For my first early intervention, I wanted to target the issue I have been facing of explaining the complex subjects my project aims to tackle in a simple format. I then intend on utilising the simplified format of my ideas to engage my stakeholders of hospitality businesses.
To read further on my exploration of how I reached the formulation of this intervention, pleasure read my earlier post on developing interventions here: https://nicoleparkes.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2021/04/25/developing-an-early-intervention/
Intervention 1 – Engaging Hospitality Businesses
I have developed a video which aims to metaphorically express the importance and value that applying nature into hospitality spaces could have for hospitality business and their customers.
The video aims to break down my intrinsic aims for my project by utilising a metaphor that everyone is familiar with. This being unscented candles vs scented candles. The purpose of showcasing this video to my stakeholders is to help them engage with my work and feel they can actively contribute and get involved in what it is trying to achieve, rather than it being a project which utilises complex terms and ideas that are skewed at purely academics.
Iteration 1:
Below is the first iteration I made of my video. I have since adapted this video, as I felt the audio including technical terms such as biophilic was unapproachable for the individuals in the hospitality industry I am trying to engage. Also, I felt this initial audio didn’t explicitly showcase the point of re-connecting to nature, rather it more focused upon the wellbeing benefits of nature which isn’t the primary focus of my project.
Iteration 2:
Below you can see the updated version of my video, which I intend on showing to my stakeholders of hospitality businesses that serve food and drinks, to get them involved in the conversation around creating a re-connection to nature in their spaces.
After showing this video to my stakeholders, I plan to ask them how this made them think about the possible values of the integration of nature and re-connecting to nature in hospitality spaces. I will then ask if they now feel that the integration of nature is something they would be interested in testing out in their spaces and why? I will ask if they have any initial ideas of where they would benefit most from applications of nature to re-connect people with nature and how they think this may look?
Consequently, the point of this intervention is to start a meaningful conversation with my stakeholders, rather than overwhelming them with technical terms and ‘fluffy’ complex ideas.
Bibliography
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-222764 Accessed 27/04/21
Moving from Project 5 to the present Project 6 there has been multiple iterations and developments in my research question, the process of which you can see explained below.
End of Project 5:
How can nature be intrinsically incorporated into hospitality spaces to evoke social interactions and improve wellbeing?
Following Iterations:
How can nature be applied in hospitality spaces to attract customers, encourage social interactions and improve wellbeing?
Evolved to this when looking to move away from just focusing on wellbeing, looking to encourage social interactions and also looking at engaging businesses in the project by aiming to attract customers.
How can biophilic design be utilised to form a connection between people and nature in commercial entertaining spaces?
The realisation of creating a connection was established at this point and so then evolving the question became around the wording of ‘hospitality spaces’.
Too specific in naming biophilic design, limits off any other possible applications of nature
Not specific enough in the space definition
How can commercial entertaining spaces that serve food and drink be utilised to create connections between people and nature?
Better in specificity of the targeted space
Focus has shifted away from nature here and to the arena of the space, need to get back to connecting with nature being the priority
Look at it being a re-connection, as we have drifted away from nature through evolution, it isn’t a new connection
How can nature be incorporated into commercial entertaining spaces that serve food and drink, to re-connect people with the natural world?
Seemingly better iteration
After stakeholder engagement questioning the arena I was offering to, it required revising
To gain a greater industry knowledge of the different applications of biophilic design, as well as the differing ways connections can be formed utilising nature, I reached out to biophilic deign experts.
Kristina Libby
She is an artist, innovator and technology executive. She has recently worked on projects looking to improve wellbeing and creativity in the workplace by applying biophilic design principles.
My conversation with Kristina, revealed the following:
She feels strongly that as a society we should be moving towards making indoor spaces as attractive as outdoor spaces.
She stated that people are 15-20% more likely to spend time in hospitality environments that have increased green spaces.
She feels that many hospitality spaces almost feel dead at present, some even toxic. We should be aiming to make these spaces welcoming and spaces that make us feel good and alive.
She advised that when looking at measuring topics such as wellbeing and social interactions, I should consider: How long people stay, whether group sizes expand over time and emotional self reports after visiting the spaces.
She felt that in relation to hospitality businesses, they have been too harshly hit by the pandemic to look at large scale improvements. But, as the economy improves she expects there to be greater willingness to draw people to spaces using nature.
This feeds into my smaller, manageable scale and approach
She feels buildings are spaces that improve wellbeing and connect people with nature are essential to creating a better planet.
Rajalakshami Iyer
She is a landscape architect and interior landscaper, who is passionate about connecting people to nature.
In my conversation with Rajalakshmi, she provided great insights into alternative ways to apply biophilic design, that target the feeling of making a connection. For example, she explained how she tends to utilise biophilic design principles to touch peoples hearts and trigger childhood or good memories. This makes the spaces feel honest and people can form a very personal connection with the nature.
