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NEW proof that Biophilic Design increases the Value (£) of the Workplace!

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NEW proof that Biophilic Design increases the Value (£) of the Workplace!

Did you know for every £1 you spend on even simple Biophilic Design enhancements, you could get £2.70 back? So reveals the new research conducted by Joyce Chan Shoof Architect and Sustainability Lead at the UK Parliament.

Using a scientific approach with control environments, adding biophilic design elements to test the effect and then removing them to further test the effect of their absence, Joyce explains the rigorous approach she took over a seven-year period to arrive at her conclusion.

This is a phenomenal breakthrough for those of us working in Biophilic Design.

You can read the whole report here: https://plplabs.com/reap-what-you-sow-2/

And come and see Joyce present the research in person at Workplace Trends in London on the 18th April 2024 https://workplacetrends.co/events/wtrs24-prog/

We often have struggled trying to articulate the economic benefits of Biophilic Design, this research can be used to support arguments why businesses need it in the workplace.

Joyce has also developed a framework to help designers work out what we need and the impact it will have. Using existing frameworks, like the Flourish model (as advocated by Professor Derek Clements Croome) and others, she has woven a great new model we can all hang our designs on…. READ ON and LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

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Creating Eden

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Creating Eden

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries and this fact is yet another reason we need more Biophilic Design included into urban planning, architecture, design, and every environmental facet of city and town life.

Robert Delius, Associate Director, Architect and Head of Sustainability at Stride Treglown is doing just that. Aiming to maximise biodiversity through design, Robert has a passion to create an Eden, where buildings and landscapes come together and there's a feeling of abundance, where there's nature and birdsong and insect life and a powerful sense of well-being.

 

Robert’s background in housing design and master planning has set him up in good stead to create good design and great places.  Distinctiveness and place making are a thread through his career.  He also has a particular interest in regenerative design and how great design can have a measurably positive impact on climate, ecology and people.  In short, he is a brilliantly creative proactive advocate for Biophilic Design.

 

He believes that forging a closer connection to the natural world, is extremely good for our well-being as well as being good for the planet and good for nature, and his passion for Biophilic Design is life-long. One of the projects he discusses is his Great Bow Yard project in Somerset from 2008. This had gained media attention because it had been flagged as the most energy efficient scheme in the UK.  Having recently revisited the project, Robert notes that residents, are not only pleased with the low energy costs, but were actually most enthused by the shared garden and the feelings of well-being that stem from it being a beautiful spot.

 

In this podcast, Robert talks of his background and upbringing and how that has led him to his passion for living in harmony with nature.  He discusses how on his projects, and those of his colleagues, he always looks to introduce as many opportunities as possible for planting in designs, both internally and externally to reduce hard space and introduce a softer more natural element…. READ ON and LISTEN to the PODCAST

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Can the NHS embrace Biophilic Design?

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Can the NHS embrace Biophilic Design?

Dr Leighton Phillips Director of Research, Innovation and University Partnerships for the NHS Wales, Honorary Professor Aberystwyth University, and director on the Hywel Dda University Health Board joins us to share how they are bringing in Biophilic Design into healthcare in South West Wales. Part of his role is about questioning what we want the future to look like.

Dr Phillips shares with us how fundamentally important the natural environment is, how it profoundly influences our health and wellbeing. What he finds captivating about biophiilc design, is that there is an opportunity. “With over 1200 hospitals, and a million staff and nearly everyone in the UK having some interaction with the NHS services just imagine the health and planetary impact of the NHS embracing biophilic design.” ….

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How to design to incite a feeling? Workplace Design 101

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How to design to incite a feeling? Workplace Design 101

How do you design to incite a feeling? We spend five days of our week in the workplace, and it impacts our psychology massively. When we walk into a space, how do we design to excite that sense of awe. For Becky Turner, workplace psychologist for Claremont Group Interiors, they have conducted research to examine how we replicate that feeling of “oooh” in the workplace.

For many it is the sense of sense of connection that drives people to the office, what else will encourage the workforce the consider the cost of the commute whether it’s financial or time? Claremont researched office-based workers to find out what types of things invite people back to the office. With an overall low occupancy at 30% businesses are feeling the pinch when it comes to workforce presence.

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Sustainable Habitats for Sustainable Habits?

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Sustainable Habitats for Sustainable Habits?

When you climb up a tree, don’t we see life from a different perspective? We realise we part of something bigger than ourselves, we see an overview of everything and it helps us understand our place in the world more. It is also true, that generally many people and businesses seem to have a distorted relationship with nature, but as Environmental Psychologist and Design professional Anicee Bauer of “Humans in Trees” puts it: “we are nature”. Can Biophilic Design really encourage a more sustainable lifestyle, and why should the Workplace include Biophilic Design in order to help reach that NetZero target?

