/community scale

To explore how local communities initiated, negotiated and used changed spaces (streets, parks, open spaces) in response to COVID-19 constraints

To analyse the social, mobility and place-use consequences of these changes, including access, inclusion and resilience

To reflect on what lessons these emergent changes provide for future planning of community and public spaces in a more resilient, flexible way

Significance / Impacts:
The project offers insight into how community-led spatial responses can enhance resilience to disruptive events (such as pandemics) and provides evidence for local authorities, planners and community organisations on how flexible space usage can support social inclusion, mobility and wellbeing. It also contributes to the research agenda on pandemic-driven change, urban/public space re-configuration and community adaptations.

Funder link:
The Macaulay Development Trust – Research Funding: https://www.macaulaydevelopmenttrust.org/funding

macaulaydevelopmenttrust.org

Funder overview:
The Macaulay Development Trust is a Scottish charity that supports excellent research into the sustainable use of land and natural resources, for the benefit of people, their communities and the environment
01-Jan-2022 - 01-Jan-2023
QUENCH: Making Space for Young People
Sims, Jamie (Principal Investigator) Lomas, Michael (Co-investigator) MacLean, Laura (Co-investigator) Hutchinson, Jon (Co-investigator) Go, Mark (Co-investigator) Jani, Anant (Co-investigator) Lambrick, Danielle (Co-investigator) Lomas, Michael (Co-investigator) O'Brien, Liz (Co-investigator)
Project Summary
Physical benefits of spending time in the natural environment include reduced blood pressure, cortisol, and heart rate, as well as decreased incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Greenspace exposure benefits attentional restoration, perceived social support, management of ADHD symptoms, and mental wellbeing. While specific findings for young people are limited, time in natural spaces in childhood appears important in establishing the potential for future engagement. However, despite potential benefits to activity levels, prosocial behaviour, and wellbeing, young people’s engagement with the natural environment suffers a decline in adolescence. We aim to explore the linkages between objective environmental qualities and perceptions of adolescents in urban greenspaces and whether these contribute to nature connectedness and the physical and mental health of young people. We will conduct a comprehensive field survey, rapid biodiversity assessments, and acoustic monitoring, to identify ecologically high- and low-quality areas. 128 young people involved with Groundwork will engage with specific tasks within identified areas (a conservation task, a mindfulness task, and a photo-voice group discussion task) to promote a varied degree of nature connectedness. A mixed methods design will collect quantitative data using telemetry, accelerometry, and an online survey, and qualitative data using photo-voice and focus groups. Following this proof-of-concept study, it is intended to pursue a further application to scale up to include future Groundwork projects. Findings will feed into the National Lottery Heritage Fund stage 1 application. Dissemination of results will occur through blogs and websites, with key findings prepared for publication in an appropriate academic journal.
02-Jan-2022 - 02-Jan-2022
QUENCH: Quality Inequalities
Ashworth, Kirsti (Principal Investigator) Nicholls, Beth (Co-investigator) MacLean, Laura (Co-investigator) Lambrick, Danielle (Co-investigator) Critchley, Emma (Co-investigator)
This project explores the interactions between environmental quality and bio-psycho-social-spiritual factors in people’s experience of connecting with nature and their sense of place, and how these interactions affect inequalities in experience, within and between different groups.

Drawing on Eden Project North’s community links, members of the public will be invited to complete an interactive Feelings Map showing the emotions they feel in particular urban green and blue spaces in Morecambe and Lancaster. This data will be analysed together with respondents’ demographic data to identify sites and groups for two in-depth qualitative and bio-sensor case studies. The ecological and sensory quality of the two sites will be measured, and up to 12 participants recruited. The participants will explore the sites on their own with mindfulness-based prompts, recording their lived experience as they move around and engage with the site, including in locations with environmental quality characteristics of particular research interest. Participants will wear Heart Rate Variability monitors to enable triangulation of data. The project aims to bring all this data together in a multi-layer layered Feelings map to enrich our understanding of key factors and how they interact to affect nature connectedness in particular green and blue spaces.

We are interested to understand how a person’s perception of the quality of an urban space influences their experience of and sense of connectedness with that space. Experience of a space is unique to an individual and is derived from both the characteristics of the environment of that space and the individual’s biological, psychological, social and spiritual values, and previous experiences. It is the interaction between those environmental and personal factors that determines a person’s perception of comfort in a particular space. Inequalities in perception between individuals, communities and population groups shape how they then connect with, use and benefit from any particular green-blue space.

The project offers the possibility for further exploration into the implications of inequalities in nature connectedness for pro-environmental behaviour, health and wellbeing, place-making and sense of community, across different groups.
02-Jan-2022 - 02-Jan-2022
The Quality of Urban Life in Sub-Sharan African Cities
Salama, Ashraf (Academic) MacLean, Laura (Post Grad Student)
01-Jan-2016 - 01-Jan-2019

More projects

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Contact

Dr Laura MacLean
Research Associate
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Email: laura.a.maclean@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted