Tag: (U1/2/3) Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback

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Reaching Out To Potential Testing Venues

I have continued my reach out to secure sites to conduct testing of my interventions in by contacting the following venues and groups.

Venues contacted in this latest round of reach out:

  • Carousel – Creative Hub with guest chefs, workshops and exhibits
    • I emailed and called, they are having a staff meeting at the end of the week in which they will discuss the option fo collaboration and get back to me
  • Camden Art Centre – Gallery and exhibition space featuring a cafe
  • Tate Britan – Cafe space
    • After visiting the Tate last Friday I was unable to meet anyone who had influence over whether any testing in the space would be possible. Therefore, I have since emailed and called the venue in attempt to form any type of collaboration.
  • Cob Gallery – shows the work of emerging artists and offers refreshments
  • Horse Hospital – exhibition and events space
  • Proposito Studios – responsible for the immersive pop-up exhibition on the South Bank earlier this year
    • They are focused on raising awareness to ecology and the role of humans in ecology, thus alining very closely with the ethos of my project.
  • 180 Strand – exhibition space showing immersive works such as that of Ryoji Ikeda
  • Kitchen Theory – Immersive supper club running monthly dinner events targeting all the senses, they also have a podcast and design studio

As well as reaching out to external venues I have also contacted the cafes and bars of different UAL campuses in the hope that I may be able to run tests of my ideas on immersive natural experiences through technology here. I have contacted Chelsea Collage of Arts and London Collage of Fashion, as I was able to find contact details for them individually. However, I have also contacted the general student union for UAL to ask if they are able to help on this matter, as well as the catering operations for UAL and the events management for UAL. I also plan on going directly to the cafe at CSM and asking if there would be an opportunity to collaborate there.

Reflection

I have heard back from the Chelsea College of Arts and have a meeting arranged to meet with their head of catering on Tuesday, so that will hopefully be a very promising lead. I will also continue to pursue different venues that I see may fit my testing criteria in the on-going search to get my testing underway. After recently contacting a range of exhibition spaces and galleries but net focus of attention will move towards supper clubs and pop-ups bars/ restaurants in the hope of securing more opportunities for interventions.

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Technobiophilia

Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace, By Sue Thomas

Thomas coined the term technobiophilia, founded in her discovery that the utilisation of nature metaphors in internet culture was the result of biophilia (Thomas, 2013).

Technobiophilia – the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes as they appear in technology (Thomas, 2013).

Even through the crowds of technology facing the modern world, we are still drawn to nature and incorporating nature in the technological innovations in our lives. We even term technological developments after accepts of nature, such as storing data ‘in the cloud’ or your computer ‘getting a bug’ (Barreiros et al., 2018).

In the book Thomas (2013) states that technobiophilia practises and artefacts contribute to wellbeing via a tech-nature balance (Thomas, 2013). However, looking to critically analyse this finding, I wonder if utilising technology to connect with nature could produce the same benefits or even increased benefits, than incorporating natural design through standard Biophilic design such as planting, colour, textures, sounds etc. In summary, if we incorporate nature in technology, do we get the same wellbeing benefits from interacting with nature in this way or are the benefits slightly lowered or even heightened?

Relating This New Knowledge Into My Project

If technology does provide similar levels of benefits as more traditional or standard biophilic schemes, there is a large potential to utilise technology in my project. Technology could be utilised to develop a method of implementing nature into hospitality spaces in a fully immersive and easily changeable manner. For instance, natural scenes accompanied by their soundscapes and scents could be shown in restaurants instead of standard art work. Of course there is the cost element of this application to consider, as the technology needed may be expensive. However, if done on a rental basis of the technology in a trail to prove its efficacy and then if the concept proves value, an investment could be made by businesses into the needed technology.

This link of utilising technology in my project directly relates to key discussions had in my panel discussion with the biophilic experts. It was raised that technology is currently overlooked a lot in biophilic design, with designers falling into the trap of thinking that technology and nature need to be kept separate. Additionally, in the panel the vast importance of creating dynamic and changing spaces has on the success of continuously attracting customers to spaces, as many shames require refurbishment after a few years in order to modernise and keep customers engaged. Technology if successfully utilised in the way I am envisaging could create changeable, dynamic and evolving spaces that fully immerses customers in nature and consequently improving their wellbeing by re-connecting them with nature. Creating such spaces not only addresses the key points raised in my expert discussion, but also the needs of the hospitality professionals I have spoken to throughout the course of my project so far. I have learnt that hospitality spaces are generally receptive to including nature in their spaces, but they cannot afford large scale refurbishments nor can the afford to be closed for the time these refurbishments need to take place. Therefore, utilising technology which can be easily implemented into existing spaces or even utilise some of the existing technology they already have, such as speakers, could help to create an immersive natural experience in the space without obstructing the business and instead attract greater customers in.

Delving deeper in Thomas’s work around technobiopilia, it becomes apparent that she focuses on how technology could be utilised to enhance our experiences of nature or how nature can be brought more into our lives by technology via mobile tech such as smart phones, apps or wearables (Thomas, 2020). She wishes to develop a way of measuring the benefits to wellbeing that living a technobiophilic lifestyle can have. For example, an app or wearable tech that can measure heart rate changes based on different environments people are in (Thomas, 2020). Suggesting, my idea of developing immersive natural spaces may be a new and unusual take on her concept.

Reflections – the breakthrough moment

I feel that delving deeper into technobiophilia and looking at how to utilise technology in a beneficial way to connect people with nature has really been a breakthrough moment in my work. I believe trying to tackle re-connecting people to nature from this angle is so exciting and currently I can’t find it being done like this in any hospitality spaces which is such a groundbreaking thing for me. So far I have mainly been looking at new ways to combine design ideas that are partially out in the general field of biophilic design; but, this avenue feels new and even slightly liberating!

Next Steps:

I am looking to get in contact with Sue them stop discuss these concepts further over the coming week. I believe she was actually invited into class as a part of the guest speaker project so hopefully she will also be willing to assist in my work.

My big task over the coming weeks is to secure venues to begin testing my concepts in. I have a possible contact of a hospitality manager in Edinburgh, who seems keen but is yet to confirm if this keenness is more a reflection of their kindness. I also have contacts I have built through LinkedIn and Facebook groups that are hospitality managers, who I am reaching out to work with. However, last night I actually met a hospitality manager for the restaurant JOY at Notting Hill who seemed very interested in my work. I have been in contact with him today and I am hopeful something may come of that connection.

Bibliography

Barreiros, C., Veas, E. and Pammer, V., (2018) “Bringing nature into our lives.” In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 99-109). Springer, Cham.

Thomas, S., 2013. Technobiophilia: Nature and cyberspace. A&C Black.

Thomas, S. (2020) “Technobiophilic Design Challenges for Developers” https://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/whatistechnobiophilia/designchallenges/

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Testing My Video Intervention

In order to test the video intervention I developed to engage hospitality businesses in my project, I posted the video along with a series of prompts in 8 hospitality groups on Facebook and another group targeted at hospitality professionals on LinkedIn.

Reflection:

I am yet to receive responses to the video in this manner and so I am adopting another approach of sending the video along with the prompts directly to hospitality professionals that I have either connected with on LinkedIn or Facebook, or individuals who I have found their email through the internet.

I have also recently been passed on the contact information, by Leonardo who took part in my panel discussion, for Stefania Desole who is a manager of three restaurants in Edinburgh. She has more than 20 years of experience in this sector and so I will be getting in touch with her over the coming days.

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Panel Discussion – Testing Intervention 1

Today at 1pm I held my first panel discussion intervention with 4 key stakeholders. The speakers at the discussion ranged from all across the world and provided great insights into their experiences of utilising biophilic design principles alongside how they feel biophilia and biomimetics could be applied in hospitality businesses. A live audience was invited to view and take part in the discussion, as I posted the link in 7 different hospitality groups that I am a part of across Facebook and LinkedIn. However, unfortunately there were no live viewers to the discussion. Although, comments to the upload on YouTube are open and I have welcomed people to comment if they view the recording over the coming days and I can pass their questions onto the experts.

The Speakers Included:

Williem van Bolderen – Based in Finland, Founding partner of Studio Puisto architecture firm which focuses upon hospitality.

Leonardo Binetti – Based in Italy, associate lecturer at Edinburgh Napier university teaching in biomimetic materials.