In this podcast, she shares with us the three fascinating levels in her consultancy process. We touch on Wabi-Sabi design strategies, Aristotelian intellectual moral virtues, spirituality, reconnecting with the fun we feel in nature and Einstein… come join us…

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Biophilic Design Awards

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Biophilic Design Awards

For Elliott Bennett, editor of i-Plants Magazine and founder of The Biophilic Design Awards, Biophilic Design gives us an holistic approach to bringing positivity and energy into the built environment on multiple levels, and if we can make it affordable and sustainable, then even better.

Plants can be a luxury item, but, Elliott, argues, they really boost the overall environment. Coming from a B2B background, actually selling and installing plants into buildings, he descirbes just how "alive' people become when you install living plants into a building. It's simple, plants are alive, when you bring plants into a space, you bring life.

It's the same with the wider principles of Biophilic Design, bringing patterns of nature and our living planet into a space, you bring life and energy of the outdoors.

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Biophilic Cities - how Architectural Technologists can use Biophilic Design to support people and planet

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Biophilic Cities - how Architectural Technologists can use Biophilic Design to support people and planet

Did you know an Oak tree is home to over 3000 different life forms? We all have a choice how we can design. How can we make things better? How can architects and town planners design differently? When we are faced with a “blank canvas” how can we create a building and environment that will benefit the people, views, wildlife and our planet? It’s all possible.

I interview Robert Bedner of Cura Design who shares with us his fascinating journey working with Renzo Piano, and Theo Fenn. Robert calls for architecture and design to enhance and protect nature, the more we are connected to nature, the better it will be for our wellbeing, health, spirits. It is what life is all about to begin with.

It is important for cities to design biophilically - it is future of urban design. We need to bring nature back into the urban environment. It is good for biodiversity, it is healthy for people.

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Should you Move? - THE SPACE DOCTORS BONUS EPISODE

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Should you Move? - THE SPACE DOCTORS BONUS EPISODE

This is a bonus podcast based on Environmental Psychology where we interview Dr Sally Augustin to pick up advice on home design. We look at our homes from the point of view of a New Season and that it brings with it itchy feet or a desire to spring clean and switch up the interiors of your home. Maybe this year more than ever we've been in Lockdown for months now, all over the world, we've had time to look at the four walls we are living and working in, and we either love them or loathe them!

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Botanic Shed - School of Nature

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Botanic Shed - School of Nature

When was the last time you felt stressed? Sometimes things in life can be a wee bit too much, or there's just one too many things to do, or just too much on your plate for whatever reason. We speak with Lara Cowan, founder of the Botanic Shed - School of Nature….

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Elemental Change - Making Stuff Happen when nothing stands still.

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Elemental Change - Making Stuff Happen when nothing stands still.

Normality is just a point in time. We are in such a strange place, so many gold posts have shifted personally as well as in the workplace. Uncertainty is our opportunity, because nothing stands still everything is connected in some way. In this fascinating and compelling pod/videocast with Neil Usher, Chief Workplace and Change Strategisy at GoSpace AI we discuss his new book Elemental Change and how this period is a fantastic opportunity, we have to capture the energy of uncertainty and do some amazing things…

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Living in Harmony with the Earth brings Good Fortune

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Living in Harmony with the Earth brings Good Fortune

How can we as Biophilic consultants embrace the Five Elements of Feng Shui to further understand our environment we live and work in, how we relate to our spaces and also how living more intuitively with the elements of nature can make a difference to our wellbeing, future planning, confidence and actually getting off our backsides and doing something. Another fascinating conversation with Luminous Spaces founder, Maureen Calamia, who has developed a practice of Biophilic Design based on the 5 Elements.

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Biophilic Design and "Em'play'ees"

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Biophilic Design and "Em'play'ees"

Can play really transform our workplaces? Do we need it more than ever? Niklas Madsen is founder of Superlab, an experimental design laboratory with a main goal to study the future workplace and furniture design of tomorrow. Their book "Playful Office - the future office philosophy that will turn employees into employees' kickstarted an innovative journey, researching the benefits of creative play in the office, allowing free thought to flow in the workforce as well as engendering solutions and wellbeing for companies they work with. They are also now exploring AI and other digital tools to help transform spaces for people. Combining that with biophilic solutions has created some really interesting spaces, that encourage staff retention and productivity.

