Tag: (U2/3) Moving Beyond the Predictable – Breakthroughs

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Holistic Reflections on My Project

Reflecting on my Position in the field of Biophilic Design:

Coming towards the end of my masters journey it offers the perfect time to reflect upon the work I have completed in my project so far and consequently the position I have developed as an expert and agent for change in the field of biophilic design.

Through my project and recently developing the Nature In Community I have formed respect amongst natural designers and I have formed a network of professionals and key contacts in the field that I am keen to continue to grow and build upon these relationships past the point of my masters. Forming the Nature In Community has vastly contributed to growing my network.

I aim to utilise my connections in the future to develop content and discussions that can facilitate the continued growth of the Nature in Community. But, also I will look to utilise these contacts to run collaborations that showcase how nature can be integrated into city spaces. For example, Kristina Libby is an expert I have been in contact with throughout my project and she is very keen to collaborate on a project involving technobiophilia in the new year. Additionally, I have been in contact with a new bar called the ‘Flowerhouse pub’ in Marylebone that aims to offer a space for women in hospitality. I have spoken with them in regards to running a collaboration in their spaces. This is an exciting opportunity that could also involve working alongside their florists and other natural design professionals.

Furthermore, on the academic side I have written an article for the Journal of Biophilic Design which began to solidify my position as an expert in this field and has been very beneficial in gaining respect from high profile contacts. This was apparent when helping at the Planted Event, whereby having done the article provided the opportunity to meet others who had written for the journal or wanted to get involved, and so it opened a door to meeting more contacts.

More recently, having been asked to guest lecturer at the University of Westminster has cemented my place in the field of natural design and proven that I do have the power to instigate change in this field.

Finally, I am in discussions with a company to begin working for them in natural design in the new year. The role would involve me heading up their department in CPD training for architects, interior designers and alike to educate them on biophilia and the benefits it can bring to their work. This opportunity is an incredibly exciting one which I have achieved purely through showcasing the work of my project to the company and having networked in the field of biophilic design to have met some of the employees in the company, leading to this opportunity. Working in educating professionals around biophilia through CPD training also fits seamlessly with the efforts of the Nature In Community. This aim being to educate professionals on what biophilic deigns is, its benefits and how to incorporate it into their work and spaces. Therefore, I would continue to run the Nature In Community alongside this opportunity and further increase my position as an expert in natural deign.

At the beginning of my masters journey I knew the arena I wanted to work in from the start, this being around natural design and sustainability. But, it has taken until forming the Nature In Community to feel I have a real channel and direction to instigate the changes I wish to create, which has fuelled a new drive and sense of purpose in me that I am excited to continue.

Reflecting on My Personal Journey Through My Masters:

Undertaking a masters at a arts university was a big unknown for me at the start of this year. It was a very different experience to my previous education in geography at the University of Birmingham and a very different experience to anything anyone around me had undertaken. This was scary jumping into unfamiliar circumstances, but I knew it was the best way to learn how to apply my academic background with developing concepts and ideas that can trigger changes in innovative ways, which is what I wanted to do. Reflecting on the work I have undertaken this past year I feel I have achieved the foundations of what I set out to do in undertaking this masters. I have developed a strong community and position in my field that have already instigated changes in approaches to how nature is applied in city spaces, but I can now utilise these platforms to trigger the larger actionable changes I want to achieve.

I have also learnt numerous new skills this year from creating branding and designing logos all the way through to hosting and organising physical events, including writing risk assessments and co-ordinating with different university bodies; and even to host panel discussions with experts from across the world!

Looking back it seems hard to believe it has only been a year, but I am very happy that I have thrown everything I have into this project to make the most of the opportunity of the masters which I can then develop into a future career in natural design.

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Nature In Community Content and Feedback UPDATE

In light of the upcoming assessment I wanted to publish the most up to date figures, engagement and feedback relating to the Nature In Community.

This update post is a direct continuation of my earlier post which showcases all of the content on the Nature In Community at that stage, this post merely adds to that collect of content and feedback to ensure all new data is recorded.

Nature In Content Update

I can proudly share that the Nature In Community now has over 50 members and counting! These members come from all around the world ranging from Australia to America, the UK and beyond.

Reflection– It has been a huge effort to grow the community to this size in a matter of weeks but one that has been very worthwhile. Forming this community has provided a space for not only myself but others in natural design to pour out ideas and provoke discussion and thoughts. I am very excited to see where this community can go and feel driven with a true sense of purpose to take it there.

