Journal of Biophilic Design

Dom Higgins, head of Health and Education for the Wildlife Trusts. We speak about Nature connectedness, biodiversity, purpose, people, place, Cone Snails and the new Natural History GCSE… among other things.

We talk about how we need active environments, and how it goes back to when we were hunter-gatherers. If you remove people inside and then we remain stationary, then we stress. We should be outside, away from artificial lights and all the accoutrements of the modern-day office (unless it has biophilic design woven into its very fabric). Take anyone away from connecting with nature and we get chronic stress. The disconnection detrimentally affects us physically and mentally.

We discuss this nature-connectedness, that feeling of understanding what is going on in the world, that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We need that daily thought, that sense of knowing that everything has a place, and is connected back to everything else. This is our life-support system essentially. If we don’t design with that sense at our core, then our planet and our health are doomed. If you don’t have that feeling, that sense of connectedness with nature innate within you, then the decisions being made around the world are skewed, everything from creating fair and sustainable employment to the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. It has consequences. And not good ones.

Nature is our key to solving the climate crisis, if we reconnect people with nature, bring nature and natural elements closer to people then everything is more joined up. Better decisions will be made. We need to give nature a chance, we might be too late to prevent climate change, but we can mitigate against the challenges such as cooling cities, carbon sinks, cleaning our air, and ecosystems that can mitigate the issues. We need people to take action, so we need to hear it on the Stock Exchange, Factories, taxis, it should be the business of everybody.

Dom tells us about the 3 strategic goals of The Wildlife Trusts, the first one is the aim to see 30% recovery in land and sea by 2030, second is to see 1 in 4 people taking action in nature or climate change “we can’t do it alone, we need partnerships, new communities and voices” and finally demonstrating the societal value that nature has, for instance, nature-based solutions to the healthcare social care challenges, and we could add Biophilic Design falls into that last goal.

Change has to be mandatory, we need legislation, there is always a cheaper way of doing something, we need to “weave in nature to design resilience to climate change. Nature is there for you.”

To find out more about Dom and The Wildlife Trusts

Get involved: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/get-involved

Find a Wildlife Trust near you: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-trusts

Did you know our NEW printed and eBook journal is out now https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/journal-of-biophilic-design-1

Please register for our newsletter https://mailchi.mp/4001fc945c4f/untitled-page and view previous podcasts with images here too: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design.

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

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Follow Dom: https://twitter.com/DomCHiggins

Merging nature and design together, Outsidein, as their name suggests, does exactly that, they bring the outside in. They were Platinum winners in this year’s 2022 Biophilic Design Awards with a project they designed for a large litigation firm in New Zealand, where the CEO had given them the specification to bring the experience of the wilds of New Zealand into the office to help give their workforce respite and relief during what is often a pressurised workday. Not only does this give relief, but also it is an amazing space to be in, people want to be there, they are drawn to the area. With the recruitment of the best and most talented staff a challenge in many countries, we might be wise to take a leaf (excuse the intended pun) out of this book.

We sit down with Ryan McQuerry, Creative Director of Outsidein, who dialled in at 5am from New Zealand to speak with us to find out about his journey into greenscaping and discuss how Biophilic Design when incorporated into the built environment and cities transforms lives. From his first forays into his grandpa’s garden in America to starting his first landscaping business at the age of 17, to being inspired by Patrick Blanc and seeing someone hanging off a building installing plants. He and his family live and breathe the biophilic life, their home is in the countryside, where every window has a view of nature, and materials are organic and natural, it’s no wonder that his work, installations and vision for design is sensitive to the beauty and benefits our natural world brings to us. He shares with us how they designed the winning greenscape using a change of temperature, natural light, indigenous plants, local rocks, terrarium concepts and so much more. It is beautiful, have a look at the images on our website www.journalofbiophilicdesign.com.

Ryan describes how architects are intentional about the materials they use for a project, and can be lost when it comes to someone maybe with no design background who hires a “pot” from a plant company and in effect, it is the pot that is hired rather than looking a cohesive design. Ryan took a fresh approach, he hires designers not sales people, and they understand the architect’s vision, and how plants and design integrate into the architecture of the building.

With more companies concerned about climate change, wellness and sustainability as well as staff retention, there is actually a downside to NOT implementing Biophilic Design. We even discuss how a visionary in factory design could create biophilically designed areas of respite and give their workers the opportunity throughout the day to use these regularly. I was also thinking this would work in hospitals and even education, some of these spaces are designed functionally like factories, with no “areas” of calm to unwind and come down from a heightened stress level.

One of the most lovely things Ryan said, was that he feels designers using Biophilic Design, are giving people a “gift”, a gift of calm: “People might not know why they are drawn to the spaces, and won’t consciously know what you’ve done, but you’ve given them a gift, an ‘ah’ moment, where they can have a pause for a moment, somewhere that feels nice and is comfortable.”

To find out more about Ryan McQuerry and Outsidein visit:

https://www.outsidein.net.nz

https://www.outsidein.net.nz/case-study-mc

https://www.instagram.com/outsidein_plantscaping/

https://www.facebook.com/outsideinplantscaping

https://www.linkedin.com/company/outsidein-plantscaping

Read the article on the winning project in the Journal of Biophilic Design ebook Magazine https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/shop/journalofbiophilicdesign-issue1-workplace or Printed copy https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/shop/journalofbiophilicdesign-issue1-workplace-magazine

Please register for our newsletter https://mailchi.mp/4001fc945c4f/untitled-page and view previous podcasts with images here too: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design and be the first to hear about our new online and printed magazine which launches in October 2022.

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

We are diurnal species, we were born under natural light, we have an ingrained ability to imagine and contextualise natural light in our heads. A Biophilic approach to lighting pulls on those cues inwards into the built environment. We spend hours and hours inside, and in the workplace we need spaces that will empower us to do our best work, to flourish, to keep us healthy and as a simple baseline, to also enjoy coming to work. Gary Thornton is speaking at the Workplace Trends “Evolving Ways of Working” conference on 18 October 2022 in London and we catch up with him beforehand to discuss just how should we be applying Biophilic lighting to our Workplaces.

A lot of things in the workplace are static, but what can shift during the day is lighting. It can influence our behaviour, the look and feel of a space, more so than any other discipline. That is one reason why lighting is so important, but is also one of the unsung heroes of a space. Historically, we have lit spaces for paper-based work, instead of considering a great deal of our work is screen-based, so there is a lot of overlighting. In this podcast, Gary outlines a lighting schema that considers first how people use the space, how to enhance not only the horizontal space (desks etc) but also the verticals (the walls which can look drab and dull if not lit properly). He suggests lighting spaces which create an experience, a destination to enhance the wellbeing and also positive perception and feeling of a space.

We chat about Circadian rhythms, and how important bringing in an automated shift in brightness and colour temperature during the day is, so for instance it’s slightly warmer in the morning when you get to work, but it gets slightly cooler and punchier at lunchtime and then warmer and dimmer before you go home, it’s imperceptible but will support your eyes and body biologically, taking cues from nature does, to enable fit, healthy, productive and creative staff.

There are many reasons why we should be considering a better lit environment in the workplace, it draws in tenants and keeps companies there, so there’s longevity, but also staff retention, it supports everybody along the whole workplace chain.

To find out more about lighting design and the impact Biophilic lighting can have on us, join him at Workplace Trends on the 18th October at Workplace Trends (in person and online), book here: https://workplacetrends.co

Gary wrote an excellent article in our NEW Journal of Magazine now available on Kindle and as a Hardback and Paperback book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BH8D23LF?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

To connect with Gary at Nulty, visit https://www.nultylighting.co.uk

Please register for our newsletter https://mailchi.mp/4001fc945c4f/untitled-page and view previous podcasts with images here too: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design and be the first to hear about our new online and printed magazine which launches in October 2022.

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

We often advocate that we should be incorporating wood, views of trees, wood grain, wood textures and wood veneers into our built environment as part of a Biophilic Design solution and we might also understand why from a psychological point of view and have discussed that elsewhere, but the question is HOW should we be selecting woods to incorporate, what woods should we use for instance for flooring, are they different to those used for outside timbers, are they sustainable? This is a definitive podcast on all things wood and trees. We were lucky to speak with Criswell Davis, TED speaker and internationally recognised expert on American Hardwood. He is also co-founder of the Timber and Forestry Foundation, President of Mighty Oaks Consulting and lectures all over the world on Biophilic Design and how we should be incorporating wood into our built environment. In this podcast, he shares with us, his very personal journey, and how a healthcare issue led him first-hand to experience the very big difference Biophilia made to his recovery.

At 5.50, Criswell describes the beauty of wood, how these slow-growing majestic entities are doing good things for the environment, how they absorb carbon, and he celebrates their sustainability and aesthetics. He goes on to share his personal journey here, how he had been in an ICU surrounded by nothing other than stainless steel and tubes, how it was “terrifying”. He contrasts that with a subsequent experience, also as a result of cancer, where he woke up in a completely different environment, which was clad in wood and looking out onto trees. He felt “intrinsically and viscerally” that this environment was better. He later was invited back to where he had his first hospital stay to give advice on how to design the space better. Along with other patients they all chose the mood boards with trees, wood, views of nature.

Maggie’s cancer care centres are discussed in this podcast there and at 57:42 as well (see here for our podcast with the CEO Dame Laura Lee or search for it in your RSS feed here). We don’t just talk about wood, he also mentions that they installed a 4K video loop of the sky for people about to go into a CAT scan (something we do too here the JBD as part of our Virtual Nature Walls movement).

His knowledge of trees, wood, veneers, finishes, biophilic design and sustainable aspect of forestry and the lumber business, was wonderful and I’d like to highlight his discussion from 21:50. He describes how both humans and trees are 60% water, 18% carbon, and reach the peak of life at 80 years, when we become more susceptible to issues, less productive, just like trees. He mentions the book “Search for the Mother Tree”, which highlights how the whole forest is connected, and how younger or sicker trees are cared for. He celebrates that the most important job trees have in the biosphere is to absorb carbon. How we live in symbiosis with the trees: we breathe out Carbon dioxide, the trees breathe it in, and give us back oxygen. The trees then hang on to the carbon which is then sequestered and kept forever in kiln-dried lumber. And when the trees have done all their brilliant work, and it’s time to render them into beautiful pieces of furniture, flooring, and cabinetry we can then still live with that end product from the trees.

At 29:00 Criswell urges designers to add “the beauty of wood to your artist palette”, and especially please avoid all woods which come from around the world and cannot be certified as legally harvested. “It is incumbent on all of us to check the legal custodianship of the wood you’re using, is it FSC (or other internationally recognised body) certified.”

25:22 he explores the cell structure of woods, including the difference between white and red oak… and how white oak was used in ships and barrels, how the trees draw up nutrients and also at 31:23 how the JANKA scale is used to measure the softness or hardness of woods (which will help you choose which wood to put where in your designs), at 45:30 he discusses how technology is being used in the industry including generating microthin veneers can be used, but of course only if the substrates are non-toxic.

There is so much more in this podcast, if you use woods in your practice, this is definitely one to listen to. Reach out to Criswell and also email us too to share any designs where you have used wood in offices, homes, schools, healthcare facilities, we’d love to hear from you.

To connect with Criswell visit: [email protected]

https://timberandforestry.org/

And look out for his article in the forthcoming PRINTED and ONLINE edition of The Journal of Biophilic Design.

What do you think of when people say "ergonomics"? You, like many others, may think 'comfortable chairs and sit-stand desks', but as Guy Osmond, MD of Osmond Ergonomics explains in this podcast, it is more than that. Incorporating Biophilic Design into workplace solutions, ergonomics covers the physical and mental wellbeing of the individual. The word itself comes from the Ancient Greek "ergon" meaning "work" and "nomos" meaning natural law, so ergonomics is the practice of designing a work environment optimised for the individual so they can be the most attentive, most productive and most comfortable at work.

In this podcast Guy gives us, at 00:13:00, THREE TIPS you can do at home to improve your home working. He also shares information from a NASA study on how and why we should move to trigger your anti-gravity muscles.

