Colin Ellard

Professor

Colin Ellard

BSc (Toronto), PhD (University of Western Ontario)

Contact information

Urban Realities Lab webpage

Colin Ellard's personal webpage

Research interests

I am interested in how the organization and appearance of natural and built spaces affects movement, wayfinding, emotion and physiology. My approach to these questions is strongly multidisciplinary and is informed by collaborations with architects, artists, planners, and health professionals. Current studies include investigations of the psychology of residential design, wayfinding at the urban scale, restorative effects of exposure to natural settings, and comparative studies of defensive responses. My research methods include both field investigations and studies of human behaviour in immersive virtual environments.

Funding sources:

  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Urban Realities Lab webpage

Selected publications

  • Ellard, C. (2009). Where Am I  HarperCollins Canada, Toronto. 
  • Ellard, C. (2015). Places of the Heart, Bellevue Literary Press, New York.
  • Ellard, C. (2018). The psychogeography of urban form: Building and measuring Baukultur. Intertwining, 1, 23-32.
  • Ellard, CG. (2017). A new agenda for urban psychology: Out of the laboratory and onto the streets. Journal Of Urban Design and Mental Health. 2(3)
  • Ellard CG. (2017). Becoming the city. Conscious Cities, 2-1.