Hospitality Businesses
To better understand how hospitality businesses are currently approaching bringing nature into their spaces, I began to ask people involved in the industry for their take on things.
Simon Gardner
He is a general manager with 25 years experience in the hospitality industry.
The discussion with Simon provided an interesting angle on how nature could be applied to discourage certain types of unwanted, troublesome behaviours due to the calming restorative benefits of nature. Additionally, Simon’s input helped me to establish that hospitality businesses are welcome to the type of change that I am trying to make.
Ajit Nair
He is a manger of hospitality businesses.
Ajit also furthered that some hospitality businesses are open to biophilic design.
Reflection:
From engaging with stakeholders in the hospitality industry, I have had two very beneficial discussions with general managers of hospitality businesses. The first being with Simon and the second with Ajit. From these discussions I noted that introducing nature, specifically greenery into the hospitality spaces is an accepted idea in the field. But, that the introduction of differing parts of nature into hospitality spaces such as sound, water, pattern and in some cases (not Simon’s) light, are largely overlooked.
However, it must be noted that these two stakeholders reached out to a post I put in a large Facebook group for hospitality business owners which stated my intentions for biophilic design applications. Therefore, their accounts are representative of those who are interested in applying nature in spaces, as they engaged with my post. However, many others in the group did not engage with the post, possibly suggesting that they are less interested in brining nature into they spaces.
Hospitality Customers
In order to establish how customers may be attracted to hospitality businesses and how they develop their connections with nature, I reached out to my following on instagram. This following is of around 700 people from varying backgrounds, ages and areas.
From this stakeholder engagement I discovered that 93% of people who responded stated that they would be attracted to a hospitality business if it intrinsically incorporated nature. I reached out to the people in the 7% who responded NO but unfortunately I didn’t receive any replies as to why they responded that way.
I also learnt that feelings of relaxation, calm and peace are prominent effects of having string connections with nature, so they may be things I could attempt to measure to determine the quality of connection developed, alongside the academic scales of connection to nature.
Other highly beneficial feedback I gained stated that, people miss the natural world when they aren’t in it, so brining nature to people in hospitality businesses has a clear market.
Early Intervention
As an early intervention, I am looking to set up a focus group in the form of a virtual panel discussion, that aims to bring hospitality businesses and biophilia experts together to create change. I will explain the focus group more in a later blog post. So far, Kristina Libby, Rajalakshami Iyer, Leonardo Binetti (see previous stake holder engagement posts) have all agreed to take part in the discussion. Simon Gardner has potentially agreed to take part, depending upon work agreements.
Measures has been an uncertainty facing my project over the coming weeks, which I have aimed to be as transparent about as possible in my previous blog posts. Consequently, the journey to determining a measure that I feel accurately represents the aim I wish to achieve with my project into the WWHI brief has been a long one, which I will break down throughout this post.
Following On From Project 5
Whilst working on my project up to and including Project 5, I have been looking at measuring the success or failure of applications of nature through measures around wellbeing, social interactions; and subsequently customers attracted to the space which increases profits of the venues.
When presenting my projects in my tutorial group, it was advised by my tutor that wellbeing would be an adequate measure, if I could demonstrate the methodology I would employ to measure it. It was advised that I should perhaps step away from attempting to measure social interactions, as this is a less tangible measure. Consequently, I invested a great deal of time into investigating different forms of wellbeing and how they are measured in academic settings, which you can see summarised below.
MeasuringWellbeing
In the UK measuring wellbeing as an indicator for societies’ progress is debated nationally with the Office for Nation Statistics driving the discussion (Seaford, 2011). Consequently, demonstrating that wellbeing is being seriously considered as a measure of experience in society.
Hedonic Wellbeing:
This includes recording emotive feelings or moods, such as happiness and sadness, that are associated with differing states of wellbeing (Steptoe et al., 2015).
To record this form of wellbeing, individuals are often asked to rate their experience utilising adjectives such as anger, stress, relaxed. The adjectives are utilised don’t simply showcase opposites, the positive and negative adjectives are required to determine a point in which that individuals lies between the two associated dimensions of the positive and negative emotions (Kahneman et al., 2004).
Eudemonic Wellbeing:
This revolves around reporting a sense of purpose and meaning in life to determine states of wellbeing (Steptoe et al., 2015).
To record this diverse measure of wellbeing and resultantly there are multiple methods to measure it . One of the most used measures involves structured self report scales to measure self acceptance, which looks to encourage the acceptance of personal strengths and weaknesses (Ryff et al., 2004). Unlike Hedonic wellbeing, this measure requires reflective self report, which can cause complications in what standards the individual is comparing their current status to.
Life Evaluation:
This measure involves a people’s wholistic assessment of the quality or goodness of their life (Steptoe et al., 2015).