Millions of people are still working from their kitchen, with a whole bunch of them suffering from neck, shoulder and back problems, as well as mental health issues. If you have ever heard of the term "Magnetic Office", you will probably know that it is a term referring to the pull of the office. If you want your staff to return to your offices, well, just take a look at their design. Can they can work comfortably? Are you considering the well-being management of your workforce? Up your game and think of the bigger picture, and remember the key takeaway from this podcast: the mental and physical health of your staff are interconnected.

Osmond Ergonomics are running an event, "Hybrid Working" on 19th October 2022 at Orangebox showroom in London, visit the link bit.ly/oe-hybrid to find out more.

Guy is writing for our new online and print-on-demand magazine which comes out at the end of September (do sign up for updates https://mailchi.mp/4001fc945c4f/untitled-page ), sharing insights and research, tips and discussions on how you can bring improved Biophilic Design and Ergonomics into your interiors.

To view lots of free resources on ergonomics visit Guy’s company’s website: ergonomics.co.uk/pages/biophilia or connect with Guy here: linkedin.com/in/guyosmond/

If you like this, please subscribe here, thank you x

Please register for our newsletter on our website https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

How can we encourage more local greening? Where does Biophilic Design fit in the climate change picture? What can we learn from Paris and its free and equitable access to fountains and water? These and other questions are discussed in this great interview with Ross O’Ceallaigh, founder of the Green Urbanist podcast. With much of the world experiencing unprecedented heat waves this summer, we need to accelerate how we bring Climate Adaptation into our behaviours and city infrastructures. Ross is an urban designer and planner and calls for architects and fellow designers to refocus our aims to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Local greening could be a key solution, but, he says, we need to reduce the bureaucratic barriers that stop communities from planting trees and greening their spaces, the whole process needs to be streamlined to make it really easy. Did you know that 48% of London’s surface area is green and blue? That’s nearly half of the city covered by parks, gardens, canals, ponds and more. This surprising fact emerged as a result of a mapping exercise. Three years ago the Mayor of London formally designated London as a National Park City, which came about after a grassroots campaign took hold. Adelaide in Australia has followed, and there are more cities looking for similar designation. This is exciting on many levels. Changing the mindset that the city is indeed green, should hopefully also add weight to decisions to plant more trees, and reduce the desire to clear the tree canopies in the city which we desperately need. There are many really interesting projects taking place in London. So if you’re in the city, why not check some of them out, from Fruity Walks to the London Fungus Network (or check out the links below). We discuss how it wasn’t that long ago that we were living as hunter-gatherers, living in tune with nature and its natural cycles, and that we need to maintain that connection. Biophilic Design in the city also helps reduce temperatures in cities, from increasing tree canopies (we need at least 40% tree canopy cover to create a balanced temperature he says) to including more water. Let’s reimagine what nature in cities actually means. Together we can design greener, healthier, wilder. To find out more about Ross O’Ceallaigh and his work check out the Green Urbanist Podcast: https://greenurbanistpod.com/ Design South East: https://designsoutheast.org/ and follow him on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-o-ceallaigh/ London National Park City: https://www.nationalparkcity.london/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/LondonNPC London Fungus Network: https://www.londonfungusnetwork.org/ Fruity Walks: https://www.instagram.com/fruitywalks/?hl=en If you like this, please subscribe! Please register for our newsletter on our website https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcasts-journal-of-biophilic-design Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds? Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/ Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

As National Plants at Work week comes to a close, we celebrate all things plants with this great interview with ambassador and passionate interior and exterior planting designer, Ian Drummond. Plants at Work week takes place once a year, and aims to promote the many benefits of having plants in the workplace and in the past the designers for Plants at Work week have decorated all kinds of things from a Thames Clipper to a London black cab.

In this really passionate interview, be inspired and learn which plants are good where, why we need plants at every stage of our lives. Ian has worked with so many really interesting people, including Elton John, Chelsea Flower Show, BAFTA, London Fasion Week, I left the interview feeling ‘what a cool job he’s got’. Seriously, if you are thinking of working with plants, have a listen to this podcast or share with someone who is considering a career in plants, you’ll definitely leave the podcast impassioned too.

