Tag: (U3) Applying Imagination

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Holistic Reflections on My Project

Reflecting on my Position in the field of Biophilic Design:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reflecting on My Personal Journey Through My Masters:

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

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

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

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Nature In Community Content and Feedback UPDATE

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

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

Nature In Content Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall Reflection and Evaluation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Being Invited to Guest Lecture at the University of Westminster

Guest Lecturing on Biophilic Design

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

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

Reflection 

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

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

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

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Content of Nature In Youtube Channel

The Nature in Youtube Channel hosts all the formal discussions I have had as part of my project/ the Nature In entity.

I have included screen shots of the discussions featured on there for ease of assessment, but the channel is publicly visible via the link below.

Link to Nature In Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNK8rZOlsj1UFpzT3pfuCQ

Nature In Youtube Channel

Reflections/ Evaluation

The content on the Youtube channel is linked to through posts in the Nature In Community. Youtube is utilised as a platform to host the long-form videos of the discussions and talks held with experts in natural design.

The artwork on the YouTube thumbnails are consistent in theme, and I have progressed from the initial artworks present on the earlier videos to the more recent ones, in that I had paid extra attention now to ensure they are as clear to read as possible. This is after the feedback I received from my initial branding (see editing branding/ community content blog post) to make sure that text in the branding is easy to read as in earlier iterations the contrast between colourways was not strong enough.

I have had increased engagement in the content on YouTube from the growth of the Nature In Community. I wish to continue this growth to keep providing insightful and innovative discussions with experts. I have already planned ideas for lots of this content (see 1 Year Plan for Discussions/ Content for Nature In Community post). However, the order of this content may change slightly in accordance with the availability of experts.

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Content and Feedback on Nature In Instagram

I have included all of content from the Nature In Instagram page below for the ease of assessment, but the page can also be viewed publicly via the link below.

Link to Nature In Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nature.i.n/?hl=en

Nature In Instagram which promotes the Nature In Community whilst educating and provoking discussion around natural design in city spaces. The Instagram page is also utilised to showcase more visual ideas of how to add nature into spaces and provide inspiration for those who are curious about where to begin in integrating nature into their spaces and professions.

Nature In Instagram

Link to Nature In Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nature.i.n/?hl=en

Reflections/ Evaluation

I have received consistent likes on my post, but no comments despite posting questions. Possibly the language and thoughts I am posting on the page may not be as simplistic as they need to be to engage the audience of the Instagram page. I will try and make the content I post on there even simpler and more approachable to grow the following and make natural design exciting and engaging for the wider audience.

I am also considering making snippets of the discussions featured on the youtube and LinkedIn communities to post on the Instagram. This will help to make the experts more approachable to a wider audience.

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Content and Feedback in Nature In Community

I have included all posts from the Nature In LinkedIn community below for ease of assessment, as all content isn’t viewable unless you are a member when groups are featured on LinkedIn. The private nature of the group is also beneficial in protecting our discussion of intellectual property. This post breaks down all of the current content featured on the Nature In Community; however my tutor is a member of the community and so has full access to view all of the content it features.

If you are interested in joining the community and viewing the content how it was intened, please use the link below:

Nature In Community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14013386/

The community is hosted on LinkedIn as it is a natural platform to access professionals, featuring high quality content and it offers the opportunity to critique the work of others sparking intellectual debate. To discover further why LinkedIn is utilised to host the community please see my earlier post here.

The main outcome of my project is the Nature In Community, accompanied by the efforts of the Nature In Instagram and Youtube pages and Natural events I have hosted. The content of the Nature In Community is shown in this blog post along with engagement and feedback from stakeholders which is then reflected upon at the end of the blog post. Content and engagement on the Nature In Instagram and Youtube pages will be featured on my blog in upcoming posts and outcomes ofmy natural events have previously been documented on my blog.

Nature In Community:

After building the Nature In Community on LinkedIn I have devoted time to growing the members in the community with professionals leading in their fields. I currently have 32 members and counting in the group and members consist of interior designers, biophilic consultants, podcasters, professors, and many others. Recruitment to the group began through reaching out to all of the contents I have made during the course of my project, introducing the mission of the community and asking if they would like to join, including a link to the community. Through this method, I have had many positive responses and subsequently members joining the group. However, I am still awaiting responses from numerous people. I have only had a couple of responses that were negative with these being around not using LinkedIn and wanting to reduce screen-time. But, I am aware that in some cases no response is the same as a negative response, as many who wish not to join will simply not reply.