The range of global stakeholders provides a holistic view of the current usage, knowledge and acceptance of biophilic design across the world, which is vital in learning how and where change can be instigated. It also allows new inspirations and ideas to occur as everyone has very different backgrounds, cultures and viewpoints.

Community members have begun posting their own content in the community, as I have encouraged. The first two images show original content shared by Andrea Bariselli who is the founder of Strobilo and whom I met whilst assisting in the Planted Event. The second two images are from new connections I have made brining them into the community and they have posted short introductions to the community.

Reflection – The collaborative effort to meet the shared goal of integrating nature into city spaces is beginning to take shape here through members contributing their own content. I aim to have more community members posting content and ideas in the group, this is something I am going to focus upon over the coming weeks.

The content from Andrea is particularly interesting and in line with the aims and message of the community, as it breaks down the key points of an academic paper and explores why nature helps to improve our wellbeing, whilst linking directly to his profession.

(Critique) – However, I do recognise that the content of Andrea’s post is still very complex and someone from a none academic background may struggle to understand some of this post. Therefore, I am really focusing upon gathering members form all background so that some content my be more academic, like this, which provides clearly factual grounding for the concepts of biophilia. But then that other posts will be much more of a break down of ideas and concepts around biophilia in laymen’s terms.

Once someone joins the community I reach out with a message thanking them for taking part and asking if they would share a short intro to themselves, their work and link to interest to natural deign. I also state here that community discussion is encouraged and that they should feel free to post any thoughts/ problems/ ideas they have relating to natural design. Many members have continued to post introductions to themselves, however sharing own content of thoughts and ideas is proving a slower process to encourage. But I am confident this can be achieved as many members are very keen to get involved in the conversation and have been eager to help if they can relating to my project.

I have also continued to have overwhelmingly positive repossess from those I have been contacting on LinkedIn to join the community.

Reflection – The positive responses suggest that forming this community was exactly what was needed for the space of biophilic design and is an endeavour which I am optimistic can generate real change in the integration of nature into city spaces.

I have also started to see community members recommending others that I should contact to join the group, which is very beneficial in creating a true sense of collaboration and community in that everyone is contributing to the space that it being developed.

Reflection – This recommendation of members also helps to overcome issues in my own biases meaning I often subconsciously target people of work that I find interesting or that I feel could be of value to the community. However, members being added through recommendations helps to create a diverse space that interests all members of the community and pushes my knowledge and ideas of what can be achived.

Overall Reflection and Evaluation

The community has gotten off to a great start in attracting top professionals and engaging members in the common goal of educating in biophilia and how it can be innovatively integrated into city spaces.

The challenge is to sustain this growth and engagement and begin collaboration between member stop develop ways to apply nature in city spaces that can then be conducted in city spaces. To work on maintaining these factors I will refer back to the work of Bowes (2002) on building online professional communities.

To become more educated on how to effectively build the Nature In Community further, I intend to read the following:

Barrett, M., Oborn, E. and Orlikowski, W., (2016). ‘Creating value in online communities: The sociomaterial configuring of strategy, platform, and stakeholder engagement’. Information Systems Research, 27(4), pp.704-723.

Faraj, S. and Wasko, M.M., (2001). ‘The web of knowledge: An investigation of knowledge exchange in networks of practice.’ Paper submitted for publication.

Seddon, K., Skinner, N.C. and Postlethwaite, K.C., (2008). ‘Creating a model to examine motivation for sustained engagement in online communities’. Education and Information Technologies, 13(1), pp.17-34.

Thomas-Hunt, M.C., Ogden, T.Y. and Neale, M.A., (2003). ‘Who’s really sharing? Effects of social and expert status on knowledge exchange within groups.’ Management science, 49(4), pp.464-477.

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Being Invited to Guest Lecture at the University of Westminster

Guest Lecturing on Biophilic Design

Recently I have been invited to go into the University of Westminster as guest lecturer on their Real Estate programme in conjunction with their Sustainability and Planning module. 

My lecture will be for an hour to around 60 students and is to take place in January.  I will speak on what biophilia is, its benefits to health and sustainability as well as how it can be applied in the world of real estate and planning.

Reflection 

Being invited to do this discussion validates my position as an expert and agent for change in the field of biophilic design that I have built up throughout conducting my project and most recently through forming and building the Nature In Community. Being invited to do this lecture is a direct consequence of leading the Nature In Community, as I reached out to Professor Ali to join the community and in response he asked me to come in and speak with his students.

