Julia Africa
Title: Biophilic Design & Landscape Research Consultant
Organization: Independent Consultant
Location: Brookline, MA
Julia Kane Africa is an independent Biophilic Design and Landscape Research Consultant. She is currently embedded in the Franklin Park Action Plan Team, a consortium of 40+ landscape architects, planners, ecologists, and community engagement experts tasked with creating a community driven action plan for the revitalization of the historic 500-acre Boston Park. In this role, she has helped facilitate connections with local community healthcare and wellness professionals, convey their concerns and hopes to the design team, and recommend actionable design insights that serve the twin goals of ecological restoration and community health.
Julia led the Nature and Health program at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, an academic research center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, from 2012-2017. In this role, she explored the ways in which nature (parks and green spaces) and natural design cues (natural features in built environment settings) in urban settings support psychological and physiological health and resilience. Julia has completed graduate coursework in environmental health, exposure assessment, and sustainable design at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Graduate School of Design (MDesS conferred in 2011). Her GSD MDesS master’s thesis examined the efficacy of various plant-based air filters (phytofiltration) when integrated with existing building HVAC systems to remove volatile and semi-volatile airborne contaminants.
Julia is delighted to serve on the Livable Streets Alliance Emerald Network Initiative Advisory Board which works to create or restore additional greenway connections within Olmsted’s celebrated “Emerald Necklace” of parks in Boston. She is also a member of the Biophilic Cities Network Advisory Group.