Rajalakshmi Iyer – Based in Singapore, founder of Deeproots design and living products – specialising in exterior and interior landscaping as well as biophilic products.

Kristina Libby – Based in America, worked on biophilic projects including designing mindful offices which are dynamic and more recently developing a covid memorial project which utilises flower to develop organic, sacred spaces for people.

Please follow the link below to view the full recording of the panel discussion:

https://youtu.be/UHZitRLj1bQ

Note: consent was gained from all parties to record and post this video onto the YouTube page I have developed as a part of Nature. In.

Key Takeaways From The Discussion

  • Looking at the micro level of spaces rather than the macro which is studied by the majority of designers due to the macro level having greater impact
    • It was discussed that small applications of nature such as green artworks or centre pieces, even sustainable cutlery are certainly better than nothing, but the impact they can have on an individuals wellbeing is vastly reduced than if design is implemented at macro level
  • The examination of dynamic spaces
    • Developing Biophilic spaces that evolve around you, just as nature grows and changes around you.
    • For example, removing or adding plants or soft furnishings in a spaces periodically or to fit with the changing of the seasons (obviously changes with the seasons does require a more longitudinal study than can be achieved in the scale of this masters).
    • This idea feeds into another topic we touched on of creating spaces that are in a constant state of evolution.
  • The importance of sound, scent and movement
    • Raji shared how she has utilised the movement of air through spaces at certain times such as 7am to start the day and 4pm to signal it was time for a break. This was achieved by a steady breeze filling the space from the air vents at these times (which I found ingenious).
    • The use of bird sound and biomimetic lighting were also discussed to be utilised in this manner of marking out times in the day.
  • Creating spaces that evoke and create memories
    • If we can evoke emotions from spaces it helps people to engage more deeply with them. In order to do this most effectively you have to have a strong understanding of who will be utilising the spaces and what for.
    • We also discussed how hospitality spaces in particular are utilised to inspire and educate people. So, if these spaces promote sustainable behaviours and utilise biophilic principles, if people are inspired, they may even take such ideas home into their everyday lives.
  • Utilising technology to replicate the emotions of plants
    • How technology can be utilised to replicate states of nature through projections alongside scents and sounds in spaces was discussed. This allows us to embrace technology rather than fully reject it in the quest to achieve biophilic design.
  • Biomimicry in air ventilation
    • Leonardo raised the point of materials utilised in windows which mimic pinecones. Therefore, the material opens in the presence of certain gases in the air, just as pine cones do!
  • Measuring a connection to nature
    • Kristina spoke on the efficacy of the smiley face survey technique which has been applied in numerous settings, specifically in airports and how they have actually been found to produce very rich data. So, I may look into utilising such a system to gather customers data on biophilic designs, as self reporting survey techniques are very hard to get consumers to accurately complete after they have just had a hospitality experience.
    • Williem spoke on how I could create 2 or more models or even utilise one space without any biophilic designs and then add biophilia to the space and compare how people interact in the differing spaces; for instance where they sit first. I could observe via video how people interact with the space, as lots of our interactions and choices in nature are subconsious and so asking people to report on them may result in less rich data.

Reflections

Although the panel resulted in being predominately focused upon biophilic and biomimetic designers, rather than the equal balance of hospitality professionals and biophilic experts I initially desired to engage in the panel; I felt the discussion provided real insight into how valuable changes can be made in hospitality spaces to re-connect people with nature.

I think initially in creating this panel discussion I felt that hospitality workers and biophilic experts needed to be brought together to cohesively bridge the gap between the designs and what will be most beneficial to the specific businesses. However, I realise now that simply getting everyone together in one big discussion was almost the easier route out. After this experience I feel that it may be a more effective approach to discuss with each stakeholder group (the experts and the hospitality businesses) separately as they are quite different groups and they respond better to tailored approaches. Then I can collate the information from these discussion to take the feedback of the hospitality businesses and combine this with the feedback from the experts.

Therefore, I now need to engage further with hospitality workers, in ways in which will accommodate them and this largely meaning not being at fixed times, due to my experience trying to confirm hospitality workers for this panel discussion (see previous post). Although, I am still working on the details of precisely how I will target the hospitality businesses.