The request from universities for discussion around biophilia to take place in their lectures symbolises the rise in academic acceptance of the field and also the rising need for it within professions. This is due to the university wanting me to educate the real estate students on the value and potential power of biophilic deign, which may subsequently inspire them to following a career in natural design, or on a less grandiose scale, it may inspire them to join the Nature In Community and learn how they can begin to link biophilia into their work and integrate nature into professions they will undertake. Either way, this opportunity signifies a much needed step in making biophilia a well known and applied concept, as there are currently no university courses that focus directly on teaching biophilic deign; rather there are only courses on sustainability (or similar) that merely touch on the subject.

Conducting this guest lecture directly serves my mission of the Nature In Community to educate on biophilic design and how to integrate it into city spaces, making it approachable, engaging and exciting for professionals, or in this case upcoming professionals in university students.

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Outcomes from Immersive Natural Event

Due to the distributions on the first day of the event and then also issues with the light and noise present in the canteen area the event was held, there was low participation in the event. Subsequently, there is only a small amount of evidence collated to analyse.

Analysis and Evaluation of Outcomes:


Conversations:

The majority of participant interactions were interesting conversations with people intrigued by the event. These conversations predominately led to exchanges of contact details to keep in touch and to look to collaborate on future work, which was very exciting and valuable.


Feedback from Conversations with Participants:

  • Fine art student – 4D she was intrigued by the use of projections the event and took a video of it. She really liked the natural imagery from the peak district. 
  • Graphic designer – interesting thought for her how to include nature into her work and bring it into other practises of her life
  • architecture – she was interested in utilising it in her work but less so something she is super passionate about- she would be more interested if a client wanted it then she could use the resources to find out more about natural design.
  • Materials and deisgn MA student – looking how different materials can be utilised to replicate nature 
  • performance arts student – using the rave scene as a method of communication for integrating cultures loves the projections of nature and thinking of it in that way – wants to look to collaborate to utilise similar projections of nature in her work – but she is less focused on sustainability
  • Industrial designer student- wants to get in touch about collaborations, loved thinking how to fuse ideas of nature and humans together in the city space, really enjoyed watching the projections as she ate. She also recommends i look into the artist – Moon Ribas who exhibits how earthquakes impact humans through movement and dancing. 
  • narrative environments student- really interested in my project, she looks at how to communicate stories in a new way and environment. Her friend on her course is really interested in bringing nature and forests to people after covid with people still staying in she wants them to get outside and so she is going to pass my email onto her friend to look at working together in the future! She also really enjoyed the wind noise as she felt it made her really feel like she was in the space.

What I learned:

  • People enjoyed the video content and found the natural imagery engaging and relaxing
  • The video was thought-provoking in making people think about nature and when spoken to how they could include nature in their work. Perhaps to get the point of how to include nature in their work across to more people I could have displayed a poster by the video showcasing that very question.


Paper Sheets and Google Forms Questions:

However, despite offering QR codes to google forms of questions and displaying questions on large sheets of paper for people to write thoughts around, there was very little uptake in these activities. I had only 3 participants write feedback on the sheets and lots of this was one-word answers such as ‘peaceful’ and ‘relaxing’.


Perhaps I should have handed out bookmarks with the google forms QR code on the tables before people sat down so that they could answer the questions as they watched the video. Good thought if I do an event in similar circumstances in the future.

Feedback from Google forms:

What I learned:

  • The video helped people to feel the benefits of integrating with nature – peaceful, comfertable, calm and relaxed
  • The video provided insporation to include nature in work/ projects – thinking of developing pattern inspired by nature
  • People said they wished to visit other natural events and that it provided a small escape from the busy world of city life london.

These key takeaways suggest the event was a success in achieving its aims of showcasing the benefits of nature and how to include nature in city spaces in innovative and engaging ways, also in provoking ideas to include nature in professional work and building the Nature In community. However, the limited participants in the event do limit the success of these outcomes.


Online Nature In Communities:

I also promoted my online community groups on both LinkedIn and Facebook. I am still awaiting people to join the groups from the QR codes that I have handed out, and I am aware that leaving people to do this of their own accord means there is unlikely to be an uptake in the activity. The participants which I exchanged contact details (5 of them) I will contact to again promote them to join the group for conversion and collaboration on bringing nature into city spaces through their work.


Interestingly when conversing with the narratives environment student she was surprised the communities were online and not held in a physical space for conversation and collaboration. This was an angle I hadn’t really considered before as I had thought more to host panel discussion events or talks in person, not the community conversations themselves. The idea of hosting physical community meetings is something I will definitely look to explore more in the future.


