Category: Primary Research

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Next Steps in Project 5

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:

  • Further engage with stakeholders:
    • Utilise this engagement to identify the exact arena and scope of the change I wish to see.
  • Narrow the focus of my arena:
    • Inside or Outside?
    • Which aspect of hospitality to target?
  • Consider the change I want to see
    • How this will adapt and change due to feedback and the needs of stakeholders
    • What type of change may be more effective? – product or consulting? (this may be more how change will be made and so can be explored further in Project 6)
  • Trigger greater research from the thoughts raised by stakeholders
  • Find digestible, visual ways to present my findings
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Identifying The Arena In Which To Introduce My Change

When looking to identify the key arena in which to create the change I want to see, around behavioural change in approaches to intrinsically incorporating nature into the built environment; I needed to unpack spaces in which food is consumed. Currently my question states the arena of ‘spaces in which food is consumed’ but I feel this needed to be narrowed down and made more precise in order to be able to create lasting change in my arena. Consequently, I developed the mind map shown below to demonstrate my thinking around the most suitable arena to create my change in and to help in trying to define this arena.

Reflection/ Analysis:

The key struggles still facing my decision in narrowing down my arena for change are as follow:

Inside Vs Outside

I am still in the debate of whether my change should focus upon tackling inside or outside spaces in which food is consumed. Outside spaces are massively rising in popularity due to the restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic. Outdoor spaces also have a more accessible link to nature due to the spaces being in the outside world; potentially making the task of intrinsically incorporating nature into these spaces easier or more seamless. But, as much as that may seem a pro for choosing outside spaces, the is an argument it is in fact a pro for choosing inside spaces, as inside spaces require more work to intrinsically incorporate nature into; thus, creating change inside may be more profound and lasting. Additionally, inside spaces in which food is consumed will most likely once again be the predominate spaces in which food is consumed after they reopen and so maybe they are the more impactful space to make change in?

Which Aspect of Hospitality?

In exploring my arena for change further, it became clear that a natural progression in the evolution of my question should be to change the vague wording of ‘spaces in which food is consumed’ to be ‘hospitality spaces’. Hospitality spaces encompasses all the areas I have been looking to address and helps to keep the scope of my research more precise and refined. However, the struggle I now face is what aspect of hospitality should I tackle to evoke change in? I have decided to work on identifying this distinction within the hospitality arena after further work with my stakeholders, so that I can identify which sector of hospitality perhaps requires change more or that I would create greater lasting and meaningful change within.

Background To Narrowing In On My Arena For Change:

My research identified that biophilic design and the incorporation of nature into spaces is being readily applied mostly (that I have discovered so far) to be in the sector of the workplace. There are multiple models and academic works looking at the application of biophilic design in the spaces of offices and workspaces to improve the wellbeing of those working in these spaces; consequently making them more productive and generating a greater profit for their employers. A selection of the key takeaways from such research can be seen in the infographics I have put together, below.

Subsequently, I decided to tackle the hospitality arena, as this seems to be a much less explored sector to intrinsically incorporating nature to improve wellbeing within. Additionally, the hospitality sector is a space I am much more interested in as I love cooking and have had a passion for discovering new foods, restaurants and spaces to visit in the hospitality sector for the majority of my life.

Biophilic Design In Hospitality

Some hospitality spaces are presenting groundbreaking models of biophilic design, one such space is the Parkroyal Collection, Marina Bay, Singapore. The hotel boasts a strong biophilic design developed by architect John Portman whilst making sensible design decisions. Some of these designs can bee seen in the images below collated form the hotel’s website and information about which can be seen in the summary taken from LinkedIn. Aspects and inspiration from this hotel can help to establish how nature can be intrinsically incorporated into other hospitality spaces.

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

Analysis: Key things to consider from this line of thinking are:

  • How to achieve similar positives from this design at a lower cost
  • Or in spaces that cannot be redesigned from scratch, so how could the design aspects be added into existing spaces to create similar benefits?
  • How to measure the benefits of different aspects of the design to test their efficacy in improving wellbeing
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My Plan Moving Forward into Project 5

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: 

  1. What is the area/ context of my research?
    • Research current natural sustainable structures/ buildings/ items out there surrounding the consumption of food
      • Utilise appealing designs or videos to make data digestible and audience friendly 
      • Record research visually as well as the written word to keep it engaging 
      • Make data comparative and proportional
  2. How will I research it?
    • Academic papers
      • Biophilic design 
      • Nature in building
      • Social interactions around food
      • Social interactions in differing spaces
      • Temporary structures with nature
    • Websites
      • Assess how restaurant and other spaces in which food is consumed utilise nature at present and how this impacts social interactions – (try and observe this in person once spaces are open after restrictions are lifted)
    • News Articles
  3. Outline what change is possible in the area 
    • Create a new natural sustainable product to evoke social interaction?
    • Changes in behaviour – how people utilise spaces around food
    • Changes in approach to sustainable structure – nature bound intrinsically into the built structure

Stakeholders:

  1. Who are the people and organisations involved in this field? 
    • How would they be affected by the changes I propose – for or against? 
    • What power do they hold in the situation/ context? 
  2. Reach out to experts– get their opinions on the issues that a natural structure could alleviate and also what materials and forms might work – Temporary, semi- permeant or permeant structure?
    • Industrial designers
    • Structural engineers
    • Sustainable/ natural designers
    • Materials experts
    • Product developers
    • Hospitality spaces – events companies?
  3. Reach out to consumers – gather opinions on what kind of structures they would utilise and how nature could be utilised to evoke social interactions
    • Could the structure be utilised for domestic use as well as commercial? – eg: in people’s gardens or homes? or is it social – found in parks etc?
    • What features of existing structures do they like/ dislike – how can they be addressed and improved?

The Change I Look to Make:  (move outside of my comfort zone)

  1. What is the change I wish to make and why is it necessary?
    • Changes in social behaviours and attitudes towards sustainability and nature by the utilisation of a product?
    • To what extent would a product be viable for a business model – would the structure work?
  2. Look to learning how to use CAD 
    • To be able to create 3D models of designs for structures
  3. Possible interventions:
    • Test models with stakeholders
      • Can be physical models, but prepare for judgement over the quality of the model impacting people’s opinions of the proposed design – high quality model will suggest a high-quality finished design, which you will have to be able to deliver, or a low quality/ unfinished model may reflect poorly on the design
      • Focus on demonstrating the idea – not so much the aesthetics, as to test the idea first and then visuals can be adapted later, by collaboration with stakeholders
    • Invitation to create with nature
      • Provide people with natural materials/ apparatus and ask them to form what social interaction means to them out of the apparatus – utilise the outcomes to realise change in how nature can be utilised to form structures, even as small models
      • How do people respond to nature? how does nature aid their wellbeing?
    • Simulate how changes in configurations of spaces in which food is consumed alter interactions in that space?

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