Research Professor, Co-founder/Director Emeritus Natural Learning Initiative, College of Design

​Robin Moore, MCP, DipArch., Honorary ASLA, is a Research Professor in the College of Design and Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University, USA. His area of research and teaching is environment & behavior design thinking applied to practice in built environment biophilic design, especially in relation to urban childhood and family spaces. Growing up in the South of England, Moore graduated from University College London (UCL) in architecture and practiced architecture in London with Llewelyn-Davies & Weeks.

He studied city planning with Kevin Lynch and Donald Appleyard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he first became interested in urban childhood environments. His thesis included the co-creation of a first in situ living legacy lab in a Boston public housing community.

Returning to London, Moore practiced with Land Use Consultants (LUC), working on large-scale urban landscape regeneration projects, including in Stoke-on-Trent. In 1970 he joined the faculty of landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where he cofounded an innovative transdisciplinary undergraduate program (IDS 120), integrating design, education, and nature conservation. Expanding on his MIT graduate work, he co-created a second in situ living legacy lab, the Environmental Yard, at Washington Elementary School, downtown Berkeley. Results of the 10-year design-build-research project were published as Natural Learning (1997), co-authored with Dr. Herb Wong, science educator and school principal. While in the Bay Area, Moore co-founded the People-Environment Group (PEG), San Francisco, and Moore Iacofano Goltsman (MIG), Berkeley. He taught also at Stanford University in Urban Studies.

In 1982, Moore joined the faculty of landscape architecture at NC State University, Raleigh. There he co-founded the Center for Universal Design and the PhD in Design program. In 1998 he co-created Kids Together Playground, Cary, NC, as a third in situ living legacy lab, which continues serving as a research/educational site.

In 2000, with Dr. Nilda Cosco, Moore launched the Natural Learning Initiative (NLI), serving as the founding Director. To date, the NLI team has co-created around 500 demonstration and training sites. Several qualify as in situ living legacy labs.

Moore’s publications include Childhood’s Domain: Play and Place in Child Development (1986), republished by Routledge (2018) as an edition in child development; Plants for Play (1993); Play for All Guidelines (1987, 1992); The Complete Playground Book (1993); and Natural Learning: Nature’s Way of Teaching (1997). 

In 1967, Moore joined the International Association for the Child’s Right to Play (IPA, now the International Play Association), was founding editor of the IPA magazine, PlayRights, and was elected international president 1990-1999 (until now the only design professional). Moore served as board member and chair of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), from 1983-1986. He received the 2023 EDRA Career Award. In 2021, Moore received the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence from the NC State Board of Trustees – the highest honor they bestow.