I have reached out to new connections predominately through LinkedIn. I search groups around natural design, different professions and individual profiles to find people that may be interested in and beneficial to the community. Again, I reach out to them via a connect request and subsequently message informing them of the community’s goals and a link to join if they are interested. This method has led to just less than half of the group members now and had resulted in a real variety of people being included in the community from various countries, backgrounds and professions.

I have also been developing valuable and practical content to begin informing around the value of natural design and how to integrate it into various internal city spaces.

LinkedIn NatureIn Community

I also received a mention from Sue Thomas, with whom I spoke a few months ago on the topic of technobiophilia and how to utilise technology as a tool to integrate nature into spaces. I was very pleased to see Sue share my work with her network and begin to form academic validation around the community I am developing.

Since Sue shared the group I gained around 5 requests to join the Nature In community. The post and comments on the post also helped to connect me to others that may be interested in the community and collaborating on future discussions and projects.

Resultant of Sue’s sharing of my work I have received further shares of the community to people’s networks (see below).

Reflections/ Evaluation

The content posted in the group reflects and showcases the work of all my previous interventions, stakeholder meetings and insightful conversations/ knowledge I have gained throughout this project. The community content will expand beyond this, but as a starting point to add content and kick-start conversations I wanted to include the community in the work I have undertaken and pose it in a way engaging and inspiring to them. Posting this content also allows me to gain added feedback and viewpoints on the ideas I have been addressing through my work and to collaborate to grow them even further.

I have had some interesting and insightful discussions taking place in the group. Specifically, the post I put out around technobiophilia and the use of technology to connect people with nature really triggered conversation. I believe this was due to the slightly controversial nature of the topic as many believe or presume that technology and nature need to be kept separate for people to become more in-tune with the natural world.

However, the work of Sue Thomas unpacks how technology can be beneficial as a tool to bring the benefits of nature to those who wouldn’t otherwise experience them. In the post, I linked my discussion with Sue that unpacks this line of thinking and provides examples. I also found this when conducting my work, as my immersive event utilising projections of natural visuals and soundscapes engaged people through the unusual way to present nature and feel connected to nature. However, the physical interactions with plants in my herb event provided the instinctive connections to nature through touch, smell, and sight of real plants.

Going forward I will try to post more thought-provoking and controversial or divisive content to spark more interesting discussion and community engagement.

Many people have posted introductions on the group as I have asked members to do so, both in a post I added to the community and also when messaging people asking if they wish to join the group I then ask if they would like to post a short intro so we can all get to know each other. The introductions have been very beneficial in getting participation in the group rolling, but now I need to focus on how to utilise the information provided in the introductions to spark further conversation. Possibly I may ask questions pertaining to certain members’ field of work and tag them in the posts to trigger their responses and hopefully, then others in the community will also add their opinions on the question in the comments section.

Additionally, moving forward I am going to look to add more people to the community that doesn’t have a background in natural design, as there are currently slightly more natural designs experts than professionals that are simply nature curious. It is important to include professionals from various backgrounds to ensure points of discussion and ideas formulated in the group are representative and inclusive of the wider world. Many professionals in none natural design-related fields are currently unaware of the value including nature in their city spaces can provide, which is something I am to change through the work of this community.

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Outcomes of Podcast Style Discussion with Kristina Libby

During yesterday’s discussion, I unpack the ways in which natural design can improve wellbeing in city spaces with biophilic design expert Kristina Libby.

The conversation unpacks how to create organic, emotive, and dynamic connections to nature in internal city spaces through natural design concepts. The wellbeing benefits of creating these connections are then examined. Consequently, we explore how to make natural design approachable and engaging for customers and businesses; alongside being profitable. We also discuss staggered approaches to integrating nature into spaces to increase acceptance of design innovation, amongst brainstorming numerous ideas of how nature can be applied in city spaces.

Kristina is based in New York and has worked on many biophilic projects including running the Foral Heart Project and the digital Heartbleed installation. Both of these projects utilise nature to connect with audiences and build a sense of wonder and organic creativity whilst conveying vital messages.