Next Steps

Looking to the future I now plan on utilising some of the ideas discussed in the panel to explore further and begin developing a series of very rough idea mock ups. I can then present these idea mock ups to hospitality businesses and ask if something along these Iines would work for them and how they may wish to adapt it to better suit their needs.

Specifially, I was really interested in the ideas of dynamic spaces that change or evolve as the customer returns to them. Therefore, keeping customers interested and engaged with the spaces but also strongly mimicking the organic sense of nature as it shapes around you. Subsequently, I am going to investigate this further through the coming weeks. Additionally, I was intrigued by the idea of embracing technology to develop biophilic experiences in spaces, rather than assuming it detracts from the natural and rejecting it. For instance, utilising projector screens in replacement for artwork, as well as soundscapes and smells to replicate the experience of being in the natural environment that is being shown. Thus, again I plan on looking into this further.

In terms of iterating this intervention, I may host another panel discussion once I have collaborated with hospitality businesses and conducted further secondary research to establish greater depth in my ideas which could then be discussed. In doing another panel discussion, I would certainly utilise images as prompts again as I felt that worked really well, but I would make my prompt questions more concise. I would also place greater emphasis on trying to engage a live audience which the panellists could answer questions from. I plan on doing that by confirming with individuals before hand that they would attend as audience members, rather than leaving it up to people interacting with my posting to view the panel.

Furthermore, I now plan on developing my intervention of an online sharing group where people can post pictures of applications of nature or natural features alongside a short comment stating why they like or dislike this. This will help to engage the my stakeholder group of hospitality customers which I am yet to deeply engage with.

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Difficulties Experienced in Establishing a Network of Hospitality Professionals

Over the past few weeks I have been actively trying to develop a network of hospitality professionals to engage in my project.

The main platforms I have utilised to gain these contacts have been Facebook through joining and becoming active participants in Facebook groups targeted at hospitality professionals. I have also joined hospitality groups on LinkedIn which are full of very useful and highly qualified contacts. Finally, I have utilised LinkedIn further by searching for hosiapilty professionals and contacting individuals who are involved in hospitality and asking them if they are interested in taking part in my work.

The predominate aim of reaching out to these hospitality professionals, at present was to gather participant speakers for my online panel discussion which is taking place later today (4th June) at 1pm. However, I have faced a problem in gathering hospitality professionals that work ‘ on the ground’ so to speak.

I was very keen to get some speakers involved who actively work in hospitality spaces that serve food and drink, so I could gather a real world view as to what may work in terms of natural applications in those spaces. But, I have faced the difficulty in accessing these individuals for a set timed panel discussion, due to their varying shifts for work and the majority of individuals not knowing their work rota util the week before. I know from my own experience working as a waitress that the rotas and timetabling can be put out rather last minute and be very flexible to change, and so I sympathise with them on this issue. In regard to my panel discussion however, this issue has meant that Simon Gardner in particular is no longer able to participate in the discussion, and neither is another hospitality worker I have been in contact with, Oliver Crawley who is an events manager.

Instead, I have managed to secure Williem van Bolderen, who is a founding partner of Studio Puisto architecture firm which focuses upon utilising Biophilic design in the development of hospitality spaces. Willem is highly regarded and will undoubtedly provide great insights for the discussion. Although, he is not a part of the ‘on the ground’ workers I initially considered targeting, I feel he will make a great addition to the team.

Reflection

Looking to the future and how to engage my ‘on the ground’ workers in hospitality, I will look towards methods that do not have to be conducted at a set time. But, rather the individuals can conduct the interventions at their own pace. This could even take the form of video submissions in response to prompts which could be compiled as a part of a larger instillation showcasing how ready hospitality spaces are to receive the change and what changes they would benefit from in terms of applications of nature.

Additionally, in the future I will initially place greater emphasis on engaging hospitality professionals, as I started out targeting biophilic and biomimetic experts first during this intervention. Having said that I certainly didn’t leave gathering hospitality professionally for the discussion to the last minute, as I have been trying to secure hospitality workers for several weeks. However, I do feel that it has been slightly easier to engage these experts in this kind of panel discussion, as it is something they are a lot more familiar with doing than hospitality professionals. Therefore, next time I will either change the format to one that hospitality professionals may be more comfortable engaging with, or I will simply place increased effort at the start of the project to engage hospitality professionals.