Ian started his passion for plants at a young age. He grew up in a council estate surrounded by concrete. One of his family gave him a house plant and it grew from there. One of the most powerful things he said, was how wonderful it would be if there was an opportunity for everyone to have living nature around them, if all communal spaces had a green oasis for everyone to spend time in. You don’t need a big investment, we need to open up our minds as to what’s important, developers and architects need to consider “green”. Not everyone can get outside, so bring the outside in, let’s fill schools, classrooms with plants. It should be an automatic thing, we should grow up surrounded by plants.

Ian shares with us some research he started with Dr Craig Knight of Exeter University where they showed that there was a 37% increase in productivity when people could design their own space with plants and artworks that meant something to them. No one wants to be in a lean empty box, you wouldn’t chose to live like that, so why would you chose to go into an office like that? One of the positive things that came out of Covid, was that to entice people back to the office, business owners realised they need to make the office a nice environment to come back to. As a result interior landscaping is booming, and it’s an easy way for corporate clients to change the look of an office. It’s cost-effective and there are lots of benefits from productivity and creativity to wellbeing.

We are naturally drawn to nature, as was proven during lockdown. And in fact, during Lockdown, Ian describes how he transformed a simple public seating area with pots and planting with grasses and summer bedding and how it became a haven for people. People are drawn to beauty, nature, plants, and as Biophilia refers to, LIFE, our inherent “love of life and living things”. We do so need it. 

He shares with us how we can create “shelfies”, why Vanda Orchids are terrific, why we need Monsteras and how Zamioculcas are hard to kill! So some tips there for newbies to planting! His new book “At Home with Plants” shares ideas for what to plant in every room in the house. As he says, and I agree (!), every room should have plants!

To look at Ian’s wonderful designs and find out more about him, visit his website www.iandrummond.com and Instagram @plantman_about_town

To buy Ian Drummond’s book “At Home with Plants” visit all good bookshops, or click here if you’d like to support our Journal https://uk.bookshop.org/a/6777/9781784721947 (thank you if so!)

If you want to become a member of Plants at Work (either as a supplier or as a business wanting to support what they do), visit: https://www.plantsatwork.org.uk If you are an office manager stuck for ideas what to do, have a look through, it’s full of lots of ideas.

And also visit their website to buy their third book: “Plants, our Perfect Partners”

To view some installations, including their recent NookPod planting, see some of their blogs including this one with some great images: https://www.plantsatwork.org.uk/index.php/item/transforming-workspaces-with-plants

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

When you climb up a tree, don’t we see life from a different perspective? We realise we part of something bigger than ourselves, we see an overview of everything and it helps us understand our place in the world more. It is also true, that generally many people and businesses seem to have a distorted relationship with nature, but as Environmental Psychologist and Design professional Anicee Bauer of “Humans in Trees” puts it: “we are nature”. Can Biophilic Design really encourage a more sustainable lifestyle, and why should the Workplace include Biophilic Design in order to help reach that NetZero target?

Anicee is going to be speaking about “How to Design Sustainable Habitats for Sustainable Habits” in the NetZero Workplace taking place on 7th July 2022 in London (for more information and book a space, look here: https://workplacetrends.co/events/the-net-zero-workplace/ ). What is inspiring, is that Anicee’s whole business model is to encourage a more Biophilic way of life not only in the external design of a space but also in the inner landscape within each one of us.

In this podcast, she shares with us the three fascinating levels in this process. We touch on Wabi-Sabi design strategies, Aristotelian intellectual moral virtues, spirituality, reconnecting with the fun we feel in nature and Einstein.

Biophilia is indeed our innate connection with nature and living things. We touch on studies that show how Biophilic Design stimulates pro-social behaviour, trust and empathy in employees. Also how Biophilic Design encourages us to be more predisposed to want to be in contact and to care for nature, which in turn encourages sustainable living habits.

We also talk about those “awe”-inspiring moments in nature, how they make us feel humble, and how they encourage us to think less about the ego, the “I/me” and open our focus towards the collective good, our social surroundings and therefore our environment.

