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By JCS Editor – January 13, 2025

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Review of Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes

Ariel Evan Mayse is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, the senior scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society, and an ordained rabbi. He is the author of Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism (2024), Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (2020), and Guest Editor for JCS Special Issue #03: Contemplative Ecology.

Currents Home

By JCS Editor – January 13, 2025

  • Announcements
  • Articles
Quick read

Book Review

Review of Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes

Ariel Evan Mayse is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, the senior scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society, and an ordained rabbi. He is the author of Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism (2024), Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (2020), and Guest Editor for JCS Special Issue #03: Contemplative Ecology.

BOOK REVIEW: Review of Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes

By JCS Editor

“Review of Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative Landscapes“, Ariel Evan Mayse, Stanford University

Reviewed by Ariel Evan Mayse, this review explores how urban green spaces can promote mental well-being through intentional design informed by neuroscience, as discussed by Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo in Neuroscience for Designing Green Spaces: Contemplative
Landscapes, published in 2023. The book introduces the Contemplative Landscape Model, a framework identifying seven features that enhance contemplative experiences in built environments. Mayse discusses why the book is a significant contribution to the field of Contemplative Studies, and what more there is to be done.

Keywords: Contemplative Architecture and Landscapes, Design, green spaces, Urban Policy and Planning, built environment, Neuroscience

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.57010/CDAP8853

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