Month: April 2021

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Developing an Early Intervention

With the brief of Project 6 in mind, I started this week by considering what an early intervention for my project might look like.

Below you can see my initial spider diagram outlining what an intervention involves and ideas for possible interventions I may look to action in my project. The most notable ideas being to establish a form to represent my idea in a simple way. Also, looking at creating focus groups with hospitality businesses or biophilic experts to allow ideas to be explored in a group session as to what the most effective approaches for biophilic design application in hospitality spaces may look like. And finally, looking at a form of process in an online feedback group, possibly on Facebook, where users could post their favourite uses of biophilic forms or rate hospitality spaces they have visited according to their biophilic properties.

I noted that one of the biggest obstacle I need to overcome is around how to engage people in my idea and have them easily understand it. At present, when I have been engaging with my stakeholders I feel I have fallen into the, often unrecoverable, trap of losing my audience in the first minute or so of conversation. Upon reflection I think this is has been to do with crowding my stakeholders with unfamiliar terms and complex multifaceted ideas, rather than breaking the ideas down into their simplified component parts. Consequently, I began exploring how I could develop a simplistic, visual way to express my idea and engage my audience.

As you can see below, I then went into a brainstorming session where I dug deep into visual ways in which I could express my key concepts/ ideas. The main way I thought about doing this was through utilising a metaphor, which everyone already understands, to showcase my ideas of nature intertwining with spaces and also how adding biophilia to a space can increase customers attraction to that space and improve wellbeing.

Evolution of Ideas Resultant From Brainstorming

I initially though of roots intertwining as they grow to form a new bigger root, to represent biophilia being added in hospitality spaces and consequently creating a greater space. However, I worried that this idea was slightly misleading and it is still a bit blurry in its message. I realised from this idea that I definitely wanted to steer clear of utilising nature in this metaphorical representation, as I felt it made lines between my message too blurry, keeping the concepts very different helped to provide clarity.

Then I moved my thinking on to being around puzzles. How a puzzle can be seemingly incomplete and then the extra pieces are added into it and so a new object is formed; thus, representing adding in biophilia to create a new functioning space. However, with this representation I feared it implied that existing hospitality spaces are incomplete and functioning poorly, which isn’t an assumption I wanted to present my stakeholders with, especially not one I wanted to showcase to hospitality business owners, as this could more than likely cause offence to them.

Consequently, my ideas moved back towards the idea of nature being woven into spaces and looked at different materials which are woven. I then came across ideas which showcase newspaper being twisted and woven together to form a bag. I thought of this concept showing how the material of nature could be worked and interwoven together to form a new object/ space. However, the use of only one material here I felt lacked the moulding together of the space with nature that I wanted to try and encapsulate.

Subsequently, I moved into thinking of things that are moulded together. For instance, play dough or even in welding two materials together. Again these concepts would show the benefits of a seamless union of nature and hospitality spaces to create something new and highly beneficial. But again, I struggled to find these ideas truly captivating and encompassing of my idea as a whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5JOzxJFnbk

So, I moved my thinking slightly and considered items or concepts that are fully functioning as they are, as their own entity, but that when an extra element is added it can produce dramatically heightened benefits. From this line of enquiry I first though of cakes (I must admit I was hungry) and how a cake without flour is still a tasty desert. But, when you add flour it becomes fluffy and irresistible. However, here I feared the message was that something had in fact been taken out of a standard cake (being flourless) rather than something added to a standard cake. And then came my eureka moment. Candles.

A standard unscented candle is what most people would consider as a ‘normal’ candle. This is a fully functioning candle that attracts customers as they are purchased in their millions globally (around 3 billion USD of candles sold 2018). However, scented candles are preferred by most consumers to unscented candles (Ideal Home 2019); thus, they attract even greater custom and they improve wellbeing due to their differing scents having a variety of benefits including reducing stress, helping with sleep and even concentration. Therefore, adding scent which is intrinsically woven into a candle, increases profits and improves wellbeing. Just as, intrinsically incorporating biophilic design into hospitality spaces aims to improve wellbeing and attract greater customers to the spaces, increasing profits of the hospitality businesses.