Also, some people said they didn’t use linked in or Facebook only Instagram and so maybe I will look to expand the community on that platform too.

What I have learned/ Evaluation:

  • I gained connections with students off a vast variety of courses from industrial materials to narrative environments and preformance arts. It was really useful to hear the different perspectives on bringing nature into spaces and how everyone approches the topic differently but that it is a concpet the enagges people from a variety of fields.
    • Seeing the appeal of bringing nature into city spaces attract such a variety of people solidifield my decision to step away from limiting my work to hospiality businesses. The adjusted scope of my project helped to engage all of these individuals and can allow for future collaborations with them in the community to bring nature into cities through their work.
  • I furthered my skills in thinking on my feet. When uptake in the event was low, but I saw people watching the video from their seats I began to go round and hand out QR codes to individuals to try and gain their feedback and to heighten engagement in the event. I do however think that I should have done this sooner, as at the stage that I began doing this, the peak lunchtime slot was over.
  • The use of the video was enjoyed by many and provided the relaxing benefits of interacting with nature, it also served well in provoking thoughts around nature and even including nature in people’s professions.
    • I would look to utilise the video again in other events or situations
  • To consider hosting the community in perosn as well as online and on instagram as another platform alongside LinkedIn and Facebook

Reflection:

Looking to develop other events, I feel I need to focus upon inviting an audience rather than relying on engaging people already occupied in spaces, as this can be very hard to involve people as they don’t wish to spare their time. In order to establish such an audience, I feel it is appropriate to focus on building the communities online over the coming weeks with a view to hosting iterations of the event interventions in the future. Once a community begins to become established then the core community can invite their contacts and create a buzz around the vent so then passersby might be intrigued to get involved alongside the invited crowd.

However, there are positives to take from this event in that the projections provided the benefits of interacting with nature, as well as inspiring people to think of nature in their work; and the majority of participants stated they would be interested to visit future natural events.

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Question Evolution

Through my recent period of evaluation on my project so far and how I want to progress my work, there has been some considerable evolution of my research question. The evolution of my research question and considerations can be seen below.

The focus on community in the new iteration of my research question is less of a change in direction and more of a union of the ambitions of my work this far. Forming a communtiy unites the past events, panel discussions, talks and stakeholder engagement I have hosted, as they community invites discussion around these interventions and pushes them even further. The community looks to expand upon these interventions by developing them through community discussion and input as well as focusing upon community discussion to include nature in differnet fields of work to ensure that it is included more within city spaces.

Resultantly, my working research question is now:

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Re-evaluating the Direction and Position of My Project

Over the past week, I have had space to take a step back from my work and truly look to evaluate my current direction and focus on my project due to illness stopping me from continuing on with practical work. This time has been invaluable to consider whether my current interventions and research question truly encapsulate the energy and motives of my work and what I wish to achieve.

I have included below my written workings that follow my decision-making process throughout the week and my evolution in evaluating where I am currently at and where I want to progress to. However, I then go on to summarise my thinking and consequential decision making to clarify my direction going forward as a result of this evaluation and reflection.

Progression of Reflection and Evaluation on Project Through to Evolution of Work:

Summary of Thinking and Evaluation of Project

  • Move away from simply reconnecting people to nature to consider the type of change I wish to make
    • This change initially being thought as an attitudional one but I feel this is best achieved through forming a community and community practise to create real change on a larger scale rather than small one off design events and talks ran by me – strength in numbers…
    • Strategic level change – also considering fact finding interventions to assess how people in the market react to this community

  • A community approach to build new attitudes in how nature is utilised in design, consequently results in reconnecting people to nature
    • So, my new direction in my work is much more specific and achieveable whilst providing a framework for real change. As, upon relfection I can now see my previous research question was quite diffused in its direction and purpose due to reconnecting people to nature being a broad focus.
    • Community approach also plays to my strengths of connecting with many top level stakeholders in my field and helps to connect all of the work I have been conducting in the background of my project such as meeting lost of biophilic, natural and sustainability experts
    • The group also adresses a key issue I have noticed through connecting with these experts and reaching out to differnet stakeholders. This being that the field of biophilia/natural design/ sustaibility led companies are very scattered across the internet and sites such as LinkedIn. This makes it very hard for professionals to meet each other but also for their knowledge to be combined and implemented in spaces in a new way. This knowledge can also then be shared with other industry professionals such as interior designers and architects that can be added into the community who can then implement the communtiy discussed ideas and concpets of natural design in their projects and also link with companies who can help make these ideas a reality.
      • I believe there is scope to combine my work and interests into building this professional multistakeholder community