Links to Kristina and her work can be found below:

View the discussion via the link below to youtube:

https://youtu.be/2XUgoap-368

Key Takeaways:

  • The key theme of the ideas discussed was how to create a sense of wonder and creativity through integrating nature in city spaces.

Reflection: This is something I have been trying to address and encapsulate throughout the work of my project, particularly through my work looking to target the senses through natural design and subsequently my Herb Event at Chelsea College of Arts (see previous blog posts). The ideas we spoke about around this concept were largely simplistic in that they could be applied in numerous spaces relatively easily. However, they attempt to build that instinctive emotional response to a space that you seek when spending time in nature in a more traditional sense, such as taking a walk outside.

  • Simplistic ways to bring natural design into new spaces such as hotels were discussed a lot
    • Not requiring massive changes or refurbishments to start this period of change for all spaces to include the natural design, or at least begin by stating and communicating the sustainable actions they are conducting to their clients.
  • Staggered approaches to natural design innovations were discussed which allows customers and business owners to slwoly accept and engage with natural deisgn concepts. This also allows lower cost, small scale conepcts to be introduced first and they can tehn prove their worth in the spaces to attract customers and increase profits. Move expensive natural deisgns can then be later introduced through a stratigized and staged approach.
  • Making people think or asking questions, to allow for deeper connections to the space to be formed – pushes the wellbeing benefits of nature past the face value impacts of simply seeing and interacting with the designs to be one of deeper thinking and considering also helping to deepen creativity and inspire thought patterns.

At the center of the ideas is the approach to develop restorative spaces and create emotive responses that trigger immediate and inner reactions to allow for revitalization from that space.

Evaluation/ Reflection

Things to improve for next time:

EXTERNAL FEEDBACK – I have received external verbal feedback from some of my stakeholders stating that Kristina’s comments gave interesting examples but she was often not being able to back them up by saying statements such as ‘I can’t remember the name of it’. My stakeholders felt this diminished the credibility of the discussion. Therefore, for future discussions, I need to ensure that guests are well-prepped or opt to pre-record so that any mistakes or forgotten information can be rectified through editing.

In future discussions, I think more attention needs to be paid to how nature could be included in other sectors as we end up talking a lot about hotel spaces. Although, many ideas that were discussed in relation to hotels could be applied in other internal city spaces. But, this link needs to be made clearer for the viewer. If the discussion wasn’t live, then editing could have taken place to try and convey this point further. But to allow an audience attendance this is one of the prices we pay.

Also, I think future discussions, possibly paid ones, could provide more specific advice and tips on how to include nature in different professions/ city spaces with implementable ways that they can begin to include nature in their work or space. Or possibly this kind of content could be done in almost a Questions and Answers style talk that is additional to the discussions or an ebook?. It could even be delivered by individual consultation at a later stage.

There were only 2 audience members, so next time I need to introduce some type of low payment to ensure people show up on the day when they say they will and also spend more focus on marketing and promoting the discussions. However, the discussion is available to view on youtube at any time and I will continue to promote it on LinkedIn and in the linked in the group as well as on Instagram, and so hopefully people will view the discussion in a broken down format.

The video now has 8 views (only two of those being me!), therefore showing that people are revisiting the content and so that the discussion can continue to provide valuable insights and content for the community over the coming days/weeks.

Reflective Summary:

Having a one on one discussion in this podcast style allows ideas to be fully explored and brainstormed which I think is very interesting for the viewer and does allow for the viewers’ own ideas and inspiration to be triggered as to how to include nature in their professions and city spaces. This format also allowed the viewer to learn more about the individual guest, their work and expertise, and how they incorporate nature in their profession.

Excitingly after the discussion, Kristina asked if I would like to collaborate on bringing one of the ideas to life in a biophilic project in the new year! I feel this has allowed me to build confidence that my skills in this area are valuable and being respected by experts in the field.

OVERALL REFLECTIONS ON HOSTING DISCUSSIONS:

Having now hosted 2-panel discussions and a podcast-style discussion I have started to develop my own style and preferences in running the discussions. These include prior to discussions formulating a set of around 3/4 key points for discussion and then fleshing them out slightly in an agenda for the discussion. I then send this agenda out to participants in the discussion a week prior to the event so they can consider their responses.