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What, Why, How, If Proposal and Reflections

Early Intervention Presentation Feedback:

After presenting my early interventions (see below) I received the following feedback.

Note – to watch the video I have created please view the following blog post: https://nicoleparkes.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2021/05/08/my-early-intervention/

Feedback:

  • To move away from the term focus group when describing my online panel event, as this doesn’t accurately describe the action I am taking.
  • To invite an audience to my panel discussion, so there can be feedback and engagement from individuals that would otherwise be left out of the conversation.
  • To move away from the term consultancy when referring to ‘Nature. In’ as this is not the academic focus.
    • Reflection: Nature. In is an entity I am utilising to bring all of the stakeholders and actions of my project together in a unified outcome. So, Nature. In will be utilised in the future but in the capacity as a unifying entity of my project work.
  • To interrogate academic sources that I have analysed and test the rigour of the methods in the context of my project.
    • For instance, analysing whether the academic methods and measures I have highlighted apply to my project
  • To develop my own definitions for the context of my project of terms such as hospitality and the wellness resultant from biophilic schemes in hospitality businesses
    • I am utilising a very westernised view of hospitality in the context of my work and this positionally needs to be made apparent
    • Consequently, a language will be developed around my work to describe the focuses of the project

After analysing and reflecting on this feedback I incorporated it into developing my final Project 6 -What, Why, How, If proposal that I have attached below:

Therefore, my project can be summarised by the following diagram:

Reflection/ Next Steps:

Following the work I have completed over the course fo Project 6 , I am very excited to now begin to launch my work into the testing phase of my interventions. I will begin testing my video intervention to engage hospitality businesses immediately. Additionally, I will continue to develop my intervention of the online panel discussion by gathering further participants from hostility businesses and securing a platform to host the discussion. Finally, I am gear to begin building my online sharing group over the coming weeks and testing this with hospitality customers.

Furthermore, I am keen to begin developing my own definitions to utilise within the context of my research, which will best describe the intricacies of the different areas of my work. Moving forward through my project I also look to continue developing my set of language that I employ around my work. This language clearly differs when interacting with my different groups of stakeholders, specifically between engaging with biophilic experts Vs hospitality businesses and customers. I am fascinated by the possibilities of the information that can be gained from my work, especially through my intervention testing, and I look forward to developing this information into new knowledge.

Future Reading List 

Abd ELghani, R., El Aidi, D.M. and Kassim, O. (2020) “Towards a methodological approach to apply Biophilic Interior Design in hospitality spaces.” Journal of Design Sciences and Applied Arts, 1(2), pp.177-191.

Alcorn, M.R. (2014) Green Restaurant in Practice: Employee Attitude and Behavior Towards Environmental Sustainability (Doctoral dissertation, Oklahoma State University).

Capaldi, C.A., Passmore, H.A., Nisbet, E.K., Zelenski, J.M. and Dopko, R.L. (2015) “Flourishing in nature: A review of the benefits of connecting with nature and its application as a wellbeing intervention.” International Journal of Wellbeing, 5(4).

Dias, B.D., (2015) “Beyond sustainability–biophilic and regenerative design in architecture.” European Scientific Journal, 11(9), pp.147-158.

EdgeProp (2021) “Biomimicry: When nature and tech work together” Edgeprop [Online] https://www.edgeprop.sg/property-news/biomimicry-when-nature-and-tech-work-together Accessed 01/05/21

Gillis, K. and Gatersleben, B. (2015) “A review of psychological literature on the health and wellbeing benefits of biophilic design.” Buildings, 5(3), pp.948-963.

Heath, O. (2021) Design a Healthy Home. Penguin Random House, London.

HotBox (2021) “Visual and Sensory Cues for Wellness and Restoration” HotBox [Online] https://www.behotbox.com/blog/2021/04/22/visual-and-sensory-cues-for-wellness-and-restoration/ Accessed 01/05/21


Kellert, S. R. (2018) Nature by design: the practise of biophilic design. Yale University Press.

Light, A. (2004) Restorative Relationships.

Park, E.O., Chae, B.K., Kwon, J. and Kim, W.H. (2020) “The effects of green restaurant attributes on customer satisfaction using the structural topic model on online customer reviews.” Sustainability, 12(7), p.2843.

Teng, Y.M. and Wu, K.S. (2019) “Sustainability development in hospitality: The effect of perceived value on customers’ green restaurant behavioural intention.” Sustainability, 11(7), p.1987.

Uhlmann, K., Lin, B.B. and Ross, H. (2018) “Who cares? The importance of emotional connections with nature to ensure food security and wellbeing in cities.” Sustainability, 10(6), p.1844.

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My Second Early Intervention

Focus Group – Developing applications of nature with nature experts and hospitality businesses

For my second early intervention, I wish to produce an event to create change. I am in the process of organising a focus group which is taking the form of an online panel discussion, due to pandemic restrictions.

The focus group aims to bring hospitality businesses together with experts in biophilia in the aim of making change in how nature can be most effectively applied in hospitality businesses to re-connect people to the natural world.

The discussion will be relatively free forming, but a series of 3-5 prompts will be developed by myself to guide the conversation into the necessary areas.

At present the focus group is looking to take place on the 27th May, however this may change as people finalise their availability.

Confirmed Panellists:

  • Kristina Libby– Biophilic expert – worked on projects looking to incorporate biophilic design in workspaces to improve wellbeing and creativity
  • Leonardo Binetti – Biomimetics expert (mimicking natural materials, designs and systems with technology)
  • Rajalakshmi Iyer – Biophilic expert – examines emotional connections to applying biophilic deign

Possible Panellists:

  • Simon Gardner – General manager of hospitality businesses for 25 years

Panellists Waiting to Hear Back From:

  • Abid Butt – Host of ‘Hospitality Talks’ group, which investigates problems facing the hospitality industry

Other individuals involved in hospitality and biophilia have been contacted, but are unable to partake at present.

In my next steps I will look to engage more individuals specifically from the hospitality industry to take part in the focus group. I have secure more biophilia experts than individuals from the hospitality industry and I wish there to be a near equal balance in representative of both halves in the focus group.

Further Future Intervention – Developing application of nature with customers

In the near future I also look to make an intervention targeted at the customers of hospitality businesses.

This intervention will involve creating a space for an ongoing process, by developing an online sharing group. The group will utilise an existing social media platform, such as Facebook, to engage as many people as possible by extorting their existing user base.

The group will provide customers of hospitality businesses that sell food and drink to share images of applications of nature or just nature itself to the group. The images will then be analysed and utilised to develop the most effective, manageable and feasible applications of nature for my project. The data supplied by customers of hospitality spaces will be analysed for frequencies of certain key elements such as light, sound, water and greenery to calculate which of these larger sectors is most important to customers. There will also be subsections that will be analysed that will go into greater depth regarding how these sectors are being approached, for instance the use of planting for the greenery section. The approaches that people like will also be closely examined to see how they could be adapted to be used in hospitality businesses that sell food and drinks.

Creating this intervention is not currently underway, as it is still in the ideas development phase. But creating this intervention will become a top priority, once the intervention of showcasing my video to hospitality businesses and organising the focus group are underway.

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My Early Intervention

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

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Stakeholder Engagement

Biophilic Industry Experts

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.

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Defining Which Sector of Hospitality to Focus Upon

Throughout the evolution of my enquiry the term hospitality has developed within my research question. However, I have been advised to focus in on a more precise area of the field or a unifying term that describes the range of spaces I wish to address.

Hospitality spaces are being utilised as the focus for my project, as they are currently overlooked in biophilic design schemes and research. There is a growing volume of work looking to apply biophilic design in workspaces, healthcare spaces, hotel accommodation and even homes. However, hospitality spaces are largely left out. Hospitality has also been hit very hard by pandemic restrictions in the UK and I have a vested interest in the hospitality industry having worked a number of jobs in the sector and enjoy discovering new hospitality spaces in my free time; which drives my passions for this project.

Scalability:

Additionally, focusing on hospitality spaces is a way to make the aims of my project achievable in the scale of my masters project. Therefore, if my work is successful it could be scaled up to other sectors of the hospitality industry. When looking to ‘dream big’ into the future, if successful my work may even be scaled up to vastly larger schemes such as the ‘BiodiverCity’ in the Penang Islands, Malaysia that is currently being developed by BIG; the architectural firm ran by Bjarke Ingles (who I examined in my box of uncertainties project) (GQ, 2021). The BiodiverCity is pioneering in creating a sustainable global destination, connected by autonomous transport, transforming the mudflats of Penang into a greater future for Malaysia (DeZeen, 2020). My work in hospitality spaces could be incorporated into the hospitality spaces in a city scheme similar to this, to help achieve incredible large scale connections to nature.

What Is Hospitality?

Due to the ambiguity surrounding the term hospitality, I aim to eventually remove the term in my research question altogether to one more specific to an area of hospitality. Changing the term hospitality aims to narrowing the focus of my research further and making it truly achievable in the time scale. Consequently, the work below explains my process of working towards narrowing my research field in relation to the term ‘hospitality’.

When exploring the topic of hospitality further, I discovered hospitality and the hospitality industry to host two distinct definitions:

Hospitality:

A contemporaneous human exchange, which is voluntarily entered into, and designed to enhance the mutual wellbeing of the parties concerned through the provision of accommodation, and/or food, and/or drink (Brotherton, 1999).

or

The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers (Oxford, 2021).

Essentially hospitality involves voluntarily entertaining people and hospitality spaces include any space that is utilised to entertain people.

Hospitality Industry:

The hospitality industry is comprised of commercial organisations that specialise in providing accommodation and/or, food, and/or drink, through a voluntary human exchange, which is contemporaneous in nature, and undertaken to enhance the mutual well being of the parties involved (Brotherton and Wood, 2000).

So, the hospital industry essential monetises the service of hospitality. Therefore, the hospitality industry more accurately represents the spaces I wish to target in my project. the hospitality industry includes businesses which can implement applications of nature, that allow a connection to nature to be fostered by numerous individuals who frequent those spaces.

Hospitality Vs Entertaining

Hospitality – involves meeting needs (Lugosi, 2008)

Entertaining – involves giving pleasure (Tefler, 2000)

I discovered that this slight difference between the entertaining and hospitality is a nuanced concept (Tefler, 2000), but may be useful in distinguishing between the precise outcome of the experience in the space that I am trying to achieve.

Brainstorming around why hospitality spaces are utilised:

  • largely informal spaces
  • social interactive spaces
  • business meetings
  • work drinks
  • meeting friends/family
  • personal time – enjoying entertainment/ food or drink
  • networking
  • social media work – gathering content for posts or ad work promoting spaces
  • necessity, in need of food or drink

Different Sectors Of The Hospitality Industry – Which To Focus Upon?

Working from the definitions of the hospitality industry, there is a clear split of 2 key sectors within the hospitality industry, those that look to provide accommodation and those that provide food and drink. Subsequently, I explored biophilic design application in these different settings.

Hotels/ Accommodation Spaces

Hotels are one of the most widely utilised hospitality spaces in Biophilic deigns schemes, specifically in relation to their accommodation spaces (The Resident, 2019). They are seen most frequently with pioneering designs and huge comprehensive schemes re-energisning the spaces. For instance, in Singapore the Park Royal collection hotel at Marina Bay (Panpacific, 2021). Therefore, hotels having large comprehensive schemes require a large budget from the hotel and scale of consultancy operation to conduct the work. Both of which are out of the scale for my MA project. Additionally, due to these spaces already having a biophilic focus, my work will arguably have a lesser effect in these arenas. However, a way in which my work could have a small impact in hotel spaces would be to target struggling hotels with minimal budgets to build connections to nature in these spaces that cannot employ the big schemes. However, it is arguable the profound nature that this change would have, due to the amount of attention hotels are receiving, it will only be a matter of time before the large scale adaptations trickle down into the smaller hotels.