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Oliver Heath - How to create Happiness, the benefits of Biophilic Design

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Oliver Heath - How to create Happiness, the benefits of Biophilic Design

Biophilic design principles allow us to bring elements of nature into the built environment, especially into those places where we experience a great deal of stress. Our connection to nature can unlock so many benefits, stress washes off us, we become different people, we can think more holistically about our life and where it’s going. The impact the buildings we inhabit and work in have an enormous effect on our lives, especially now with the restrictions placed on us as a result of the Covid epidemic. With an onset of almost cabin fever, we are recognising the fact that the building we surround ourselves with has a huge impact on our physical, mental and emotional states. Nature can play a valuable role, the benefits of plants and greenery, adding personalisation, direct influence over a space, improve air quality, sunlight, fresh air, easy to improve spaces. S..

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Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age

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Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age

Can technology and nature go hand in hand, can we use technology to embrace nature? If so, how? Technobiophilia is a new term coined by writer and researcher Sue Thomas. We speak with her about her book of the same name and also about Nature, Wellbeing in the Digital Age. Quotidian use of our device interaction throws up the most surprising benefits it seems, who would have thought that Grand Theft Auto or FarmVille would give us a potential escape route after work into nature, or how nature found its way into our metaphorical library to be an unspoken lexicon for cyberspace terminology.

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Biophilia - A Handbook for bringing the Natural World into your Life

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Biophilia - A Handbook for bringing the Natural World into your Life

Sally Coulthard, designer and best selling author writes a great column for Country Living “Good Life in the Country.” Her recent book “Biophilia" - You, Nature, Home” is a ‘Handbook for bringing the natural world into your life’ and is one of the most beautifully crafted books I’ve read for years. It feels like you are holding nature in your hands. I was thrilled to interview her and get her take on Biophilia, why it’s important today, why cities and buildings should be weaving biophilic elements into their interior designs and urban planning. We chat about the interconnectedness of nature and our lives, how biophilia embraces many aspects and has many benefits not only from an aesthetic point of view but also environmental and on a more profound level as it reduces negative issues such as stress and improves positive aspects like helping sleep, air quality, nervous systems. The science is overwhelming.

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The Conscious Nature Connector

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The Conscious Nature Connector

If you are feeling overwhelmed at the thought of going back to work, or which way to turn now, you could well benefit from taking a leaf (excuse the pun) from nature’s book. Deborah Mendes, helps overwhelmed CEOs and business owners del with change and reconnect to their true and powerful selves through connecting with nature. The term biophilia highlights our connection with nature, so I was intrigued to learn more about how Deborah works. From the study of an intricate pine cone to just standing still and feeling strong within ourselves, grounding ourselves, rooting ourselves and expanding outwards, and growing can enable us to adapt, slow down, make atomic changes to help ourselves and those around us have better more productive, peaceful and happy lives.

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Why Biophilic Design should be essential in Healthcare

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Why Biophilic Design should be essential in Healthcare

Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres have embraced and celebrated biophilic design not only in their interiors but also in the fabric of the architecture, the landscapes and views of nature, plants and trees within and without their buildings. And it is making a phenomenal difference. As the seasons change, so the views change. “Nature is Joyful, and it helps us feel joyful and when we feel joyful we can handle so much more of what life throws at us.” Maggie’s is visionary, it’s mould-breaking and is important evidence that biophilic design is ESSENTIAL in healthcare….

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Forest Therapy

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Forest Therapy

When was the last time you took a walk in the forest? We all recognise the positive power that being in nature has on our wellbeing and mindset, and some of us also are familiar with the Japanese ‘art’ of Shinrin Yoku, or Forest Bathing. What you might not have known is that there are “NHS Forest” hospitals. In this podcast we discuss whether there is a need for a nature-based health strategy to be…

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How a NASA Study led to "Forest Air"

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How a NASA Study led to "Forest Air"

In 1986 NASA was researching the ability of plants to absorb harmful gases. Their research had a huge impact on author and precision mechanic Jørn Viumdal who went on to set up Greentime AS. He contacted NASA and they began to develop the space stations of the future and researched how they could use nature to improve the air quality on board the space stations…

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What do Biophilic Design, Feng Shui and Wabi Sabi have in common?

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What do Biophilic Design, Feng Shui and Wabi Sabi have in common?

Acoustics, planting, colour ways, furniture design, textures, space all have an impact on us. Whether this is at home or in the workplace, how we decide to design these spaces can make a whole difference to our mind set, they can make us stressed and unproductive or they can make us focussed, calm and inspired. We have control on what we create. We have a duty of care to ourselves to make sure we respect each other enough to want to make our homes and offices, hospitals and so on nice places to be…

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