Grand View Research (2019) “Candle Market Size, Share and Trends Analysis” Grand View Research {Online} https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/candles-market Accessed 23/04/21

Ideal Home (2019) “You won’t believe how much Brits are spending on candles each year! How much money are you burning?” Ideal home [Online] https://www.idealhome.co.uk/news/brits-annual-spending-candles-222764Accessed 23/04/21

Formulating a video to showcase this idea of unscented vs scented candles demonstrating the concept of intrinsically adding biophilic design into hospitality spaces to create benefits to wellbeing and the businesses themselves, will be my tasks for the upcoming week.

Remaining Uncertainties in my Project

I am aware that current uncertainties still remain in my project, which include: what type of hospitality I will focus upon making my change in, as well as how I will measure social interactions, improved wellbeing and increased customers/ profits. I am still working on reducing the uncertainties in these areas.

In regard to what type of hospitality I will focus upon, I have been exploring secondary data around defining hospitality and which sectors may benefit more from the application of Biophilia. I also look to talk with more hospitality business as stakeholders to help further narrow in on the exact area of hospitality to focus upon.

However, regarding defining my measurements, I have had discussions with stakeholders that are experts in biophilic design applications and creating improvements to wellbeing through this application, as to how best measure social interactions and wellbeing. I will be developing a blog post on this further in the coming days. However, I need delve further into how to measure customers brought to the spaces as a result of the biophilic design application and/ or increased profits due to Biophilia.

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Conversation with Dr Nigel Oseland – Environmental Psychologist

To further my stakeholder engagement I had a very informative and interesting conversation with Dr Nigel Oseland who is an Environmental Psychologist at UCL. Nigel is an internationally recognised expert on the impact of design on performance, specialising in applying biophilic design in the workplace. Additionally, Nigel is in the process of writing a book ‘Beyond the Workplace Zoo: Humanising the Office’ which covers many of the topics we discussed in a workplace context. Consequently, I discussed with him the application of biophilic design in spaces and how this could be applied to hospitality settings, rather than the workplace.

Key Take-Aways from the Discussion:

  • Biophilic design and bringing in nature to the built environment incorporates a lot more than just plants
    • Focus also upon light, sound, water and form
      • Daylight, patterns, fluctuations eg: fountains outside CSM bringing in water and amphitheatre around canal to bring people together, we are social animals
      • Looking back at evolution, we are social animals and we communicated and told stories before we could read or write. Biophilia connects to this intrinsic link to socialising in a way as we are a part of the natural environment as social animals and so we can use the natural world to facilitate our need for socialising. 
    • For instance, sound plays a huge part in hospitality spaces with echoes being particularly difficult as people get older the lose the speech frequencies in hearing due to evolution; meaning they find it tricky to hear the person that they actually came to the space to meet with when the space is very loud and echoey 
    • Soundscapes – water and bird song
    • Sound in evolution – too loud – fight or flight rection, too quiet – danger
      • Managing the correct levels of sound is an element if biophilic design that is rarely considered 
  • The importance of the Terrapin Bright Green “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design” study in terms of design elements and styles
    • I have already explored this on the surface in my blog, but I will revisit it and unpack it further over the coming weeks
  • Creating spaces for different settings/ moods
    • Spaces for contemplation and relaxing, spaces for socialising, etc
    • Developing almost customisable spaces depending on how you are feeling, and utilising nature revitalise the spaces and to achieve the desired atmosphere in each space
    • This can be especially interesting when looking at hotel spaces and making the rooms very different from each other and the guest and select the room depending on their mood
  • Designing for different personality types 
    • Eg: introverted vs extroverted
    • Introverted: comfortable own company, prefer calm spaces and tend to think things through more
    • Extroverted: like to be stimulated by the environment, low levels of arousal
    • Choose rooms based on personality type? Not just mood? – again links to creating a choice or range of spaces rather than designing for the average person, just generally results in not fully targeting anyone
    • You don’t target marketing to the average person, it is always targeted to specific markets, so why don’t we do this in hospitality spaces?
  • Nature sparking creativity and reenergising spaces
  • Using wellbeing as a measure can be tricky, there is possibly more value in measuring social interaction
    • Hedonic wellbeing
    • Eudaimonic wellbeing
    • Wellbeing consists of a multitude of factors that are generally long term, it is hard to pick up utilising the wellbeing scales of measurement over the short term
    • Short term ‘wellbeing’ I am mostly likely to pick up is more around satisfaction and comfort, less fundamental changes
    • Wellbeing is also very heavily focused upon in studies, social interaction is less so
    • Wellbeing is such a massive subject; social interaction is a bit more tangible 
    • Measuring social interactions – possibly do an observation/ utilisation study, of how often the spaces are used. Are people voting with their feet, is one type of biophilic design preferred over another? Is one type of design used more for solo activity and another more for group activities?
      • Record popularity of spaces against set criteria to measure the success of those elements in the space 
  • Possibility to utilise photoshop modelling or images of biophilic elements in different hospitality spaces and gather responses over what aspects people like and dislike, as a form of intervention

Reflection:

After talking with Nigel, it became apparent that focusing upon measuring social interactions in hospitality spaces may be more beneficial for the purpose of my study, to both create lasting impact in a small scale, which could always be scaled up to measure wellbeing on a more long-term vision in the future. For instance, measuring how many people visit the space before and after the biophilic scheme has been applied or how many people interact with the natural elements applied. 

Wellbeing is difficult to measure in a short time scale that is needed for this project in the context of my Masters, as it is tricky to determine how the application of biophilic elements impacts peoples’ long term wellbeing. Whereas, if I focus upon measuring social interactions in the space it can be recorded quantitively in number of interactions but also qualitatively in regard to the quality of interactions. Measuring the quality of the interactions by recorded customer feedback could then be linked back into the topic of wellbeing, with high quality interactions potentially leading to improved short-term wellbeing. 

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Project 5 Feedback

After presenting my progress on Project 5 to my tutor and tutorial group, as well as in the Dragon’s Den, I noted the following takeaways to help me into the next steps of my project.

  • Develop my measures
    • How to measure wellbeing, social interactions and the possible customers/ revenue brought to business as a result of the application of the biophilic scheme
    • The dragons suggested looking ta utilising brain wave technology to measure wellbeing
  • Define hospitality
    • Move away from my woolly definition to decipher exactly which aspect of hospitality I want to create change in – this will also help to make the project achievable in the year of the masters and scalable for the future
  • Scalability 
    • It was suggested by my peers that the is the scope for my project to create systematic governmental change into reclaiming spaces for nature in the future 
  • Consultancy
    • It was developed amongst the feedback on my project that the best course of outcome for my project may be to develop a form of consultancy by which schemes may be created by myself utilising my research and applied to hospitality spaces to evoke social interactions and improve wellbeing.
    • A possible intervention could be to create a biophilic model for a hospitality business and apply it in some small scale for free in return for their allowance for me to utilise their space
    • The dragons raised the idea of looking at how biophilia is being applied in hospitals as a comparable for inspiration on the possibilities for the design schemes
  • Create profiles for my stakeholders and target audience
    • Note what they bring to the project and their different perspectives
  • Sustainable Development Goals
    • In my feedback from Richie, it was raised that I should examine the sustainable development goals to try and narrow in the scale of my project
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Reflection on Project 5

How I reached the change I want to see…

Research question at the start of the project: How can nature or natural structures evoke social interaction in spaces where food is consumed?

Upon starting this project, I plunged myself into in-depth research around the current uses of nature in spaces where food is consumed, as well as the current applications of nature generally in the built environment. From this initial research examined the term biophilic design, which looks to connect people with the natural world. I soon realised the concept of biophilia encapsulates the heart of what I am trying to achieve with my project; thus, the exploration of this field will form a key component of my project. Additionally, I discovered the term of biomimetics which involves utilising the natural world to inspire the development of new materials and systems. Again, biomimetics is a principle that embodies the change I want to see and so forms another key pillar of my project.

Other topics explored during this in-depth research include examining the most sustainable restaurants in the world including Azurmendi, Spain and Schloss Schauenstein, Switzerland. I studied what they are currently doing to incorporate nature and noted that the majority of their sustainability focus is on the food and energy consumption; with the integration of nature into the spaces being seemingly secondary. Therefore, displaying there is scope to add nature intrinsically even into the most sustainable hospitality spaces in the world.

My journey then moved into an examination of the strong link between interactions with nature and improved personal wellbeing. This link is proven by a multitude of academic papers, news articles and websites that I have unpacked in earlier blog posts; as well as being later confirmed in my stakeholder engagement with industry experts. Furthermore, I studied how biophilic design drives social interaction. Several studies highlighted that social interactions boost personal wellbeing due to their encouragement of the release of oxytocin which creates anti-stress effects. Socialising is also linked to longer life expectancy, reduced depression and anxiety, which all massively benefit wellbeing.

As a result of uncovering this research linking nature and wellbeing, I decided to conduct a personal intervention. Due to being home in Sheffield I had the fortunate position of having access to my garden and my mum is a keen gardener which I am eager to learn the different properties of plants from. Therefore, I ensured I went out to the garden for at least 2 hours a day, over the course of a week, with my mum. From this time, I saw for myself the positive effects spending increased time with nature can have on personal wellbeing. I experienced feeling relaxed whilst increasing with the garden and even afterwards and I thoroughly enjoyed learning the different qualities and studying the forms of a variety of plants which I could utilise in my biophilic designs. Upon reflection I missed a crucial opportunity during this time to document the research process, as I didn’t video my time spent in the garden. However, I will ensure not to make this mistake again.

To outline my arena for change, I unpacked the area outlined in my initial research question, of spaces in which food is consumed. From this I decided to narrow my focus to hospitality spaces. This decision was made due to my research showcasing that the majority of biophilic design schemes are currently focused upon workspaces to improve wellbeing and productivity; thus, leaving a gap in the market for the application of biophilia in the hospitality industry. I also have a strong interest and passion in hospitality, as I love visiting and discovering new hospitality spaces alongside cooking; therefore, it is an area I am passionate about exploring and maximising its potential. Finally, the hospitality industry has been hit incredibly hard by the coronavirus pandemic and so any schemes that could draw new customers to the spaces and boost their revenue, such as applications of nature that improve customers wellbeing, could be very beneficial. However, I am aware the cost of said schemes will have to be minimal for most businesses as they have limited funds after being closed for so long with the pandemic restrictions. 

Research question evolution: How can nature or natural structures be utilised to improve wellbeing through evoking social interaction in hospitality spaces?

In relation to stakeholders, I initially identified 2 key stakeholder groups, the first being experts and the second being consumers. As my project has progressed, I have moved onto defining these categories even further to be hospitality businesses, hospitality customers and industry experts; with these stakeholders being encompassed by my possible output of a biophilic and biomimetic consultancy. Gaining stakeholder feedback is something I have struggled with on this project, and upon reflection I feel this is largely to do with the timings in which I reached out to the majority of my stakeholders. I placed my full focus upon stakeholder engagement during the 2 weeks of Easter holiday, which coincided with the Easter bank holiday, a time which many in the UK have off work. I feel this has limited the number of responses I have managed to collate for the presentation of project 5, as I over the past few days I have started to receive some more responses beginning initial conversations with stakeholders. Consequently, stakeholder engagement is something I really need to extensively work on over the coming weeks.

Finally, the change I want to see has been created from all of the research previously outlined. The statement below summaries the change I want to see and the following diagram helps to demonstrate how my chosen area, stakeholders and question interact to create the change I want to make.

Research question evolution: How can nature be intrinsically incorporated into hospitality spaces to evoke social interaction and improve personal wellbeing?

My Personal Reflection on Project 5

For the first time I really started to feel absorbed by the feeling of being lost that has been mentioned during the course so far, whilst working on Project 5. This was scary to me as it first began and if I am honest that feeling of being a bit lost is still with me even at the end of Project 5. Feeling lost remains scary, but I am taking it to mean that I am on track to uncovering something in the unknown which should lead to more profound change. There are lots of ideas and avenues for discovery that I have unearthed and found very interesting, but I feel lost in how to decipher which to pursue and so I feel I have fallen into the trap of looking at all of them slightly rather than a few in depth. This predicament is mostly clearly displayed in the vagueness of terms in my research question of ‘hospitality’ and ‘wellbeing’ which need to be clearly defined, forming the clear next steps for my project. 