On my copy of the agenda, I add key facts and studies that I wish to address in the discussion to this agenda. I also research the guests and try to add questions that can bring out interesting areas of their work to the discussion.

I have learnt that whilst showing images can be useful to spark discussion in some cases, I personally prefer to stick to questions. However, questioning may involve displaying the questions on a slide to keep them refreshed in participants minds. I feel that questions allow for the discussion to be guided to cover the needed topics but they allow for free forming discussion that can move into unexpected but possibly more interesting arenas as the conversation grows. I also try to stick to a few (3/4 for an hour), clear and concise questions to develop an engaging conversation with direction.

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1 Year Plan for Discussions/ Content for Nature In Community

I have roughly planned the topics for the discussions and subsequent content in the community that will relate to the discussion theme for each month over the upcoming year and beyond. This plan can be seen below.

Year Plan of Nature In Content 

November 2021 – How can nature improve wellbeing in cities?

  • Health benefits of nature – physical and mental
  • Suggestions of where to interact with nature in cities (start with London) 
  • Ideas of how to add nature into the city
  • Ideas of how to add nature into your work practises – interior designers, to graphic designers to office workers 

December 2021 – How can nature be added into city spaces through businesses/ professions? 

  • Nature and work environment 
  • Percy Smith to guest speak?

Also – include some Nature in winter – making the most of nature this winter in cities 

  • Festive ideas of adding nature into cities
  • Winter ways of interacting with nature 

January 2022 – Nature and the climate crisis 

  • New year, new goals for nature – making nature integrated into cities to aid climate change
  • Facts on the power of nature for climate change 

February 2022 – Designing urban interiors with nature

  • Interior designers and architects guest speakers and graphic designers?
  • Alia Fadel to guest? – landscape architect 

March 2022– Nature and Technology 

  • Can technology boost connections to nature? 
  • Sue Thomas and Kristina Libby to guest speak 
  • Exploring nature and virtual reality to aid wellbeing/ mental health – ask Sam to collab on an activity tying in with her project on VR and metal health 

April 2022 – Economics of Biophilic Design 

  • How can adding nature into your work help you attract more customers and increase profits? 
  • Bill and Catie Terrapin Bright Green guest speak

May 2022 – Natural building in cities

  • Jeffery Heart Guest speaker 
  • What can natural building do for work/ life in urban interiors? 

June 2022 – Regenerative design and nature 

  • Carole Collet to guest speak 

July 2022 – Increasing connections to nature through targeting the senses

August 2022 – Increasing connections to nature through targeting the senses Nature and furniture/ sustainable furniture practises

  • Yarn Collective etc to guest speak 
    • How products are made, their link to nature and importance 
  • Explore how sustainable/ natural materials help to link to nature

September 2022 – Is a green wall really the bets we can do? 

  • General debate/ collaboration of companies pushing innovative ways of how nature can be added into spaces 
  • Could even form this idea into a competition – getting companies to collaborate and produce ideas to add nature to an internal city space 
    • The ideas can then be pitched as part of a competition where the winner gets to create their idea and install it in a given space
      • This does require someone to volunteer a space for the installation of the natural design
    • People will take part as it offers an opportunity to showcase their work, which can draw people to get involved in their work as customers or collaborators   

October 2022 – What is the power of plants in a city spaces? 

  • Plant designs and planteria 

November 2022 – Biodiversity/ rewilding for those of us in cities

December 2022 – Nature and city culture

  • Exploring in music, fashion, nightlife and how to incorporate nature

January 2023 – How to introduce nature in none-creative careers – nature for lawyers, bankers and business people in the city – ‘we haven’t forgotten about you’ 

  • Pushing past things companies do for their employees in regard to nature, such as adding nature to work environments and instead focusing more upon how nature can aid personal work/ careers

February 2023– Nature and displacement activities form screens 

March 2023  – Nature and food 

  • Contact chefs or the likes of Waitrose food magazine writers for a special 
  • How to feel close to nature through city food, where foraging and growing your own food is out of the question 
  • Nature for city chefs? – contact London honey company to guest speak? 
    • Bearing in mind out pricing people due to heightened prices of local produce? 