Applying this measure includes utilising processes such as the 11 step Cantril Ladder, where individuals place themselves on the scale from 1 being the worst life possible, to 11 being the best life possible (Cantril, 1965).
Analysis of Measuring Wellbeing:
The measures of eudemonic wellbeing and life evaluation are harder to apply in the setting of my project, as they involve wholistic assessments of a person’s life. Therefore, external factors to my applications of nature may be impacting the outcome of this measure of wellbeing. Such wholistic measures are also conducted over a long time scale, which isn’t suitable for the parameters of my MA project and would be work conducted in the future out of the MA setting. Additionally, all of these self reporting measures of psychological states can be unreliable sources of data, due to both unconscious and conscious biases that lie in individuals.
Alternative Methods of Measuring Wellbeing:
Brainwave Technology
Brainwave technology to measure wellbeing was something suggested to me in the feedback from my dragons den presentation.
Upon further research I have discovered that brainwave activation occurs naturally during active and resting states, but external forces can create activity waves (Desai et al., 2015). This activity is recorded via electroencephalograms to measure differences in waves (alpha, beta, the and gamma) (Desai et al., 2015).
Therefore, there is the possibility of measuring brainwaves before and after an interaction with natural elements incorporated into spaces.
The technology needed to measure such brainwaves would be difficult to access and bring to the setting of a hospitality space.
However, brainwave technology could be useful if hospitality spaces were to remain closed due to pandemic restrictions, as it could be a way to quantify people’s emotions towards biophilic design elements if they were shown a digital rendering of the designs, rather than physically experiencing the design applied in the space.
Reflection:
After conducting this research into measuring wellbeing and then talking with Dr Nigel Oseland (Environmental Psychologist and Professor at UCL), I began to consider that wellbeing may not be the most advantageous measure for my project. I noted that the most suitable measure of wellbeing to apply in my project would be hedonic wellbeing, however due to the subjective psychological reporting nature of this measure I was unsure of its academic validity and rigour. In my meeting with Dr Oseland, he suggested that utilising social interaction may be more specific and beneficial measure of the success of my biophilic design. This was due to the issues I had raised, but also resultant from wellbeing being vastly studied in the field and most beneficially examined over a long period of time. From my research into measure of wellbeing I concurred that there is an overwhelming quantity of research in the field of biophilic design, linking biophilia to improved wellbeing (Browning et al., 2014).
Due to these issues raised around utilising wellbeing as a measure, I looked to move away from wellbeing in its general sense and move towards measuring social interactions. Social interactions are spontaneously evoked through the application of biophilic design (Salingaros, 2015) and they improve personal wellbeing through creating a release of oxytocin, which creates physiological anti-stress responses; thus, reducing stress and anxiety.
Measuring Social Interactions
I considered the following methods to measure social interactions in spaces which may occur resultant from applying nature into hospitality spaces.
Group Sizes
I considered measuring how groups increase over the durations of their visit – this was suggested to me in my stakeholder engagement with Katarina Libby, a Biophilic Design expert.
Length of Stay
Looking at how long customers stay and how many people they interact with whilst they’re in the space, through observational study
Customer Satisfaction
However, other elements can impact satisfaction and it is hard to gain base sample for before and after interaction with the biophilic elements, as it is so subjective.
Quantity of Social Interactions
Either the quantity of interactions between one group/party and other in the space, or possibly measuring the quantity of individual social interactions that occur in the space before and after biophilic elements are introduced into the space.
Quality of Social Interaction
Quality of the interaction linked to wellbeing
Reflection
After exploring many avenues of how to measure social interactions in spaces and their bearing on applications of nature, I still felt this wasn’t the exact direct I was trying to articulate within my project. Measuring social interactions is very hard to determine whether that exact application of nature is what is causing the social interactions and I erased that socially interacting with each other wasn’t what I was trying to achieve, I was trying to achieve people interacting with the application of nature. Subsequently, I explored getting people into the spaces to interact with the applications of nature in the first place. I therefore examined how people are attracted to spaces and nature, and whether the profits of the spaces could be increased by the application of nature.
Attracting Customers and Increasing Profits
Attracting customers and increasing profits is the driving factor for hospitality spaces, to make money, and so this is what will get the businesses involved in my project. Getting the businesses involved in my project is crucial in allowing biophilic design to be widely applied and consequently creating lasting change.
I considered measures such as:
Measuring quantity of customers before and after the nature is added
Asking customers what attracted them to the space
ie: did they come due to the design features or was it something else such as the food offering?
Measuring if customers interacting with certain elements of nature more than others, to suggest that element hosts greater attraction?
Recording business profits before and after biophilic elements are added
This would be extremely hard to pinpoint what was causing the changes in profits and many businesses would be very reluctant to hand over the details of their books.
