As many of us are aware, the benefits of bringing nature into your life include reduced stress and anxiety, creating clarity of mind and increased creativity. The hospitality industry needs nature to meet sustainability goals as well as bringing unique benefits to people in their venues, subsequently attracting additional customers. One of the main benefits of visiting hospitality spaces incorporating nature, include reduced stress and anxiety, and enhanced relaxation and enjoyment.
Nature.In aims to re-connect people to nature by bringing the outside indoors, with a focus on hospitality venues by creating events, experiences and designs that develop 1-1 personal connections to nature by evoking the senses and allowing individuals to experience the health benefits of interacting with nature. We are passionate about creating that gut reaction and instinctive connection to nature achieved from organic interaction with nature in the wild, offering a customer centric approach rather than commercial holistic design schemes. The ideologies in our work play off the concept of emotional design, in thinking that customers are far more likely to act in the interest of nature and participate in sustainable practise in their lives, if they develop some form of emotional and personal connection to nature. In essence if they connect to it, they will care for it.
Hospitality is the focus due to the popularity of the spaces, the rise in sustainably conscious venues and the lifting of Covid restrictions offering a unique opportunity to reattract customers to hospitality spaces in innovative and engaging ways. Additionally, there is a current lack of customer centric and easily appliable biophilic design for hospitality venues, that do not require full scale refurbishment of spaces. Subsequently, Nature.In aims to develop original and dynamic biophilic events, experiences, and designs to implement in hospitality venues. The connections formed with nature in hospitality settings are hoped will also lead to a heightened awareness of nature, so that people will make conscious efforts to lead more sustainably conscious lives.
How are we Connecting People to Nature?
We use a variety of methods to aid the mission of reconnecting people to nature within hospitality settings.
These include hosting a Herb event such as that at the Chelsea College of Arts, panel discussions with biophilic experts, and social media groups which raises awareness for venues showcasing nature within hospitality spaces.
The mission of Nature.In is split into two sectors: actions and outreach. Actions include the events and experiences ran in hospitality spaces to re-connect customers to nature and attract them into the spaces through experiencing the benefits of interacting with nature. Outreach involves spreading the word of what biophilia is, its importance and how to utilise it.
Actions
The first action event, hosted by Nature.In was a “Herb Event”, which took place at Chelsea College of Arts across 20th – 21st July 2021, where we had a variety of herbs for customers to come and pick to go with their food or to take home with them.
Upon arrival I asked customers to complete a series of 4 questions based upon the measure of Inclusion of Nature in Self to rate their connection to nature. This is a scale involving 7 Venn diagrams each representing different strengths of connection to nature. Customers were asked to select which diagram best represents their personal connection to nature.
Before participants left, I asked the 4 questions again to see f there had been any change in their connection to nature following their engagement in the event. I provided customers with herb cuttings of their choice to take home and a card explaining different ways to utilise the herbs, alongside a QR code to an online survey form for added feedback.
The results determined that there was a 2.5% increase in connection to nature from this event, although this could be increased if participants had longer to engage with the herbs.
A remarkable 85% of participants stated that they would actively visit a hospitality venue if it was offering a natural event or experience, suggesting a large market for this work.
Throughout the event many customers stated they felt disconnected from nature living in London, without access to a garden or immediate green space.
This demonstrates the potential impact of Nature.In’s goal to bring nature to the people in hospitality spaces, as many people lack but are ready to receive nature; especially in large cities like London.
Over the coming months more events are to be held at Chelsea College of Arts, building upon the success of the Herb Event. Future events aim to test the impact of different ways to re-connect with nature, such as targeting the senses through aspects of smell and sounds. Additionally, we’ll be looking at ways to utilise technology to aid connections to nature through developing immersive events and ways to harness augmented reality technology to bring items such as menus to life.
Outreach
Through the outreach portion of Nature.In work, we aim to connect people to nature through spreading the word of the benefits and possible uses of biophilic design, as well as making biophilia approachable by unpacking some of the academic intricacies.
One aspect we found throughout our exploration into biophilic design is that it is a concept largely unknown to the wider world. Instead, there is an ever-growing group of inspiring intellectuals and designers that are discovering and building upon the concept, which is brilliant and fascinating. However, when approaching hospitality customers or business owners and discussing the concept of biophilic design, you are doing well if you find one that is aware of what the concept entails. Therefore, we feel to truly re-connect people to nature through biophilic design, greater attention needs to be given to raising awareness as to what biophilia is and how people can incorporate it into their lives and businesses.
Our first online Biophilic Design panel discussion looked at different ways to approach re-connecting people to nature in a hospitality setting. Some insights as to how nature can be innovatively and dynamically incorporated into hospitality spaces to attract customers we discussed, including complex systems such as implementing a soft breeze to float through hotel spaces accompanied by bird song and natural lighting to act as a wakeup call. Or much simpler ideas involving rearranging, adding and subtracting plants or natural furnishing in a space to maintain the feeling of a dynamic, everchanging natural ecosystem.
Nature.In are hosting several natural events at Chelsea College of Arts including an immersive natural event in the canteen space on the 7th and 8TH October 2021 and an event in the café space involving different soundscapes and scents to accompany the food offering.
Some tips on How to incorporate Biophilic Design into Hospitality Spaces
Future ideas being explored for upcoming events by Nature.In include exploring the powers of targeting different senses and technobiophilia, which involves utilising technology to aid connecting people to nature. However, there are many small ways hospitality businesses can easily implement nature into their existing spaces.
Some simple ideas are listed below:
- Utilising herbs as table centre pieces
- Informing customers of where your produce comes from and your sustainability actions
- Incorporating colour schemes mimicking that of nature eg: blues and creams of the ocean, green hues of plants or orange, red and stone colours of the earth
- Taking advantage of natural light in your space
- Incorporating natural scents and soundscapes
I hope some of the ideas raised here have helped you to think about how you could interact with nature in any small way today, to help bring those natural benefits into your life and hopefully to continue those connections into the future.
Guest article by Nicole Parkes, Masters Student of Applied Imagination at Central Saint Martins, Founder of Nature.In - Re-connecting people to nature through hospitality venues by incorporating the principles of biophilic design – bringing nature to the people
Instagram - @nature.i.n and @nicole__parkes or click here for her YouTube
Email/Collaboration requests – nicoleparkes0@gmail.com (she is actively looking for more venues, so please get in touch directly with her if you can help).
Infographics created by Nicole Parkes.