During yesterday’s discussion, I unpack the ways in which natural design can improve wellbeing in city spaces with biophilic design expert Kristina Libby.
The conversation unpacks how to create organic, emotive, and dynamic connections to nature in internal city spaces through natural design concepts. The wellbeing benefits of creating these connections are then examined. Consequently, we explore how to make natural design approachable and engaging for customers and businesses; alongside being profitable. We also discuss staggered approaches to integrating nature into spaces to increase acceptance of design innovation, amongst brainstorming numerous ideas of how nature can be applied in city spaces.
Kristina is based in New York and has worked on many biophilic projects including running the Foral Heart Project and the digital Heartbleed installation. Both of these projects utilise nature to connect with audiences and build a sense of wonder and organic creativity whilst conveying vital messages.
Links to Kristina and her work can be found below:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinal…
- Heartbleed: www.lightvlight.com
- Floral Heart Project: https://www.1800flowers.com/floral-he…
View the discussion via the link below to youtube:
Key Takeaways:
- The key theme of the ideas discussed was how to create a sense of wonder and creativity through integrating nature in city spaces.
Reflection: This is something I have been trying to address and encapsulate throughout the work of my project, particularly through my work looking to target the senses through natural design and subsequently my Herb Event at Chelsea College of Arts (see previous blog posts). The ideas we spoke about around this concept were largely simplistic in that they could be applied in numerous spaces relatively easily. However, they attempt to build that instinctive emotional response to a space that you seek when spending time in nature in a more traditional sense, such as taking a walk outside.
- Simplistic ways to bring natural design into new spaces such as hotels were discussed a lot
- Not requiring massive changes or refurbishments to start this period of change for all spaces to include the natural design, or at least begin by stating and communicating the sustainable actions they are conducting to their clients.
- Staggered approaches to natural design innovations were discussed which allows customers and business owners to slwoly accept and engage with natural deisgn concepts. This also allows lower cost, small scale conepcts to be introduced first and they can tehn prove their worth in the spaces to attract customers and increase profits. Move expensive natural deisgns can then be later introduced through a stratigized and staged approach.
- Making people think or asking questions, to allow for deeper connections to the space to be formed – pushes the wellbeing benefits of nature past the face value impacts of simply seeing and interacting with the designs to be one of deeper thinking and considering also helping to deepen creativity and inspire thought patterns.
At the center of the ideas is the approach to develop restorative spaces and create emotive responses that trigger immediate and inner reactions to allow for revitalization from that space.
Evaluation/ Reflection
Things to improve for next time:
EXTERNAL FEEDBACK – I have received external verbal feedback from some of my stakeholders stating that Kristina’s comments gave interesting examples but she was often not being able to back them up by saying statements such as ‘I can’t remember the name of it’. My stakeholders felt this diminished the credibility of the discussion. Therefore, for future discussions, I need to ensure that guests are well-prepped or opt to pre-record so that any mistakes or forgotten information can be rectified through editing.
In future discussions, I think more attention needs to be paid to how nature could be included in other sectors as we end up talking a lot about hotel spaces. Although, many ideas that were discussed in relation to hotels could be applied in other internal city spaces. But, this link needs to be made clearer for the viewer. If the discussion wasn’t live, then editing could have taken place to try and convey this point further. But to allow an audience attendance this is one of the prices we pay.
Also, I think future discussions, possibly paid ones, could provide more specific advice and tips on how to include nature in different professions/ city spaces with implementable ways that they can begin to include nature in their work or space. Or possibly this kind of content could be done in almost a Questions and Answers style talk that is additional to the discussions or an ebook?. It could even be delivered by individual consultation at a later stage.
There were only 2 audience members, so next time I need to introduce some type of low payment to ensure people show up on the day when they say they will and also spend more focus on marketing and promoting the discussions. However, the discussion is available to view on youtube at any time and I will continue to promote it on LinkedIn and in the linked in the group as well as on Instagram, and so hopefully people will view the discussion in a broken down format.
The video now has 8 views (only two of those being me!), therefore showing that people are revisiting the content and so that the discussion can continue to provide valuable insights and content for the community over the coming days/weeks.
Reflective Summary:
Having a one on one discussion in this podcast style allows ideas to be fully explored and brainstormed which I think is very interesting for the viewer and does allow for the viewers’ own ideas and inspiration to be triggered as to how to include nature in their professions and city spaces. This format also allowed the viewer to learn more about the individual guest, their work and expertise, and how they incorporate nature in their profession.
Excitingly after the discussion, Kristina asked if I would like to collaborate on bringing one of the ideas to life in a biophilic project in the new year! I feel this has allowed me to build confidence that my skills in this area are valuable and being respected by experts in the field.
OVERALL REFLECTIONS ON HOSTING DISCUSSIONS:
Having now hosted 2-panel discussions and a podcast-style discussion I have started to develop my own style and preferences in running the discussions. These include prior to discussions formulating a set of around 3/4 key points for discussion and then fleshing them out slightly in an agenda for the discussion. I then send this agenda out to participants in the discussion a week prior to the event so they can consider their responses.
On my copy of the agenda, I add key facts and studies that I wish to address in the discussion to this agenda. I also research the guests and try to add questions that can bring out interesting areas of their work to the discussion.
I have learnt that whilst showing images can be useful to spark discussion in some cases, I personally prefer to stick to questions. However, questioning may involve displaying the questions on a slide to keep them refreshed in participants minds. I feel that questions allow for the discussion to be guided to cover the needed topics but they allow for free forming discussion that can move into unexpected but possibly more interesting arenas as the conversation grows. I also try to stick to a few (3/4 for an hour), clear and concise questions to develop an engaging conversation with direction.