Johanna Gibbons

J&L Gibbons collaborated on the Urban Nature Project for the Natural History Museum in London, which won the Holcim Foundation Awards 2023 Silver for Europe. This landscape program which opened in July 2024 transforms the two-hectare Gardens of London to increase biodiversity, accessibility, scientific research, and best practice outdoor nature-learning while responding to the urgent need to re-engage people with the natural world and urban wildlife.

Johanna Gibbons was honored as a “Royal Designer for Industry” (RDI) by the Royal Society of Arts, which praised her for championing landscape design amidst the global climate emergency, ecological breakdown, and mental health crisis. The society noted: “She’s been ahead of the game, always seeking answers and delivering better planning and design solutions.”

Her work includes the restoration and revitalisation of a city estate landscape, the creation of a community garden and cultural hub, urban forestry and urban agriculture, safe havens for learning, growing, relaxation and natural play, habitat enriching planting palettes that promote productivity, and edible landscapes with areas for community growing.

In her cross disciplinary work, Jo is part of a Kings College London research team awarded funding by the Wellcome Trust to investigate evidence-based policy and practice on the effects of extreme urban heat events on mental health in vulnerable urban communities, using London as a case study.

Johanna Gibbons founded J&L Gibbons as an environmental architecture practice in 1986. She trained at the Edinburgh College of Art under David Skinner, a disciple of “Design with Nature” author Ian McHarg, she frequently collaborates with leading architects such as AHMM, Stanton Williams, Carmody Groarke and muf architecture/art.