News
Spring 2024
Article on The Lions’ Gate in the Spring Edition of Permaculture Magazine.
Winter 2023
The Lions’ Gate has achieved a ‘Thriving’ award by Keep Scotland Beautiful.
June 2023
Submitted a mixed-media work to the Small File Media Festival.
December 2022
The Lions’ Gate has been short-listed for the LUSH Spring Prize.
September 2022
We’re working closely with Edinburgh Napier’s Computational Sustainability Lab to develop a garden sensor system to support the development of an intelligent bio-dome in our polytunnel.
April 2022
The Lions’ Gate was part of a REF Impact Case Study that was awarded 4* – denoting research quality that is world-leading in originality, significance and rigour.
Research areas
Environment and bio-diversity
How do we build abundant, bio-diverse systems that support us?
Health, well-being, society
Re-connecting with nature for restorative health
Sustainable Interaction Design and Computing
How can the digital be re-made sustainable?
Artists and makers
Ecologically-inspired artworks and inventions.
Community
Working cooperatively to develop concepts and actions that nourish the living planet.
The University as an agency of change
How can universities quickly pursue practical solutions to the environmental concerns of our age?
Publications
Permaculture Your University (2024)
Callum Egan
Permaculture Magazine Spring Edition PM119, Permanent Publications
Computing students’ attitudes to environmental sustainability education (2021)
Sally Smith, Callum Egan, Kris Plum
Paper presented at Horizons in STEM Higher Education, Online
Hasten Slowly: Developing an interactive sustainability storytelling chair (2020)
Callum Egan, Andrew O’Dowd, Neil Fyffe
2020 ACM Workshop: Computing Within Limits, Bristol, UK
https://doi.org/10.1145/3401335.3401817
The Lions’ Gate: Towards a permaculture-inspired blended space (2019)
Callum Egan, Richard Thompson, Andrew O’Dowd
2019 ACM Workshop: Computing within Limits, Lappeenranta, Finland
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3338103.3338110
Sustainable HCI: Blending permaculture and user-experience. (2017)
Callum Egan, David Benyon
Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference Companion Publication on Designing Interactive Systems Pages 39-43
ISBN: 978-1-4503-4991-8
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3064857.3079115
Permaculture as a foundation for sustainable interaction design and UX. (2017)
Callum Egan, David Benyon, Richard Thompson
Proceedings of British HCI 2017 – Digital Make-Believe, Sunderland, UK
https://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/59221
Books available on The Lions’ Gate Bookshelf at Merchiston Library
Teaming with microbes: the organic gardener’s guide to the soil food web by Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis.
Plants for a future: edible & useful plants for a healthier world by Ken Fern.
Silent spring by Rachel Carson.
Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh by Helena Norberg-Hodge.
Do it Yourself 12 Volt Solar Power by Michel Daniek.
The transition companion: making your community more resilient in uncertain times by Rob Hopkins.
The permaculture city: regenerative design for urban, suburban, and town resilience by Toby Hemenway.
Permaculture design : a step-by-step guide by Aranya.
The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill by Tim Ingold.
Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart.
The earth care manual: a permaculture handbook for Britain & other temperate climates by Patrick Whitefield.
Mycelium running: how mushrooms can help save the world by Paul Stamets.
Timeless way of building by Christopher Alexander.
The Permaculture Garden by Graham Bell.
Other key texts
Telecommunication Networks: Economy, ecology, rule
Cubitt S
Theory Culture and Society (2014)
Wayfinding: A conceptual framework
Passini R
Urban Ecology (1981)
Where The Action Is
Dourish P
The Foundations Of Embodied Interaction (2004)
Re-Space-ing Place : “Place” and “Space” Ten Years On
Dourish P (2006)
Sustainable interaction design
Blevis E
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems – CHI ’07 (2007)
Responsibilities and Implications: Further Thoughts on Ethnography and Design
Dourish P
Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Designing for User eXperiences (2007)
A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special Attention to Peter Sloterdijk)
Latour B
Design History Society (2008)
Nourishing the ground for sustainable HCI: considerations from ecologically engaged art
DiSalvo, C., Boehner, K., Knouf, N. A., & Sengers P
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM. (2009)
The new world of the anthropocene
Zalasiewicz J Williams M Steffen W et.al.
Environmental Science and Technology (2010)
HCI and environmental sustainability: the politics of design and the design of politics
Dourish P
Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems . ACM. (2010)
Making food, producing sustainability
Hirsch T Sengers P Blevis E et.al.
Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems – CHI EA ’10 (2010)
Mapping the landscape of sustainable HCI
DiSalvo C Sengers P Brynjarsdóttir H
Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (2010)
What if sustainability doesn’t work out?
Tomlinson B Patterson D Pan Y et.al.
Interactions (2012)
Retrofitting the Suburbs for the Energy Descent Future
Holmgren D (2012)
Sustainably unpersuaded: How Persuasion Narrows Our Vision of Sustainability
Brynjarsdottir H Håkansson M Pierce J et.al.
Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI ’12 (2012)
Collapse informatics: augmenting the sustainability & ICT4D discourse in HCI
Tomlinson B Silberman M Patterson D et.al.
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on human factors in computing systems (2012)
Collapse informatics and practice
Tomlinson B Blevis E Nardi B et.al.
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (2013)
Exploring sustainability research in computing
Knowles B Blair L Hazas M et.al.
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international joint conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing – UbiComp ’13 (2013)
A sustainable design fiction: Green practices
Wakkary R Desjardins A Hauser S et.al.
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) (2013)
Next Steps for Sustainable HCI
Silberman M Nathan L Knowles B et.al.
Interactions (2014)
Anthropology at the Time of the Anthropocene – a personal view of what is to be studied
Latour B
Distinguished lecture at the AAA meeting in Washington (2014)
Spaces of Interaction, Places for Experience
Benyon D
Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics (2014)
What have we learned? A SIGCHI HCI & sustainability workshop
Silberman M Nathan L Blevis E et.al.
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – Proceedings (2014)
Rethinking plan A for sustainable HCI
Knowles B Blair L Coulton P et.al.
Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems – CHI ’14 (2014)
Plant Guild Composer : An Interactive Online System to Support Back Yard Food Production
Norton J Burke S Tomlinson B
Chi’14 (2014)
Ecological Perspectives in HCI: Promise, Problems, and Potential
Blevis E Bødker S Flach J et.al.
Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI’15 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2015)
Expanding the Boundaries: A SIGCHI HCI & Sustainability Workshop
Clear A Preist C Joshi S et.al.
Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI’15 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2015)