Tag: (U3) Self-direction

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Planning and Creating Immersive Natural Event

Event Summary

Immersive Natural Event 21st and 22nd October 11am-3:30pm at Central Saint Martins Canteen Space

This event looks to bring nature into city spaces and provide the health benefits of interacting with nature to people within the space. Such benefits include increased creativity, productivity, and positivity. The event aims to engage people with nature, encouraging nature to be included in their lives further and promoting the community practice I am developing as a space for professionals and designers to collaborate on bringing nature into their work. 

The event will utilise projections and speakers to showcase a video of natural scenery, which is focused upon the water. The video footage and audio are all shot and owned by me. Water is the focus of this event due to my meetings with expert stakeholders, such as Sue Thomas (expert in technobiophilia) who spoke to me about her reading and experience of utilising water to engage people with nature as an often under utilised but highly dynamic force.

All equipment will be loaned from the CSM loan store and so will be PAC tested. 

All cables will be taped down to the floor to avoid any tripping hazards. 

People wishing to get further involved in the event will be asked to write their answers to two simple questions on large sheets of paper, which I will supply. One of the questions will be before and one after their engagement in the event. I will also provide a QR code for people to scan which links to my online community page, should they wish to join.

I will be present at the event for its entire duration.

Aims of Event

  • To showcase innovative, engaging and dynamic ways nature can be brought into city spaces
  • To provide participants with the opportunity to intercat with nature and feel its benefits – such as increased creativity, producivity and positivity; reduced anxiety and stress
  • To establish interest from deisgn experts/ professionals in the CSM community to utilise nature in their work
  • To meet upcoming deisgners and indivudlas interested in making sustainably minded decisions to join my online Nature In Community

All of these aims are focused upon drawing interest in nature amongst creatives, specifically at CSM for this event, to demonstrate the power and value of biophilic design consequently growing interest and uptake in joining the Nature In community.

Planning/ Logistics

  • Origionally this event was to be hosted at Chelsea College of Arts, to have secured that opportunity I have had meetings with Chelsea canteen and estates teams. However, having the event at Chelsea presented a few logistical issues, as the equiptmet to be utilsied in the event is all to be hired from the CSM loan store. Therefore, I was going to have to transport the equiptment from CSM to Chelsea across the two days.
  • Subsequenlty, the estates manager at Chelsea offered to contact CSM estates to see if the event could be hosted in the CSM restaurant instead.
  • After many eails and last minute changes a meeting was arranged with CSM estates, events and canteen to finalise details to host the event at CSM. Thankfully everything was provisionally approved for the event following my risk assessment.
  • Following this meeting I reserached how to formulate a risk assessmnet form for an event and constructed my document to then send to the estates, events and canteen teams.
  • The risk assessment was approved on monday and so everything is now logistically in place for the event on thursday and friday.

Creating Video

  • All footage utilised in the video was shot by me during trips to regents park and also in my recent trip back home ot sheffield, where I live near the Peak District which offered a very valuable opporutnity to gather truley natural shots of water
  • I edited the video utilsing premier pro which was a new software for me and took a while to establish how to create the video I wanted, but I am very happy with the final outcome.
  • The video will loop back on itself to cover teh duration of the event

I also tested projecting the video in my flat to see the impact it would have in the event and test out any issues. Please see the google drive link below to the videos of testing the projector:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13c8jJSqMpDPjT56LJo6_G87xkqE7A1b1?usp=sharing

Measures

  • Assessing the impacts of the event upon participants knowledge of the power and benefits of nature – how they experience these benefits from the event
  • Establishing if the event has insipred participants to utilise nature in their work

To measure these aspects participants will be asked to write their thoughts on a piece of paper upon entry in answer to certain questions:

  • How does this event make you feel about nature?
  • Does this event inspire you to include nature in your work and how?
  • Would you reccommend natural events to people and will you keep in touch?

These questions will also be linked into a google forms page that people can access via QR code to provide added details and also to leave their email for future contact

  • Growing the Nature In Communtiy
    • QR codes linking to LinkedIn Nature In Community, as well as another QR code to the Nature In Facebook Group for people who don’t have LinkedIn

What I Have Learned In Developing This Event:

  • Creating a Risk Assessment form
  • Editing a video to a standard fit for a professional event and utilisng effects on Premier Pro
  • Co-ordinating many different teams from events to estates and the canteen, to logistically get the event running
  • Developing relevant measures for the event are brief enough to ensure responses but that also provide enough infirmation for later effective evaluation
  • How to access not just already established professionals through internet searches on platforms such as LinkedIn; developng this event has helped me learn how to consider all types of professionals to jion the community that can influence change. For instance, the upcoming cutting edge creatives that study at CSM as well as the teachers.

