Reconnecting people with nature in city spaces
After reflecting on the feedback to introduce a measuring factor into my question, I developed a new iteration which now includes wellbeing as the measure. Additionally, as a result of the research I have undertaken so far, I decided to alter the wording of ‘spaces in which food is consumed’ in my question to be ‘hospitality spaces’ as to more accurately describe the arena I wish to insight change into.
After presenting my research for Project 5 – The Change I Want To See… in my tutorial, I have developed a series of next steps to take, as a result of analysing and reflecting on the feedback I received.
FEEDBACK:
Addressing The Hospitality Arena:
It was raised through discussion in feedback after my presentation that I need to ensure I am constantly checking myself for how I am approaching the arena of hospitality. I am aware that I have been almost subconsciously grouping the different hospitality sectors together as one unit and looking to tackle them all through one collective approach. However, I recognise this is not the most effective way to make meaningful change in the sector.
Therefore, moving forward I am going to ensure I treat the different parts of the hospitality sector accordingly and identify the necessary changes needed for each area. I will utilise engagement with my stakeholders to identify which hospitality sector is the most necessary and appropriate to create change in first, with a view that my model could be upscaled to other areas of hospitality in the future.
Including A Measure Of Social Interaction In My Question:
It was raised that I needed to include a measure for social interaction in my question. Naturally, due to improving wellbeing being the aim of evoking social interactions in hospitality spaces, it is only right that this is introduced into my question as a unit of measure. For instance, the quality of the social interaction may be judged upon how the individuals wellbeing improved?
Be Aware Of The Focus Of Hospitality Being To Sell Food And Drink:
In my feedback it was brought up that the aim of the hospitality industry is not in fact to improve wellbeing, but to sell food and drink. Therefore, I must keep this in mind when trying to get stakeholders in the hospitality industry to see the need for natural structures and products in their spaces; for instance if the natural structures aid the sales of food and drink.
From this discussion it also made me think, it could be argued that a focus of some hospitality spaces is in fact to host social interactions, as socialising is a key factor drawing people to visit the spaces. Subsequently, this ethos could be used to help promote the use of natural structures in spaces if they are proven to evoke such interactions?
Additionally, there is an argument that hospitality spaces that are aimed at healthy living/ lifestyle are also focused upon improving wellbeing, so they may also be good spaces to get behind the campaign of intrinsically linking nature into hospitality spaces.
NEXT STEPS:
From the advise of my tutor, David, I started addressing the task of Project 5 by first identifying the rough change I wish to see; and once that is identified I can move onto defining the arena for the change and the stakeholders involved.
When looking to outline precisely the change I wish to see I developed the mind map shown below.
From the process of this thinking I narrowed in on the type of change I am looking to see. This being behavioural changes in approaches to the incorporation of nature, specifically in hospitality spaces and with of focus of prompting social interactions to improve wellbeing.
Reflection: I initially set about thinking of this change as being prompted through the creation of a product. However, I am aware of the challenges associated with product design and the vast collaboration necessary, as I am not a materials expert nor an architect. Therefore, I am not ruling out the idea of product design completely, as if this becomes apparent as the most effective way to make change in my desired area I will of course take on that challenge. But, I am also keeping my thinking open to other ways of developing change such as possibly through a form of consultancy for hospitality spaces to intrinsically incorporate nature.
To help define the parameters of the change I wish to see, I created a type of Venn diagram to showcase the different aspects I wish to explore around my question and to hopefully narrow in the focus of my change.
The Venn diagram is split into 4 sections, the left and right circles showcasing the 2 halves of my question. The first half being around types of natural structures and the second being around social interactions around food. The other 2 sections demonstrate the very rough arena for the question to be introduced, being spaces in which food is consumed. The final section outlines the current reasonings behind why nature isn’t already intrinsically incorporated into the built environment; which seems almost bizarre given all my research suggest there is such an innate need for humans to be with nature. Outlining these obstacles to intrinsically incorporating nature into the built environment was done to identify what needs to be overcome by my proposed change in order for it to be successful.
The writing around the 4 circle sections, showcases the key thinking around each of those ideas and is grouped accordingly to each section.
Reflection: From this diagram I will explore all of the thoughts raised further and move to identifying the precise change I wish to see; alongside the arena for the change to be introduced into as well as the stakeholders involved in making this change.
Looking at the next steps of investigating my research question of:
“How can nature or natural structures evoke social interactions in spaces where food is consumed?”
I have created a plan of action as to what needs to be addressed over the coming weeks in order to address the brief of Project 5.
Area/ Context of My Project:
Stakeholders:
The Change I Look to Make: (move outside of my comfort zone)
Remember– Keep bibliography of source materials used or that I plan on using as I go
Having outlined all of the work I need to address during Project 5, I have developed a week by week guide as to the tasks I aim to complete over the course of this project; which you can see below.
| Week of Project 5 | Tasks to Complete |
|---|---|
| Week 1 (W.C. 8/3/21) Getting the ball rolling | Make blog – add project findings so far to blog Formulate plan of action Find some useful sources to read/ people and organisations to contact (ALL WEEK 1 TASKS ARE NOW COMPLETED) |
| Week 2 (W.C. 15/3/21) Begin in-depth research | Read and record data from academic papers, news articles and websites to utilise for in-depth study Outline what is already out there and what change is possible in the area Identify all possible stakeholders Contact at least 15 expert stakeholders/ stakeholder groups and 10 consumers as stakeholders |
| Week 3 (W.C. 22/3/21) Continue in-depth research | Follow up any leads that have come out of week 2 research and peruse them to gain greater depth of knowledge and understanding Build greater relationships with stakeholder and test ideas with them Continue researching via academic sources, websites and news articles as well as contacting new stakeholders to further knowledge |
| Week 4 (W.C. 29/3/21) Finalise outcome | Consolidate research and how to then take the findings further Possibly begin to outline what possible interventions could be developed next |
| Week 5 (W.C. 5/4/21) Holiday week | Polish off any outstanding items ready to present on the 12th April but try to have some time off on this week |
After the feedback from the presentation of my question and interventions, it was suggested that moving away from the wording of ‘restaurant’ may assist my project as to make it more open.
Consequently, my current working question is:
Creating my box of uncertainties really got the ball rolling to then push my thoughts around sustainable building with nature to their limits and really explore a space that felt almost uncomfortable and scary to try and develop the most pressing and effective question possible.
At first I began quite fixed and limiting in my thinking looking at especially the coral from my box of uncertainty. I examined how possibly the material of dead coral resultant of the mass coral bleaching crises could be repurposed as a material for construction. I was also almost subconsciously limiting myself when thinking about building to mean a literal building. So, after acknowledging these thresholds I had placed upon myself I began trying to open up my thinking in including nature in its entirety and to look at structures rather than strictly building. Opening up my thinking in this way was always useful to apply more accurately to my skill sets, as I am not a materials expert nor an architect.
I then took the ideas developed through this initial thinking to my tutor David. David helped me to visualise the links between my different iterations of my questions, as he advised to go back and examine what is the key aim that is present in all of my questions, to help myself focus upon one of the aspect that is most important to me. This reflection upon my questions really helped me to focus my thinking, as previously I was trying to tackle so many things, but not accurately addressing any of them. Therefore, I established my key aim to be intrinsically linking nature with the built environment in structures, with a focus upon improving wellbeing through these structures. David also placed emphasis on defining why I wanted to study this question/ topic and why it was important to me. This approach led to to thinking about brining the entirety of myself to the project, not simply my academic ambitions, and so I began to list my passions involving health/ fitness and food/ cooking. Subsequently, I utilised my passion for food to define the area of study in which to intrinsically link nature into the built environment, whilst aiming to improve wellbeing. Thus, my question was born:
“How can nature or natural structures be utilised to evoke social interaction in restaurants?”
After defining my question, I went on to establish two mini interventions, each one aimed at a key part of the question. Part 1 being – the use of nature in natural, sustainable structures and Part 2 being – the evoking of social interactions in the spaces of restaurants. So, the combination of both of these elements aims to create natural, sustainable solutions which combat the climate crisis, but also improve wellbeing through promoting social interactions.
My first intervention involved assessing perceptions towards the needs for sustainable building and nature’s role in this. Participants were provided with a poster demonstrating the impacts of traditional construction methods on the ocean and asked to annotate their thoughts around the poster going off three provided prompts.
The second intervention aimed to action changes towards people’s habits of social interactions around food. Participants were asked to record their feelings towards social interactions around meals, specifically dinner, as this is the most prominent meal of the day for most people. Dinner in the home was utilised to imitate interactions in restaurants due to current covid-19 restrictions meaning restaurants are closed.
I have included my full journal for this project below which demonstrates all of my thinking and decision making in developing both my question and my interventions, as well as showcasing the outcomes of my interventions.
Below exhibits the inner workings of how I developed my intervention addressing perceptions towards the need for sustainable building and nature’s role in this. The poster utilised in the intervention was developed utilising a multitude of research from academic papers make sure that all figure utilised are accurate and precise.
For my box of uncertainties project, I began by examining in depth the topic of sustainable building, which is a topic I am very interested in investigating further from my undergraduate studies. Exploration of sustainable building led to big uncertainties being raised, such as what is the future of the traditional brick in construction? As well as questions around the possible role that nature can play in sustainable building developments. The examination of the possibilities nature holds led to my study into coral and the current coral bleaching crisis; investigating how the crisis could be overcome through sustainable building or even if coral could be utilised as a material or design feature in building.
Consequently, my chosen items to place into my box of uncertainties was a BRICK and a piece of CORAL.
Key Points From the Project:
Discovering the work of Neri Oxman really revolutionised my thinking on this project, to thinking of how structures can be grown with nature rather than developed and nature added later to the infrastructure. Prior to discovering how Neri and her team at the MIT Media lab are developing ways to utilise nature’s processes to build, I was really struggling to form ideas as to how the current model of ‘green’ building could be challenged/ changed. I knew that I wanted to make nature more intrinsic to the fabric of buildings, but I wasn’t sure of any possible ways that this could be achieved. But, Neri’s work really opened my eyes and got me excited to explore ways to achieve this harmonious blend of nature and building.
Below I have included my reflective journal for this project which documents all of the decisions I made and why I made them, to result in my outcome.