Reflection

Having this plan of my future content, past the point of my masters, has allowed me to develop a framework that I can continuously add to as I formulate new ideas that I wish to explore through the Nature In Community. This plan will also allow me to begin contacting guest speakers and arranging panel discussions to ensure that everyone has enough time to find suitable availability for the discussions.

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Nature In Community Planning/ Future of Nature In

Structure of Community Content: 

  • Monthly Talks 
    • Featuring guests and charging a viewing fee
    • Panel discussions and one to one podcast style
  • Weekly Community Discussions – on Clubhouse 
    • The week after the talk, the discussion will be based upon the content of the talk, in almost a book club style format, allowing the talk to be unpacked and applying the ideas to personal circumstances
  • Content Uploads 2/3 times a week
    • Provoking community discussion and contribution, as well as providing factual info 

Future Plans:

App/ Member’s area

  • Access to businesses/ designers – allowing members to view their work/ ideas and then message to collaborate/ work with them on projects to bring nature into cities

Aim of Nature In Community: 

Bringing together professionals to make bringing nature into city spaces an accessible and innovative priority.

Possible tag line – Making nature and sustainability an easily accessible, engaging priority for professionals working in and on city spaces. 

Everyone is concerned with acting more sustainably with nature, for the planet, especially in a professional/ corporate setting where there is pressure to be seen to be doing so.

The Nature In Community offers a one-stop-shop to access the leading experts, businesses, and ideas in bringing nature into city spaces.

Bringing nature into the city aids personal wellbeing and the climate crisis through protecting and enhancing nature as well as encouraging sustainability-conscious behaviors. 

Discussion and Collaboration: 

  • On current members current work with issues and questions regarding including nature
  • Instigating projects between members from connections made in the group
  • Members can post their work in the community inspired by community conversations

Content Ideas: 

Questions/ facts/ talking points/ games/ competitions/ interactive activities

  • Could look at introducing monthly themes or mini-series?
    • Theme could centre around that month’s panel discussion?
    • Mini-series idea – how to introduce nature through evoking the senses through the elements – air, wind, fire, earth, water
  • Games/ Interactive activities 
    • Interactive maps – Jauntly 
      • Map of biophilic/ natural places to visit in London
      • Map of the best biophilic/ natural spots to work in London (co-working/ cafes)
    • Group Collage 
      • Inviting members to post ways of adding nature in their work that week through images or text – these can be added to a collage of all the members posts 
  • Could begin posting content/ facts around a close look of nature and professionals in the city, gradually zooming out on the subsidiary impacts/ benefits of including nature in the cityscape 
  • Similar idea to ‘minute of me’ 
    • Community members post short videos of themselves – stating their work, goals and ideas
  • Post responses/ questions/ facts regarding the outcomes of COP26
  • Catching lucky leaf idea
    • Community members asked to post their reflections/ wants for good luck into the new year

Ideas for Talk Topics: 

  • How can nature improve wellbeing in the city? 
  • What can natural building do for your work/ life in urban interior spaces? 
    • Contact Jeffery Heart to guest speak
  • How can nature improve your work environment? 
    • Contact Percy Smith to guest speak
  • What does nature bring to the table? – benefits of nature to wellbeing and climate crisis
  • How can nature be introduced in designing urban interior spaces 
    • Contact architects and interior designers with natural deisgn professionals to guest speak
  • How can regenerative design aid our integration of nature into cities? 
    • Contact Carole Collet to guest speak
  • How can nature help graphic designers? – utilising nature for inspiration and for restorative rest bite 
    • Contact graphic and natural designers to guest speak
  • How can technology boost connections to nature?
    • Contact Sue Thomas and Kristina Libby to guest speak 
  • How can adding nature help your businesses attract more customers? -Economics of biophilic design
    • Contact Bill and Catie from Terrapin Bright Green to guest speak 
  • How targeting the senses can help to build connections to nature
  • Can you make a difference to biodiversity/ rewilding living in the city? 
  • Nature and Virtual Reality
    • Could link with Sam’s project for VR and mental health?
  • Nature and displacement activities from screens
    • Could link to Jariel’s project – utilise nature to give a the opportunity to step away from work and improve your project output
  • Nature and furniture
    • Contact Yarn Collective, John Lewis and alike to guest speak 
    • How products reduce carbon output and how natural materials help to improve wellbeing and build connections to nature, alongside benefits to climate crisis 
  • Is a green wall really the best we can do? 
    • General debate/ collaboration of companies pushing innovative ways of how nature can be added into spaces 
    • Could even form this idea into a competition – getting companies to collaborate and produce ideas to add nature to an internal city space 
      • The ideas can then be pitched as part of a competition where the winner gets to create their idea and install it in a given space
        • This does require someone to volunteer a space for the installation of the natural design
      • People will take part as it offers an opportunity to showcase their work, which can draw people to get involved in their work as customers or collaborators   
  • What is the power of plants in a city space? 
    • Contacts Planteria and Plant Designs to guest speak?
  • Nature and city culture – exploring in music, fashion, nightlife and how to incorporate nature
  • How to introduce nature in none-creative careers – nature for lawyers, bankers and business people in the city – ‘we haven’t forgotten about you’ 
    • Pushing past things companies do for their employees in regard to nature, such as adding nature to work environments and instead focusing mire upon how nature can aid personal work/ careers
  • Nature and food 
    • Contact chefs or the likes of Waitrose food magazine writers for a special 
    • How to feel close to nature through city food, where foraging and growing your own food is out of the question 
    • Nature for city chefs? – contact London honey company to guest speak? 
      • Bearing in mind out pricing people due to heightened prices of local produce? 
  • Nature and health/ wellbeing 
    • Exercise, yoga, mindfulness and nature’s integral role in instigating and elevating these practises 