Imagine a workplace where everyone is fulfilling their purpose. We need more people to be visionary. Question is, are you one of those free-thinking business owners who already do or want to do things better, not just for the greater good of people but of the planet too? Contact us and share your story or better still join us at The Net Zero Workplace: https://workplacetrends.co/events/the-net-zero-workplace/

For more information on Anicee Bauer and Humans in Trees, contact her on:

https://humansintrees.com/english/

To read the chapter in the book Anicee mentions, “The Eudaimonic Workplace, A Plea for Change”, you can view it here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-33519-9_3

If you would like to learn more about how to reach Net Zero in your workplace, have a listen to our recent interview with Jeremy Campbell and Ian Baker of Emcor, who are also speaking at the NetZero Workplace event here: https://journalofbiophilicdesign.com/podcast-journal-of-biophilic-design/biophilic-design-and-net-zero-targets-in-the-workplace

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

So how do we design workplaces and maybe more importantly maintain our workspaces and offices during the course of the building’s life span and use to help create happy, healthy and also sustainable places to be? We speak with Ian Baker, Head of Workplace and Jeremy Campbell, Executive Director Marketing and Business Development for Emcor UK to find out their direct experience as facility managers just what is happening in workplaces, and also how we can improve what we’re doing now to also hit that NetZero target.

We talk about how worried they are about climate change and the IPCC report. We are at a turning point, there is no Planet B, if we carry on as we are doing there aren’t going to be future generations, we have moral obligations as business leaders to solve these problems So how can business owners start to address the issue of trying to reach Net Zero? A recent survey Emcor carried out revealed that 50% of business owners were not ready or not yet on a journey to meet their Net Zero targets.

We discuss how we can retrofit solutions into buildings. The EPC ratings will come into play for the workplace, and this is going to force companies to really think about that retrofit decision. Before the pandemic we just used our buildings and didn’t really think about HOW we were using them. Now we have an opportunity to really create workplace that we chose to come to, and also to responsibly consume the buildings themselves. We need to really think WHY we are using a space and manage that accordingly.

The Journal of Biophilic Design is a media sponsor of the new event THe Net Zero Workplace, which is taking place on 7th July 2022, Cavendish Conference Centre in London. Find out more here and to book tickets. Ian and Jeremy are both speaking there too on “Responsible Consumption in the Workplace”.

Biophilic Design is one of the key elements in helping companies meet their targets. How we attract and retain talent, so our workplaces are destinations of choice, we want to create workplaces that make us feel great, that stimulate our personal feeling of wellness and wellbeing and also inspire our creativity.

To find out more about Emcor visit: https://www.emcoruk.com

And to find out more about the Net Zero Workplace event visit https://workplacetrends.co/events/the-net-zero-workplace/

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesign

Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/

Twitter https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsn

LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/

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How can we work with the landscape more as architects and designers to not only create beautiful spaces but ones that also have a positive impact on our and nature’s wellbeing? We speak with Stephen Melvin, of Atelier Architects who desribes himself as a “landscape facilitator”. How he looks at how the landscape itself is structured and presents itself and then see how to weave the design into the natural space. He has developed the “Pioneer Nature Method” which he tells us about in this podcast.

Steve highlights the need to respect that underlying process of nature that will outlive us, how we need to build in and with the landscape and really consider how our buildings can live with nature. By talking through images shown in the video accompanying this podcast (viewable on YouTube and also on the Journal of Biophilic Design website here), he shows us a project as a case study, so we can follow his thought processes from concept through to render, looking at different aspects from materials, light, air to how people will use the space and also how it represents the client’s aims too.

These are beautiful airy, light, inspiring spaces that positively impact the environment they are in, rejuvenating land that had been weakened by former use, and also redirecting attention to ancient woodland and more.

Steve also shares with how his personal meditation practice alongside his love of rock climbing, particular ice-climbing has really made an inherent difference to how he perceives and senses landscape and therefore influences how he designs and builds.

To find out more about Stephen and his practice visit his website or contact him directly:

Atelier Architecture & Design www.atelier-architects.co.uk

[email protected] 01442 828201, mobile 07970 701130

Atelier Architecture + Design Ltd: Company Page Admin | LinkedIn

Stephen Melvin | LinkedIn Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts. 

Did you know our podcast is also on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher, vurbl, podbay, podtail, and most if not all the RSS feeds?

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