I have also struggled with contacting certain stakeholders. Upon reflection I feel I may be gaining limited responses due to possibly having over-faced people by throwing too much information at them at once, as I wanted them to see all the different aspects I am interested in studying. Consequently, I will try and provide clearer, condensed ideas when making contact with stakeholders to try and build a meaningful relationship with them at first. Consequently, I can later ask them about the multitude of angles I wish to investigate to ensure I am aiming for the most suitable and effective change. 

I have also really been focusing on trying to bring my whole self to the project which is a new thing to me. Prior to undertaking this Masters, I have always had quite a clear distinction between my academic work and my personal interests. So, blending the two together has been a bit of a mental obstacle for me. However, I feel as though I am getting there, so that I will hopefully be able to create a project that I will be able to fully throw myself into and creating lasting change with. 

Project 5 – Bibliography

Anme, T., Watanabe, T., Tokutake, K., Tomisaki, E., Mochizuki, H., Tanaka, E., Wu, B., Shinohara, R., Sugisawa, Y., Tada, C. and Matsui, T. (2012) “Behaviour Changes in Older Persons Caused by Using Wood Products in Assisted Living.” Public Health Research, 2(4), pp.106-109.

Azurmendi (2021) “Sustainable Restaurant” Azurmendi [Online]https://azurmendi.restaurant/en/sustainable-restaurant/ Accessed 16/03/21

Beautiful News (2021) “Eco and Climate Daily News” Information Is Beautiful [Online]  https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/ Accessed 15/03/21

Browning, W.D., Ryan, C.O., Clancy, J.O. (2014). “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design.” New York: Terrapin Bright Green, LLC.

D for Design (2020) “How to Bring Biophilic Design into Restaurants” D for Design [Online] https://dfordesign.style/blog/how-to-bring-biophilic-design-into-restaurants Accessed 17/03/21

Design Boom (2021) “Being an Archibiotect is Like Being an Haute Couture Designer – Vincent Callebaut on Building Through Biomimicry” Design Boom [Online] https://www.designboom.com/architecture/interview-vincent-callebaut-building-through-biomimicry-04-07-2021/ Accessed 06/05/21

Ellison, M.S. (2013) Engineered Biomimicry: Chapter 10. Biomimetic Textiles. Elsevier Inc. Chapters.

Forbes (2018) “The Awesome Integrated Experience of Michelin 3-star, World’s Most Sustainable Restaurant: Azurmendi” Forbes [Online]https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellegreenwald/2018/11/29/the-awesome-integrated-experience-of-michelin-3-star-worlds-most-sustainable-restaurant-azurmendi/?sh=4b2feb7c73c1 Accessed 16/03/21

Hotel Designs (2020) “Biophilic Design 2.0 – from Living Walls to Living Hotels” Hotel Designs [Online] https://hoteldesigns.net/hotel_designs_lab/biophilic-design-2-0-from-living-walls-to-living-hotels/ Accessed 24/03/21

Journal of Biophilic Design (2020) “When Sustainability, Nature and Business Meet” Journal of Biophilic Design [Online] https://argentawellness.squarespace.com/podcast-journal-of-biophilic-design/when-sustainability-nature-and-business-meet Accessed 25/03/21

Journal of Biophilic Design (2021) “Planted Cities” Journal of Biophilic Design [Online]https://argentawellness.squarespace.com/podcast-journal-of-biophilic-design Accessed 03/05/21

Leeds Live (2021) “New Rooftop Bar and Restaurant The Green Room Open in Leeds City Centre” Leeds Live [Online] https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/best-in-leeds/restaurants-bars/new-rooftop-bar-restaurant-green-19965582 Accessed 26/03/21

Panpacifc (2021)”Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay, Singapore” Panpacific [Online] https://www.panpacific.com/en/hotels-and-resorts/pr-collection-marina-bay.html  Accessed 19/03/21

Salingaros, N. A. (2015) “Biophilia & Healing Environments: Healthy Principles For Designing the Built Environment.” New York: Terrapin Bright Green LLC.

Schauenstein (2021) “Schauenstein Schloss Restaurant Hotel” Schauenstein [Online] https://schauenstein.ch Accessed 16/03/21

Terrami (2021) “Socialising, Collaboration, and Physical Activity – What do they have to do with biophilic Design? ” Terrami [Online] https://www.terramai.com/blog/biophilic-design-supports-human-needs/ Accessed 18/03/21

The Bluebeam Blog (2021) “The Case for Biophilic Design” The Bluebeam Blog [Online] https://blog.bluebeam.com/the-case-for-biophilic-design/ Accessed 06/06/21

The Holy Book of Trends (2021) “Biophilic Design in Restaurants” The Holy Book of Trends [Online]https://meromole.com/2019/10/22/biophilic-design-in-restaurants/ Accessed 25/03/21

The New York Times (2017) “Social Interaction is Critical for Mental and Physical Health” The New York Times [Online] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/well/live/having-friends-is-good-for-you.html Accessed 18/03/21

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants (2019) “Sustainable Restaurant Award 2019”The World’s 50 Best Restaurants [Online] (https://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/sustainable-restaurant-award Accessed 16/03/21

Uvnäs-Moberg, K. (1998). “Oxytocin may mediate the benefits of positive social interaction and emotions.” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 23(8), pp.819-835.

Vogue (2021) “What is Biophilic Design? This Nature- Based Interiors Trend Promises Wellness” Vogue [Online] https://www.vogue.com/article/biophilic-design-nature-based-interiors-wellness-trend/amp Accessed 06/05/21

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Question Evolution

After conducting my in-depth research and conversations with some of my stakeholders, my question has evolved again. I am maintaining wellbeing as a measure, as well as social interaction, but the change comes in really focusing upon making nature intrinsic to the hospitality spaces.

In looking to evolve my question further in the future my next thoughts are to study how the increased customers and consequential revenue brought to the hospitality spaces as a result of the biophilic adaptations could be measured and possibly include this angle into my research question. Also, in regarding of deciphering how to apply measures I am looking to narrow in on how to measure wellbeing. Additionally, I am focusing on defining hospitality and narrowing in on which aspect of the industry I wish to address in making my change, which will again result in the evolution of my question.

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Stakeholder Feedback – Leonardo Binetti

Leonardo is a materials scientist and engineer who specialises in biomimetic design. During my conversation with Leonardo, he highlighted to me again the clear link between biophilia and improved wellbeing. Additionally, he shared with me some protein within the membranes of human cells which are currently being utilised under the concept of biomimetics for air filtration systems in aerospace. Leonardo went on to explain that at present these technologies are very expensive, but as time progresses and mass production occurs, they should become cheaper, and then they could be utilised by the hospitality industry. 

Reflection:

The consideration of air filtration is a very interesting angle regarding biophilic design and biomimetics, especially during Covid-19 times where creating safer air is paramount. I will look to explore this angle further in my work. I will also refer back to Leonardo when I have clarified the aspect of hospitality, I wish to target so he can help me to identify the best possible avenues for enquiry regarding biomimetics. 

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Engaging with Stakeholders

The above diagram displays the 3 key stakeholder groups I have identified to approach and engage in my project.

Over the past week I have been channelling the focus of my project into stakeholder engagement. I have been trying to identify the most appropriate experts in my field to work with to gain greater depth and meaning in my work; as well as to provide insights which I may have overlooked and fresh perspectives.

So far I have attempted to contact over 20 organisations, businesses and individuals to engage with my project. These stakeholders are predominantly in the hospitality business group of stakeholders and the industry experts group, including biophilic, biomimetic and environmental design experts . An array of some of the business I have contacts can be seen below. However, I assume to it having been the Easter bank holiday break in the UK and most of the stakeholders I have reached out to being in the UK, I am yet to gain a reply from the majority of these stakeholders. So far I have only managed to gain contact with Dr Nigel Oseland, an environmental psychologist from UCL and BOH LAB which is an architecture firm focusing on biophilic design and green construction. Very excitingly I have been able to arrange a meeting with Dr Oseland, but unfortunately this is unable to take place until the 12th April; and I am in the process of arranging a meeting with BOH LAB.

I will continue to reach out to more stakeholders over the coming days and remain hopeful for responses of those I have already contacted in the meantime. Additionally, I am going to try and engage with more of the customer/ consumer portion of my stakeholder group, as I am yet to explore this fully.