Pubs/ Bars – Restaurants – Pop-ups/ Events

Pubs/bars, restaurants and events spaces have very minimal focus at present in applying biophilic design. When biophilic design is applied in such areas it predominately includes simply adding a few plants into the space, making little impact. At present there are very few companies looking to employ biophilic deign specifically into events, but one company at the forefront of this venture into biophilic events is ‘Planted’. Planted Cities aims to run zero waste, biophilic events and is the first of its kind (Planted, 2021). Protype events for which was held last September and the first real event to hopefully take place in September 2021 at Kings Cross, which I have already signed up to attend. I have also reached out to contact Planted in the hopes of working with them in some capacity to achieve the goals of my project. Therefore, there is huge scope for addressing the spaces of pubs/bars, restaurants and pop-ups/ events with applications of nature. So, what do all of these spaces have in common? They serve food and drinks.

Reflection:

My project will not be focusing upon hotels, so I needed to find a term that encompasses spaces that involve the hospitality industry, entertaining, excludes hotel accommodation and serves food and drinks. The term needs to unify the spaces that I do wish to focus upon, being pubs/bars, restaurants, pop-ups and events. Consequently, my field for enquiry in my question became “commercial entertaining spaces which serve food and drink”. The term aimed to target the business element of the hostility industry, focusing upon the aim of pleasure from entertaining and removing ambiguity as to what constitutes hospitality; whilst specifying that the spaces sell food and drink.

However, I will continue my stakeholder engagement further to attempt to narrow in even further within the subsection of commercial entertaining spaces, which can be scaled to up include other fields of hospitality if successful.

Stakeholder Feedback/ Realisation:

When talking with stakeholders, both in hospitality businesses and biophilic experts, I began utilising the term ‘commercial entertaining spaces that serve food and drink’. However, when utilising this term multiple stakeholders needed greater clarification of which spaces I was in fact referring to. From these conversations I realised that the term ‘commercial entertaining spaces that serve and food and drink’ wasn’t actually effective in engaging with my stakeholders. Although the term does accurately represent the area I am aiming to target according to academic studies, it isn’t easily understandable from a public perspective, you have to be an expect in defining hospitality and what determines hospitality vs entertainment to understand the area I am targeting. Consequently, it was ineffective and required changing.

Decision – Working Phrase For The Area Of Hospitality

Therefore, I stepped back and looked again into a term that could be easily understood and accurately represented the field I am aiming to target. I also looked back at prior engagement with my stakeholders and when utilising the term hospitality I didn’t have any issues of understating the areas I aimed to target. Therefore I looked back further at utilising hospitality, but instead of hospitality spaces keeping the clear commercial element by stating hospitality businesses and the defining into serving food and drink. Subsequently, my working term is now ‘hospitality businesses that serve food and drink’.

Bibliography

Brotherton, B. (1999)”Towards a definitive view of the nature of hospitality and hospitality management.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 11(4): 165- 173.

Brotherton B., Wood R.C. (2000). “Hospitality and hospitality management.” In: In Search of Hospitality: Theoretical Perspectives and Debates (eds. C Lashley, A Morrison), pp. 134- 156. Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford.

DeZeen (2020) “BIG reveals masterplan for “urban lily pads” off coast of Penang Islands” DeZeen [Online] https://www.dezeen.com/2020/08/21/biodivercity-big-masterplan-penang-island-architecture/ Accessed 02/05/21

GQ (2021) “‘BiodiverCity’ is an alluring glimpse at how designers will take on climate change” GQ [Online] https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/bjarke-ingels-biodivercity Accessed 02/05/21

Oxford (2021) “Hospitality” Oxford [Online] https://www.lexico.com/definition/hospitality Accessed 28/04/21

Panpacifc (2021)”Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay, Singapore” Panpacific [Online] https://www.panpacific.com/en/hotels-and-resorts/pr-collection-marina-bay.html Accessed 27/04/21

Planted (2021) “About Planted” Planted [Online] https://www.planted-cities.co.uk/what-planted Accessed 01/05/21

Telfer, E. (2000). “The philosophy of hospitableness.” In: In Search of Hospitality: Theoretical Perspectives and Debates (eds C Lashley & A Morrison), pp 38-55. Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford.

The Resident (2019) “Experience urban forest bathing in London’s first biophilic hotel suites” The Resident [Online] https://www.theresident.co.uk/lifestyle-london/londons-first-biophilic-hotel-suites-filled-with-houseplants/ Accessed 01/05/21