Reflections:

It has been a long process in developing this event, largely due to the location change, and it has gone through many rounds of changes in developing the idea. However, I think with my new project direction centered around community building to tie all the threads of my work together, this event has the potential to be very powerful in changing perspectives and providing ideas/ knowledge of how nature can be brought into city spaces. Hosting the event in CSM is also very exciting to be able to access many upcoming designers which can join the discussions in my community group and begin to consider adding nature into their work.

Ideas Summary for Event:

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Creating Community Group and Nature In LinkedIn Page

Why LinkedIn?

To launch the professional community of Nature In I have chosen to utilise LinkedIn groups. This is due to many professionals I am wanting to reach and bring into the community already having big presences on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has also been incredibly instrumental in my work on this project to access high-level experts and individuals by simply reaching out through messaging on LinkedIn and asking if they would be interested in getting involved with my work. LinkedIn was also suggested as a potentially valuable platform during my second panel discussion.

How Will The Community Be Launched?

The community will initially begin by hosting the individuals I have connected with through the journey of my master’s venture. These key experts will form the foundation of the group and I will use this base to build the content and conversation between community members to attract further experts to get involved in the group. I will reach out to all of these connections individuals so they are made aware of the aims of the community and also invite them to introduce any revenant professionals they know to the community. All community members need to be accepted into the group via my admin approval. 

Content Featured In The Community

I will curate and plan the content featured initially within the community. However, members will have the function to post in the group, I will simply approve the posts with my admin role. The posts will aim to promote discussion and collaboration among members which also providing knowledge/ information. The content will also include links to scheduled clubhouse discussions for members to join in on, as well as links to larger panel discussion style events that will be hosted via Streamyard on Youtube.

Future Plans for Growing the Community

I plan to expand the reach of my community by targeting people that lie outside my own niche and positionality so that I can attain multiple perspectives allowing for diverse discussions and truly innovative collaborations between members. I will access these potential members through LinkedIn searches, getting referrals from existing members and contacts, in-person meetings and through my immersive natural event on Thursday and Friday this week, where I will utilise the position of being in UAL to access upcoming designers and sustainably focused student to ask if they wish to join the community.

Looking to the future this community group may develop off LinkedIn into an app space or on the Nature In website (that I am in the process of developing). Additionally, to form this venture into a potential business, there may be a fee introduced to join the community group as a monthly subscription or to join the discussion talks. 

Reflection/ Evaluation

In order to ensure the community is developed as efficiently and works as effectively as possible, I will explore and unpack literature around community practice and community building over the coming weeks. I am also conscious to identify my positionality amongst forming this community and so I look to develop a statement of positionality over next week too.

Visuals of LinkedIn Page/ Group


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Rebranding Nature In to Attract Leading Professionals

Due to the recent progressions in the direction of my project towards community practice, specifically targeting professionals I left it was necessary to do a slight rebrand and increase in quality of the branding around the enormity of Nature In that, I have developed to unify my work. I believed it was necessary to upscale the branding for Nature In so that it was up to professional standard to allow the work to be taken seriously and subsequently attract high profile individuals to engage with the community.

The Rebrand

The rebrand for Nature In has been comprehensive and has ensured that sizing and formatting across all platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and LinkedIn are all appropriate and polished finishes. 

Below please observe the new rebrand of Nature In.

The Website

In the quest to increase the perceived standard of Nature In to be one that is fully accepted and admired by professionals, I have also been undertaking the development of a website. I secured the domain of www.naturein.co.uk which I plan to develop into a site showcasing all the work of Nature In and providing a unified source to access the different offerings. For instance, the webpage will include the Community, Talks and Events of Nature In as well as links to all social media pages, my blog, contact details and the about us page.

Please see below the mock-ups of the website at present. So far I have developed the homepage including the hyperlinks and created all the pages I currently wish to feature on the site. I am yet to add all content and images to the pages of the website. All images utilised in the site are my own and taken from personal intercations with nature.

What I Have Learnt:

  • In building the website I have discovered how to secure domains and attach them to a website building platform of square space that I have never previously done.
  • I have created a full brand package for Nature In, utilising photoshop. Photoshop is a platform I have been learning more about recently and for the first time have solely utilised for a project.
  • Analysed other professionally brandded companies to ensure the branding I was developing could stand up to the professional competition in the sector and surpass it. I looked at companies such as the Journal of Biophilic Design and Planted for this comparison.

Reflection/ Next Steps 

Having developed this rebrand of Nature In I will now move to create the LinkedIn page for the professional community I am to form. The page will feature the new branding and will be tailored to engage leading professionals and experts in natural design, biophilia and sustainability, as well as interior designers, architects and alike so that they can learn form the experts in how to include nature into their projects; and the expert scan collaborate to develop new applications of nature. I will also continue to finish developing the nature in website over the coming weeks by filling out the content of the remaining pages; following this I will publish the website.

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Action Plan

In order to set about achieving my newly solidified project aims, I have devised an action plan for the coming weeks. The action plan for the weeks after those outlined will evolve as those weeks draw closer.

WC 18/10/21

  • Finalising details for and promoting immerisve natural event – finish editing vidoe content to project and the natural soundscapes
  • Run immersive natural event on 21st and 22nd
  • Evaluate outcomes of event
  • Hold clubhouse discussion and include in LinkedIn community group
  • Evaluate outcomes of Clubhouse discussion
  • Draft evaluative report
  • Create Dragons Den presentation

WC 25/10/21

  • Conduct Dragons Den presentation
  • Research into community building and practsie
  • Research into posiionality and write my statemnet of positionality
  • Build up content in LinkedIn Communtiy Group and instigate discussion between members
  • Work to attract relevent professionals into the community group
  • Submit draft of evaluative report

WC 01/11/21

  • Finish building up Nauture In website – secure .com domain to go alongside the .co.uk and ensure all hyperlinks and content are polished
  • Publish Nature In website
  • Host Clubhosue discussions
  • Evalute outcomes of Clubhouse discussion
  • Look to arrange a more formal panel discussion hosted via the LinkedIn Community page
  • Build up members in community group
  • Continue to build Nature In instagram to utilise as publicity for the community

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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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Contacting Collaborators for Chelsea Event

After speaking with Sue Thomas last week, she suggested that I get in contact with some sound experts to access the most suitable and effective natural soundscapes to implement in my upcoming immersive event at Chelsea College of Arts.

Natural Soundscapes:

Consequently, I have contacted Cheryl Tipps at the British Libary, as well as Radio Lento in regards to collaborating on curating natural soundscapes for the event. I am very hopeful one of these parties will respond, as Sue mentioned that the British Libary, in particular, is often keen to collaborate on these types of projects so that the soundscapes get utilised.

Body Metrics for Measuring Connection to Nature:

Additionally, raised in multiple meetings with experts over the coming weeks and my panel discussion was to explore measuring body metrics such as blood pressure, oxygen levels or plus to see the impacts of the natural events or experience on customers connection to nature.

Subsequently, I have contact medical supply companies and medical experts to see if any would be interested in supplying the medical technology to the vent or be interested in attending/ helping to run it and collaborating on it.

In my research on utilising body metrics to measure connections, I have found that studies that have done this so far are predominately US-based. Therefore, conducting a body metrics examination of interactions with nature in the UK could be of vast benefit.

Reflection:

I am really keen to utilise a different type of measure for connection to nature in my next event to create variety in the type of data and feedback gained from my interventions. Therefore, I feel it would be really interesting to gather body metric data that can empirically show the impact of natural design upon customers in hospitality spaces. However, measuring body metrics requires either buying or renting medical equiptment to measure these statistics or collaborating with a medical supply company or professional to obtain them. Ideally, I would like to collaborate with a medical professional so they could also attend the vent and be in charge of taking the measurements so that I can ensure they are all scientifically accurate. I realise it may be very difficult to get someone to fit this role and so I am flexible in either possibly taking the measurements myself or resorting to a different measuring method. I will explore possible different methods of measurement in upcoming posts.

In relation to soundscapes, I feel it will add a great depth and dimension to the event if I am able to collaborate to create unique soundscapes for the event. Also, if I am able to collaborate on soundscapes I could create another soundscape to utilise in a future cafe intervention to test of the responses to sound alone, or sound combined with scents.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4917833/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02942/full

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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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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.