However, when engaging with my stakeholder in the hospitality industry, I discovered that actually many hospitality business are paying increased attention towards being more sustainable and creating a natural environment for their customers (see below images of conversations with stakeholders). This revelation allowed me to set away from the thinking that the only way I would get hostility businesses involved would be if I could prove that the application of nature would increase their profits. Therefore, I was able to step back and really pin point the exact measure and catalyst for the change I am trying to see.
Reflection, Realisation and Change – Getting to my true aim and measure…
After conducting all of this work and delving deep into different measures to utilise in my project, I still felt that my question and direction of my project was missing the mark of what I was aiming to achieve overall. The reason for this I now realise is that I had so many aims floating around in my head that I didn’t even know the true aim of the project myself. Therefore, I decided to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
Consequently, I began to try and succinctly write the aim for my project, as I mentioned, I felt that I was trying to examine too many issues at once which was really holding me back. So, what is it that I want to achieve? I began by attempting to write down my aims, which initially led to around 300 words of blurring lines and unclear sentences. However, after a lot of personal introspection, I finally rooted down to the core of what I really want, this being to get people connecting with nature and appreciating its benefits in a way that I have; especially over the lockdowns where I spent lots of time in the garden at home. Additionally, growing people’s connection with nature in such a way will allow a relationship to form between the person and the natural world, which will hopefully raise their awareness and want to protect the natural world, in small ways in their lives, to tackle climate change.
In my stepping back and re-evaluation, I also looked back over my body of work in investigating measures. I realised that when assessing social interactions, what I was actually trying to achieve was to get people to interact with nature, rather that measuring interactions between people in the spaces. Also, in regard to wellbeing, I was trying to achieve an internal improvement to wellbeing through exposure and interactions with nature. Even when looking at attracting people to the spaces to increase profits, I was really trying to bring people to interact with the nature and form a… CONNECTION, that would ultimately result in them spending time and money in the spaces boosting profits for the venues.
So there is it the link between everything that I had been completely missing and the summary what I wish to measure and develop through the work in my project is a CONNECTION WITH NATURE. The diagram below aims to visually display this.
To the left you can see my representation of the endless loop and cycle of my ideas that I was looking to measure and explore. They all fed into each other in some way and from stakeholder feedback and secondary research I viewed them all to be of near equal importance, making no clear stand out direction for my project. Hence, the feeling of an endless loop whereby all measures were fair measures but none truly encapsulating the essence of the work I wish to conduct. However, looking to the diagram on the right hand side, it can be seen that when the various measures are put together there is a clear link between them all, which combines them. This link being that they are all rooted in people forming a stronger connection to nature. Developing upon individuals’ connection to nature will consequently impact factors of improving wellbeing (Browning et al., 2014), evoking social interactions (Salingaros, 2015), attracting customers an increasing profits (Browning et al., 2012) that have been seen to be resultant from exposure and interaction to nature in existing academic works, as outlined.
Additionally, forming a connection between people and nature steps my project away from the realms of the predictable in what is already being studied in the field, into a new arena. The new arena of a connection also provides opportunity to get individuals to take agency over their relationships with the natural world and care for it, aiding the climate crisis. This aims to tackle getting those people who would be typically uninterested in the climate crisis engaged in a refreshing way.
I will go on to unpack how I look to measure and test forming a connection with nature, as well as the importance of connecting with nature in my next blog post.
Bibliography
Browning, B., W.D., Ryan, C.O., Clancy, J.O. (2014). “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design.” New York: Terrapin Bright Green, LLC.
Browning, B., Garvin, C., Fox, B., Cook, R. (2012) “The Economics of Biophilia” New York: Terrapin Bright Green, LLC
Cantril, H. (1965) “The pattern of human concerns.” Rutgers University Press; New Brunswick, NJ.
Desai, R., Tailor, A. and Bhatt, T. (2015) “Effects of yoga on brain waves and structural activation: A review.” Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 21(2), pp.112-118.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A.B., Schkade, D.A., Schwarz, N. and Stone, A.A. (2004) “A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: The day reconstruction method.” Science, 306(5702), pp.1776-1780.
Ryff, C.D., Singer, B.H. and Dienberg Love, G. (2004) “Positive health: connecting well–being with biology.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), pp.1383-1394.
Salingaros, N. A. (2015) “Biophilia & Healing Environments: Healthy Principles For Designing the Built Environment.” New York: Terrapin Bright Green LLC.
Seaford, C. (2011) “Time to legislate for the good life.” Nature, 477(7366), pp.532-533.
Steptoe, A., Deaton, A. and Stone, A.A. (2015) “Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing.” The Lancet, 385(9968), pp.640-648.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Salingaros, N. A. (2015) “Biophilia & Healing Environments: Healthy Principles For Designing the Built Environment.” New York: Terrapin Bright Green LLC.
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.
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.