More customer based: 

  • How can you bring nature to your life when living in the city with no garden? 
  • Nature for city kids 
    • How to get city kids to include nature in their lives, goals and ideas
      • Explore what’s out there for kids – ‘mind’ game looking at nature and now and getting kids to consider it at meal times

The Product 

  • App/ community platform 
    • Thursdays rebrand from honey pot that was hosted on Instagram and the oncoming birth of Web 3 suggests that the internets of social media is shifting towards a space where customised online community spaces are the form of social media whereby the spaces are less mindless scrolling and more mindful scrolling in community spaces of like-minded people 
      • Suggesting moving the online community group off linkedin to an own hosted platform might be the correct move to form the community into more of a viable business model
    • Companies/ experts/ professionals pay to be on the app as listed Nature In approved – subscription-based payment? – free gets you to see certain things but to utilise it properly or message people you have to subscribe? 
      • Possible feature/ section for venues wanting to add nature in projects and the professionals on the app can select them – the venues could pay to be listed in this section
    • Professionals want to join the app/ space to see who they can work with, see what projects are available and what ideas they can create/ utilise 
    • Could offer professional access first and then roll out to the public to access the listed professionals? 
    • The panels/ talks will be linked to/ access given via the app platform – free to members 
      • Or could do a tiered membership: 
        • Free- access to see some posted content (just enough to give the sense of the community and what to be achieved? 
        • Basic – access to members, messaging, and community content
        • Premium – access to all the above and panel discussions/ talks and access to listed venues or companies available for projects? 

Who to Get on Board with the Project – large targets: 

Technology Inspiration: 

  • Onezone app
  • Thursday app- Massively growth in short period of time – Jess Wreford Marketing lead 

Podcasts:

  • Design the future

Big Big: 

  • Bill Gates 
  • Google 
    • Off the back of how to avoid climate disaster – highlight need to include nature in all lines of professional work aimed in cities

Natural World:

  •  More younger generation figure of the likes of Chris Packham or Alan titschmarch 
    • Consider who this could be?

Reflection

Having started to grow the Nature In community on LinkedIn, through inviting the contacts I have made throughout my matsers journey to the page and uploading content, it is exciting to plan the future growth of the space.

I feel the platform of LinkedIn is the most suitable strating point to grow the community initially as it allows of easy acess to many professionals already on the site. However, looking to the future and growing this community and platform into a viable model for change and business I feel it may be best to move onto a self made home platform such as an app or website space that can be fully customisable and provide a space to unify people with alined intentions. Thus, helping to step away from the negative connotatons that can be brought into the soical media space. For instance, ideas of watsing time on the platforms through encourgaing habits of mindless scrollling. Also, with the prodicted trends in Web3 exploring future rises in social networking online moving off the current platforms I feel establishing a unique community space may be a suitable option.

Posted on

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: