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Biophilic Design and Net Zero targets in the Workplace

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Biophilic Design and Net Zero targets in the Workplace

So how do we design workplaces and maybe more importantly maintain our workspaces and offices during the course of the building’s life span and use to help create happy, healthy and also sustainable places to be? We speak with Ian Baker, Head of Workplace and Jeremy Campbell, Executive Director Marketing and Business Development for Emcor UK to find out their direct experience as facility managers just what is happening in workplaces, and also how we can improve what we’re doing now to also hit that NetZero target.

We talk about how worried they are about climate change and the IPCC report. We are at a turning point, there is no Planet B, if we carry on as we are doing there aren’t going to be future generations, we have moral obligations as business leaders to solve these problems So how can business owners start to address the issue of trying to reach Net Zero? A recent survey Emcor carried out revealed that 50% of business owners were not ready or not yet on a journey to meet their Net Zero targets.

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Pioneer Nature Method in Architecture

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Pioneer Nature Method in Architecture

How can we work with the landscape more as architects and designers to not only create beautiful spaces but ones that also have a positive impact on our and nature’s wellbeing? We speak with Stephen Melvin, of Atelier Architects who desribes himself as a “landscape facilitator”. How he looks at how the landscape itself is structured and presents itself and then see how to weave the design into the natural space. He has developed the “Pioneer Nature Method” which he tells us about in this podcast.

Steve highlights the need to respect that underlying process of nature that will outlive us, how we need to build in and with the landscape and really consider how our buildings can live with nature. By talking through images shown in the video accompanying this podcast (viewable on YouTube and also on the Journal of Biophilic Design website here), he shows us a project as a case study, so we can follow his thought processes from concept through to render, looking at different aspects from materials, light, air to how people will use the space and also how it represents the client’s aims too.

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Chris Packham - Why we need to build with Nature in Mind

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Chris Packham - Why we need to build with Nature in Mind

With our countryside fast vanishing under concrete, there is much we can do to mitigate the loss by placing the natural world at the heart of development and planning. “Housing developments and houses themselves should be designed to provide space for both wildlife and people” – The Wildlife Trusts. But how do we get to this mindset? We were very excited to be joined by Chris Packham, naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker. A very much respected presenter of BBC’s BAFTA Award-winning Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch series.

In our discussion, we talk about Biophilic Design and he makes an urgent call about why we need to bring nature into our built environment. “If we are not in contact with nature, how are we ever going to learn to love or recognise its true value.”

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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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Planted Country - Save our Soil

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Planted Country - Save our Soil

When you think of our “countryside” what do you think of? How should we be farming? How important is our soil? How can we build using local vernacular materials? How would our lives and climate improve if we strengthened our connection to and respect for nature, not just in the cities but the way we use, engage and farm our countryside?

Listeners to our podcast will likely really love this. There’s a great free event taking place on the first bank holiday here in the UK, from April 30th to May 2nd 2022. Planted Country is being hosted at the beautiful National Trust property here in the UK, at Stourhead with its 600 year old chestnut trees. It’s free to attend, and if you love nature, love design, good food and you love beautiful spaces, then come to Planted Country, you're going to love it. Listen to find out more and how you can book tickets to this FREE event. Maybe we’ll see you there?

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The Asklepeion - Healing and “Biophilic Design” in the Ancient World

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The Asklepeion - Healing and “Biophilic Design” in the Ancient World

Did you know that the principles of “Biophilic Design” have been around for a long time? We might not have called it that, but architects were using the concepts in their built environment. We speak with expert Dr Patty Baker on the ancient world places of healing, particularly the design of the Asklepeion which were buildings and spaces sacred to the god of healing, Asklepios. In this podcast you'll learn who Asklepios was and how his sanctuaries and places of healing were designed to help aid rest, recuperation and healing.

We speak about how the ancient Greeks and Romans had healing centres everywhere, how they brought the “outside” in, how nature played a big part in providing the positive and beautiful setting for these health centres.

They felt that the whole body needed treating, inside and outside the body and also that our senses were key to all this. So it wan’t just what you heard, and could smell, the fresh air but also what you saw. These sanctuaries were surrounded by green and that “fresh” and healthy view was a key to healing.

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Creating Positive Spaces with Biophilic Design

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Creating Positive Spaces with Biophilic Design

How do we reduce distraction at work? How do we entice our staff back into the office? Why do they need to come in? How can zoning help? What are non-rhythmic sensory stimuli? How can biomorphic shapes help us do our best work? What is the business case for Biophilic Design? These and many other questions are answered in this podcast with Oliver Heath and Tanja Künstler. Oliver is founder of Oliver Heath design, and co-author of a new seminal guide from Interface “Creating Positive Spaces”. Tanja is concept designer for Interface. Between them they share some essential insights from the guide and how, by employing a Biophilic Design and human-centred approach to refreshing our office, we can create a workplace where we we will do our best work.

We have an opportunity right now to rethink how we design the workplace as we bring people back to the office. How we cater for different sensory thresholds of our workforce is a key element in designing better.

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Office-based Urban Farming

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Office-based Urban Farming

Being able to grow more food locally has to be an essential key to help improve food security and sustainability. One of the best ways to help reconnect us with food is to help us get closer to it, by encouraging us all to harvest our own. How do we do that? That is where Urban Farming comes in. It is literally just that, growing produce in a city or built-up environment, whether that’s a roof top, vacant walls, basements, indoors even. You can grow produce on any piece of land which is currently not serving a purpose. By providing a simple facility, for instance in existing corporate environments, this can encourage community, fun and even provide mini moments of meditation and zen in a busy office, school, healthcare or any indoor space.

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Nature and Health in an Urban Setting

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Nature and Health in an Urban Setting

There has been quite a bit written and discussed recently about the mental health benefits of getting out into nature especially in urban environments. COVID19 highlighted the relief that being outside in nature gave us. We speak with Dr. Melissa Marselle (see our previous conversation as well on Complex Patterns, Biodiversity and Nature Views”) on how nature especially in cities has helped us deal with stressors of the pandemic and the consequences of lockdown, how it has enabled us to meet other people safely, get out of our homes and also offer us the opportunity for physical activity. Melissa discusses over 40 years of research which consistently shows that a natural environment has beneficial and restorative effects on us.

She shares with us what types and qualities of nature are best for the health and wellbeing of people and the planets looking at greenspace, water, planting and spaces that promote biodiversity and more. We have just entered the UN Decade of Rewilding (launched June 2021), where we hope to see more nature being brought into cities and biodiversity encouraged. Improving our urban environment with nature is so important now more than ever.

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Architecture as a Catalyst for Life

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Architecture as a Catalyst for Life

David Kirkland is an architect, designer and co-founder of Kirkland Fraser Moor. He is also a photographer and co-founder of d-lab, a creative design lab which pushes boundaries and is inspiring a new generation of architects and designers. We discuss biomimicry, primitive design, architectural education, the Eden Project, Para Homes and much more. This is also a call for a “flourishing”, over and above just “sustainability”.

Our built environment creates about 40% of our carbon emissions, and architects are at the forefront of helping solve this. His belief is that architects have a huge opportunity here, with head in the clouds but feet firmly on the ground, to think laterally to minimise this. For him, it is all about Life, with a capital L.

This is also a call for more beauty, and awe in our world. A respect for our planet.

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Can Biophilic Design help Climate Change?

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Can Biophilic Design help Climate Change?

Alexander Verbeek is Policy Director of the EDRC (the Environmental Development Resource Centre in Brussels), he is an environmentalist, public speaker, diplomat and former strategic policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I came to know Alexander through his independent newsletter The Planet (published on Substack). We spoke during COP26, Alexander was also speaking at the conference, but with Biophilic Design being such an important solution in the built environment to some of the climate issues, I wanted to speak with Alexander to hear his thoughts on how the climate crisis is shaking the foundations of life on our planet across the world.

So listen on, he sets the scene, starting with his early life camping in nature with his family, right through to his work on climate change as a spokesperson and diplomat. We also talk about COP26, and he discusses how climate change is impacting global security and that “there is no time to lose”, we need visionary leaders, more diplomats, and a system change. We introduce Biophilic Design solutions in cities and how this can help. “I am fully behind what you do”, he says. He says that in a recent survey it was found that 10% of youth in the UK over the past year did not spend even a minute in nature. This is not hiking up mountains, but even in a city park. He calls for proper education programmes in schools where we should learn to understand and respect nature. He also says, when we build a home or a new neighbourhood, we should plant trees, these are the best carbon capture and storage that the world has ever designed. This should not be perceived as a luxury, but as essential. We discuss how trees in cities have enormous positive impact on our psychological welbeing but also how with climate change impacting our built environment so harshly, tress can help cities withstand the heatwaves. He also raises the fact that poorer neighbourhoods often have less trees, which of course impacts on so many aspects of the lives. Design should include this synergy with nature, we should be closer to nature in our every day lives, so we are much more prepared to deal with the new demands on us in our rapidly changing climate. We will be seeing more extreme heatwaves, heavier downpours. We need environments to help sustain life.

This is very much a wake up call for Biophilic Design solutions in our built environment to help deal with the climate crises.

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A Dose of Nature

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A Dose of Nature

From studying the fragile ecosystems supporting the threatened lives of gibbons, Professor Helen Chatterjee is combining that understanding of evolution and conservation, with her practice of raising awareness of the importance of sustainable green environments which can be used as “nature prescriptions” for us, especially if we live in inner cities.

Access to quality spaces is vital to our mental and physical wellbeing. She shares with us her personal story, as well as an impassioned call for the need to try to encourage social prescribing of nature-based solutions from GPs and healthcare workers. Whether it’s a walk in the park, gardening, or other connections with nature, there is extensive evidence for the bio, psycho and social health benefits to us.

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Third Age Biophilic Design

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Third Age Biophilic Design

How should care homes be designed? Should the places we spend the end of our lives be clinical and bland, or should they be places that are beautiful, inspiring and actually are something we look forward to going to. As Lori says in this interview, "you don't stop living just because you're in a care home, in fact you should start living better".

Lori Pinkerton-Rolet is a force of good, she is director of Park Grove Design, which focuses on creating comfortable spaces for our third age. In fact she also has a podcast, which I recommend you look up, ThirdAge.design. In our podcast together here, we talk about the origin of the Care Home is still stuck in its original format, that of a "hospital", and she shares with us some thought-leader suggestions on how we can design better spaces to create homes that are better..

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Let there be Light... and Circadian Rhythms

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Let there be Light... and Circadian Rhythms

How much do we love to be outside on a fresh bright day, clear blue sky, gentle breeze on our skin, fresh air in our lungs? Our whole body seems rejuvenated and reborn. Well, it's not just all in the mind, it is a physical reaction too. Living in harmony with nature and natural rhythms as we can, keeps us happy and healthy. Eloise Sok-Paupardin, occupant experience and sustainability lead for SageGlass, discusses how important natural light is, how views are essential to our wellbeing as well as regulation of temperature, and more.

When we mess up the natural rhythms of the day by using too much of the same brightness and colour light for hours and hours a day, we mess up our internal body clock.

Eloise demonstrates the new Sageglass technology, an intelligent glass that reacts to sunlight, and which can be manually activated to reduce glare, heat through the glass, vary the amount of sunlight, etc, while still maintaining views outside.

This a really interesting video and podcast, as Eloise stresses the need for everyone's "right to light" and how it is important to create beautiful and good design, but never at the price of the planet…

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Vertical Gardens with Daniel Bell

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Vertical Gardens with Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is an award winning landscape garden design guru, he is also a pioneer of successful eco sustainable vertical gardens. We catch up with him to find out what he plants, why he uses the system he does and how it works. He gives us a demo in the video as well, which is really well worth watching. He was inspired by French botanist, Patrick Blanc, and went on to champion this incredibly low-tech vertical garden solution…

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Sustainable Architecture and Biophilic Design

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Sustainable Architecture and Biophilic Design

What happens when conservation and sustainable design come together? It naturally seems to manifest itself in Biophilic Design. We all know that the benefits of designing with our natural environment in mind, are many: not only in terms of our own physical and mental health, but also to lessen the impact on our beautiful planet. Our built environment has such an important impact on our daily lives that we should be mindful when we are designing urban spaces, civic architecture and homes. ..

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Biophilic Design in the Ancient World

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Biophilic Design in the Ancient World

Yes, you read that correctly! Over 2000 years ago the Romans were designing homes with outdoor spaces and were also creating virtual nature walls. They had ambitions to create healthier cleaner air, wanted improved scents and less noise pollution specifically to improve health and wellbeing. I speak with Dr Patty Baker, about her research on identifying the connection between Roman conceptions of “pure air” and physical and mental health in Pompeiian gardens, and especially on the mutli-sensory approach the Romans took to ancient medicine…

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Creating an Office to Love. The Biophilic Office Project - Part 1

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Creating an Office to Love. The Biophilic Office Project - Part 1

How do we create an office that people are going to love to come to? During the Covid pandemic most of us worked from home and now Lockdown is easing, we are looking at a hybrid workplace solution. Thing is, the office is a place where people come together to collaborate. How do you design a space that people are going to want to come back to? People also need contact, but also comfort. Integrating the experience and comfort of a home into the office design concepts. We visited the bre (Building Research Establishment) “Biophilic Office” project to report on where they are with it and what the installation features include, and why they’ve made certain changes…

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Oliver Heath - Designing a Healthy Home

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Oliver Heath - Designing a Healthy Home

“100 ways to transform your space for physical and mental wellbeing” so reads the strapline for Oliver Heath’s new book “Design a Healthy Home”. Oliver is an industry recognised expert in the field of sustainable architectural and interior design, he's presented on BBC, ITV, C4, Discovery Channel and more. Biophilic Design is more than just a plant on our desk, it is an exciting systems-based way of recognising that every choice, every purchase, every activity, every decision has an impact on our health, our wellbeing our environment and planet…

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Indoor Garden Design

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Indoor Garden Design

Ever struggled with over watering your plants? Or going the other end of the spectrum and leaving them like they've had a month in the Sahara? There are tips on different plant species which are great ideal starter plants, plus also advice on which plants are best for helping get rid of air pollutants. At the end of the podcast, you too will be excited about creating green spaces in your workplaces and homes…

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