  • The change to make is in percieving nature as a must have in design rather than a nice to have – this not only provides health and wellbeing benefits associated with intercting with nature, but can also help to meet sustianbility targets

  • Aim is to bring nature into city spaces are these are the spaces that desperately need the focus of natural design and also largely contain the people that feel most disconnected from nature (from my intervention findings and further reserach)
    • My work focusing on hospitality is still very relevant, only now there is wider scope for the application of nature in other city spaces, such as urban interior spaces and workplaces
    • Focusing on hospitality was seen as the correct way forward and entry point for my work at the begining as a sector with maxium impact. Hospitality was focused upon due to there being little applications of customer centric biophilic deisgn in the hospitality sector, hospitality having been hit so harshly by the pandemic and such design schemes and events helping to attract customers, the rise in sustainably counscious venues and the popularity of hospitality spaces leading to a vast sphere of influence among city dwellers that typcially ave minimal intercations with nature were all contributing factors.
      • However, with the progression of my work looking towards community building and practise there is a natural evolution away from limiting that community to the hospitality sector, as the communtiy can be of great benefit to multiple city spaces.
      • There is naturally multiple applications for this professional community as hospitality is so closesly linked to the consumer market; therefore, my work up until now feeds into the creation of this community space almost seamlessly.

New Direction In Summary

Research Question:

How can community practice encourage knowledge sharing on biophilic design to promote the inclusion of nature in city spaces?

Stakeholders:

Primary stakeholders – Natural design experts and professionals interested in learning about and incorporating natural design

Secondary stakeholders – Owners of internal city spaces (having the opportunity to host the ideas of the community)

Tertiary stakeholders – Users of city spaces that now incorporate nature as a result of work from the Nature In Community, thus the benefit from the work of the project.

Interventions:

  • Professional Community via LinkedIn page, featuring collaboration and conversation in the group, as well as Clubhouse talks to share knowledge and Instagram for publicity
  • Natural Events – showcase what can be achieved through natural design when thinking innoavctively and collaboratively, but also utilsie these events being held at Chelsea College of Arts to add up and coming deisgners and creative practitioners that are sustianbly focused into the professional community group

Reflection

This period of evaluation and reflection on the direction of my project has been invaluable in working to create the most effective outcomes possible. I now feel passionate that I am working to develop interventions that actively target the key aims of my work and that combine all aspects and ambitions of my work into an impactful, engaging and challenging direction.

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Working with Planted at Planted Cities Event

Last week I assisted in running Planted, which was London’s first zero-waste event. The event exhibited a multitude of ways to connect people to nature, from everything surrounding natural living in sustainable textiles, furniture and even office working pods to panel discussions giving knowledge around biophilia and sustainability; and how to implement them in your lives. The event also showcased a ‘sleeping with nature installation’ which demonstrated sustainable cabins with natural mattresses to demonstrate the benefits of sleeping among biophilic design.

The event was a huge success having over 6000 visitors across the 4 days (Thursday 23rd – Sunday 26th September). Subsequently, showcasing a huge market and commercial case for connecting people with nature and the need for sustainability in design. The growing trend and rise in consumer appetite for this movements fit seamlessly in the efforts of my project trying to connect people to nature through hospitality settings.

Personally, helping at this event offered a unique opportunity to meet some of the key experts in my stakeholder groups and even some experts I didn’t know existed prior to the event. For instance, I met people from Strobilo which is a company that measures brainwave patterns resultant from interacting with natural designs and environments. This is a company I am now looking to involve in my immerisve event at Chelsea College of Arts to measure brain wave patterns resultant form interacting with my natural event. The brain waves could demonstrate the quantifiable case for including nature in spaces. This is a big company who have ran events with the likes of Heston Blumenthal to test the impacts of the food experiences on brian waves. Due to the scope of the company I am in discussions as to whether they are able to get involved in my event as it is a lot smaller scale than their normal standard.

Other key companies I met during this event include Plant Designs which design, supply and maintain plants in work places but also in events. Plants Designs are a very exciting company and I am getting in contact regarding possible ways to work with them in the future.

There were many other exciting exhibitors at the event such as smile plastics creating furniture from recycled goods or the Yarn Collective showcasing sustainable and recycled textiles. All of the contacts I made here with the exhibitors will prove invaluable moving forward with my work and even past the scope of my masters.

The team at Planted behind the event are also very interesting and have many future plans for expansion and growth over the next year, as this was their first full-scale event due to covid restorations. I am also in talks with the Planted team on how to progress our working relationship.

Reflection

Being a part of such a large and influential event was truly an amazing experience. I was able to meet so many experts in my field that I have only been able to converse with online via places such as LinkedIn and many I had never spoken with before. It was particularly nice to meet Vanessa Champion in person, who is the editor of the Journal of Biophilic Design, which I recently wrote my article for. Vanessa was an invited panelists speaking on ‘what is biophilic deign?’.

The event was also an amazing experience in reflecting on how far I have come through the progress of my masters journey. Being at the start of my masters I was simply someone who was interested in the subjects of sustainability and biophilia, but being invited to assist in this event signified a change and growth in my position within the field. I felt that now I was an accepted part of the community with everyone striving towards the same goal, as a collective unit – to connect people to nature. It was amazing to be among so many likeminded people and for my work to be robust enough to stand up against the experts in the field to be discussed and respected. This solidified status among biophilic designers and the sustainability movement has allowed me to consider how I can continue to push my ideas further and that my work is something that is both academically significant but also desired by customers and the wider world to provide the benefits of nature through hospitality settings.

Photos

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Action Plan – Moving into U3

As Unit 3 is now underway, I have devised an action plan to move forwards through the final stages of my master’s project. This plan involves streamlining my interventions into the most impactful and inventive ways to achieve the aims of my research question.

Focusing My Interventions:

Events

Events are my predominant intervention to re-connect people to nature through visiting hospitality spaces. The events aim to connect people to a natural environment whilst visiting a typically unnatural space. Consequently, they can feel the health benefits of interacting with nature as well as building their connection to nature, which will improve their care for the natural world and hopefully increase their uptake in sustainable practices.

Chelsea College of Arts have confirmed I can host more events in their spaces, and their canteen spaces is re-opening at the end of September. Consequently, I am hosting my immersive event in the canteen on the 7th and 8th of October.

  • Canteen Event 7/8th Oct
    • Immersive event implementing the positives from the herb event alongside the innovative ideas founded in technobiophilia
      • Ideas:
        • Implementing live stream waterfall and soundscapes
        • Incoprorate physical plants as they were well recived in herb event, as well as possibly scents as they were greatly enjoyed from the herbs
        • Look to measure connection through body metrics

In developing this immersive event I am also going to explore the avenues of creating responsive immersive projections through Microsoft Kinect software, or utilising AR to bring in natural elements to the space. I will evaluate the most effective of these methods, if any are appropriate and work on implementing them into the event.

I also have the opportunity to test smaller scales of ideas I wish to implement in the canteen in Chelsea’s cafe space, wish will be a very advantageous space once I have got a more precise view of my ideas for the event.

ClubHouse/ Podcast

To look to connect people to nature through hospitality even further, I am going to take the highly interesting and original conversations from my panel discussions and from the panels into talks on clubhouse or a podcast. The talks will be aimed at hospitality professionals as well as biophilic/ natural experts to learn how nature can be incorporated into hospitality spaces.

I am deciding between clubhouse as it is aimed at professionals and is a newly emerging platform over the past year which can help reach my intended audience on a wider scale, in a new and engaging way. However, discussions on clubhouse can’t be recorded and you have to be available at the moment to talk part and listen to the discussion, which restricts who can view and learn from the conversations. Therefore, I am also looking at whether a podcast may be a more suitable format as discussions can be kept forever and relistening to. But, guiding users to find your podcast can be very difficult and so it may be tricky to reach my intended audience. I will explore both methods in greater depth and make a decision.

Instagram

I will continue to run the Nature.In Instagram page in posting applications of nature in different hospitality spaces, as well as promoting the events for nature.in; but this is very much a sideline aim to accompany the key interventions.

The Instagram aims to connect people to nature through developing a type of online catalogue of hospitality venues that actively try to incorporate nature into their spaces; thus, encouraging people to visit them and develop their connections to nature.

Reflection

I’m very happy to have narrowed the focus of my work slightly and I will continue to narrow in more as I reflect further upon the outcomes of my previous interventions. I feel it is of great benefit to have done this for both the direction and clarity of my project, as well as for my personal focus to move away from constantly conjuring up new ideas. I am excited to deepen my focus on these interventions and create something that creates real change.

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Unit 2 Presentation

This week I completed my presentation to mark the end of U2. This was a great opportunity to provide some added insights into the interventions I have conducted over Unit 2 as well as some visual evidence. The presentation slides can be found below.

Feedback:

The majority of my feedback centred around now focusing my efforts on the most effective and suitable interventions out of the range I have conducted. Narrowing in my field of focus in this way will allow for added depth and reflection into the interventions rather than doing many to a slightly lesser depth. It was advised to conduct this narrowing in the process by considering which interventions most directly achieve my research question of connecting people to nature through hospitality venues

Reflections:

From the feedback on my presentation, I am now looking to single out the most promising avenues for enquiring to pursue in my future interventions. An action plan for these avenues will be available on my blog over the coming days.

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Article for the Journal of Biophilic Design

UPDATE (16TH SEPT 2021) – my article has now been published which you can view here: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/journal-of-biophilic-design/why-the-hospitality-industry-needs-biophilic-design

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to write an article for the Journal of biophilic design, which will be shared on their website towards the end of the month. This was a brilliant chance to publicise my work and get more people engaged in my mission to connect people to nature through hospitality spaces. Being asked to write this article on my work demonstrated the traction my project is gaining among my stakeholders and the opportunity for creating real change that is being created.

I have included the text of the article below, but the article will also feature some pictures from my Chelsea Herb Event.

Article:

Nicole Parkes– Masters Student of Applied Imagination at Central Saint Martins, Founder of Nature.In 

Website – Blog documenting the journey of work:  https://nicoleparkes.myblog.arts.ac.uk

Instagram – @nature.i.n  and @nicole__parkes

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNK8rZOlsj1UFpzT3pfuCQ

Email – nicoleparkes0@gmail.com

Call to action –Re-connecting people to nature through hospitality venues by incorporating the principles of biophilic design – bringing nature to the people 

What’s the aim?

Nature.In aims to re-connect people to nature by bringing the outside indoors, focusing on hospitality venues. Nature.In is the entity created to unite the work of this venture. Our work challenges convention through developing natural events, experiences and designs that develop 1-1 personal connections to nature by evoking the senses and allowing individuals to experience the health benefits of interacting with nature. These benefits include reduced stress and anxiety, creating clarity of mind and increased creativity to name but a few. We are passionate about creating that gut reaction and instinctive connection to nature achieved from organic interaction with nature in the wild, offering a customer-centric approach rather than commercial holistic design schemes. The ideologies in our work play off the concept of emotional design, in thinking that customers are far more likely to act in the interest of nature and participate in sustainable practice in their lives, if they develop some form of emotional and personal connection to nature. In essence, if they connect to it, they will care for it.

Hospitality is the focus due to the popularity of the spaces, the rise in sustainably conscious venues and the lifting of covid restrictions offering a unique opportunity to reattract customers to hospitality spaces in innovative and engaging ways. Additionally, there is a current lack of customer-centric and easily appliable biophilic design for hospitality venues, that do not require full-scale refurbishment of spaces. Subsequently, Nature.In aims to develop original and dynamic biophilic events, experiences, and designs to implement in hospitality venues. 

Why is it Important?

The events, experiences and designs created by Nature.In are targeted at the customers to produce approachable forms of biophilic designs that connect people to nature. The connections formed to nature within hospitality settings are hoped to lead to a heightened awareness for nature into the lives of the individual, so that they make conscious efforts to interact with and act in the best interests of nature in the future. Subsequently, leading to individuals leading more sustainably conscious lives which is more important than ever amidst the ongoing climate crisis.

How Are We Connecting People to Nature?

A variety of methods have been deployed to aid the mission of reconnecting people to nature within the hospitality setting. These include hosting a Herb event at the Chelsea College of Arts, panel discussions with biophilic experts, and social media groups which raises awareness for venues showcasing nature within hospitality spaces. Essentially, the mission of Nature.In is split into two sectors; actions and outreach. Actions include the events and experiences ran in hospitality spaces to re-connect customers to nature and attract them into the spaces through experiencing the benefits of interacting with nature. Outreach involves spreading the word of what biophilia is, its importance and how to utilise it.

Actions

The first action, or event, hosted by Nature.In was a Herb Event, which took place at Chelsea College of Arts across 20th – 21st July. The event involved an array of herbs being presented for customers to come and pick to go with their food or to take home with them. Upon arrival I asked customers to complete a series of 4 questions based upon the measure of Inclusion of Nature in Self to rate their connection to nature. Before participants left, I asked the 4 questions again to assess if there had been any change in their connection to nature following their engagement in the event. I provided customers with herb cuttings of their choice to take home and a card explaining different ways to utilise the herbs, alongside a QR code to an online survey form for added feedback.

The results determined that there was a 2.5% increase in connection to nature from this event, although this could be increased if participants had longer to engage with the herbs. A stunning 85% of participants stated that they would actively visit a hospitality venue if it was offering a natural event or experience, suggesting a large market for this work. Throughout the event many customers stated they felt disconnected from nature living in London, without access to a garden or immediate green space. This demonstrates the potential impact of Nature.In’s goal to bring nature to the people in hospitality spaces, as many people lack but are ready to receive nature; especially in large cities like London.

Over the coming months, more events are to be held at Chelsea College of Arts, building upon the success of the Herb Event. The future events aim to test the impact of different ways to re-connect with nature, such as targeting the senses through aspects of smell and sounds. Additionally, ways to utilise technology to aid connections to nature will be explored through developing immersive events and ways to harness augmented reality technology to bring items such as menus to life. 

Outreach: 

Through the outreach portion of Nature.In work, we aim to connect people to nature through spreading the word of the benefits and possible uses of biophilic designs, as well as making biophilia approachable by unpacking some of the academic intricacies.

One aspect we found throughout our exploration into biophilic design is that it is a concept largely unknown to the wider world. Instead, there is an ever-growing group of inspiring intellectuals and designers that are discovering and building upon the concept, which is brilliant and fascinating. However, when approaching hospitality customers or business owners and discussing the concept of biophilic design, you are doing well if you even find one that is aware of what the concept entails. Therefore, we feel to truly re-connect people to nature through biophilic designs, great attention needs to be given to raising awareness as to what biophilia is and how people can incorporate it into their lives and businesses. So far, outreach has been achieved through hosting panel discussions, speaking with biophilic experts, and building up the Nature.In Instagram page. 

There have been 2 online panel discussions hosted by Nature.In to date, each including 4 biophilic experts. The first panel looked at different ways to approach re-connecting people to nature in a hospitality setting. While the second panel aimed to establish pioneering adaptations of the work and future plans of Nature.In. The panels provide great insights from leading experts into how nature can be innovatively and dynamically incorporated into hospitality spaces to attract customers. They aim to be informative and thought-provoking for hospitality businesses, customers and other biophilic experts. This has ignited conversations on how we can intrinsically incorporate nature into our hospitality experiences. These discussions can all be found on the Nature.In YouTube page. However, future panel discussions and meetings with biophilic experts are looking to be moved onto platforms accessed by a wider audience, such as Clubhouse, Podcasts, Instagram and even Tiktok. 

The Nature.In Instagram page aims to showcase natural events, experiences, and designs within hospitality settings as well as natural experiences run by Nature.In. This page is also helping to form a conversation and community in the comments section, through the page’s growing following. Check it out to learn about our upcoming ventures and come and visit us there! Over the coming months there will be several natural events hosted at Chelsea College of Arts and we are always looking for more hospitality venues that wish to explore natural events, experiences and designs that can be hosted in their spaces. So, if you’re interested in getting involved, get in touch! 

Ideas For How to Incorporate Biophilic Design into Hospitality Spaces

Future ideas being explored for upcoming events by Nature.In include exploring the powers of targeting different senses and technobiophilia, which involves utilising technology to aid in connecting people to nature. However, there are many small ways hospitality businesses can easily implement nature into their existing spaces. Some simple ideas are listed below:

  • Utilising herbs as table centre pieces
  • Informing customers of where your produce comes from and your sustainability actions
  • Incorporating colour schemes mimicking that of nature eg: blues and creams of the ocean, green hues of plants or orange, red and stone colours of the earth
  • Taking advantage of natural light in your space
  • Incorporating natural scents and soundscapes

I hope some of the ideas raised here have helped you to think about how you could interact with nature in any small way today, to help bring those natural benefits into your life and hopefully to continue those connections into the future.

For information about future events, experiences, and talks follow our Instagram – @nature.i.n  or keep in touch with the progress of the project via the blog: https://nicoleparkes.myblog.arts.ac.uk

If there is anyone interested in collaborating in our work or wants to find out more – drop me an email – nicoleparkes0@gmail.com

Reflection

I loved the opportunity to write this article and share more about y missions of my work and why it’s important to bring nature into everyone’s lives. I was asked to write this article after contacting the editor of the Journal of Biophilic Design to take part in my latest panel discussion. Unfortunately, Vanessa was unable to take part in the panel, but instead, she asked if I would be interested in writing the article. This demonstrated the power of building a strong network of stakeholders once again, as doors begin to open with the more people you build relationships with.