air quality

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The Spine - Liverpool: How Biophilic Design was used to create the highest WELL Certified Building in the World…

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The Spine - Liverpool: How Biophilic Design was used to create the highest WELL Certified Building in the World…

How does a passion for biophilic design, which stems from a desire to improve an architect and designer’s own health, lead to the design of a major new healthcare building? For Steven Edge, founder of Salvage Sustainable Design, his personal interest in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) expanded into advocacy of Biophilic Design in buildings. We catch up with and discuss his recent project, commissioned by Manchester based architects AHR in 2017, where he acted as biophilic design consultant for their client the Royal College of Physicians’ new £35, million HQ in Liverpool.  The Spine opened in the Spring of 2021 and with 109 out of a possible 110 WELL Credits, the highest of any (over 26,000) WELL certified buildings in the world, its set to become one of the healthiest buildings in the world.

Steven is a biophilic design consultant, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, with over 40 years’ experience in academia and the design and construction industry. He shares his background, starting with work in architecture and interior design, and his growing interest in sustainability and healthy materials.

Talking about biophilic design principles used in The Spine, Steve describes how The Royal College of Physicians wanted to create a building that would make people feel healthier when they left it than when they entered; a brief that was fully met. Because it's a college as well as Office Spaces, they have young surgeons who would also be diagnosing real patients’ problems in this new building.

The design, led by architect Rob Hopkins, drew inspiration from the human body, with elements like the "skin" of the building and the "spine" staircase.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST... and read on...

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Skogluft – Forest Air. Reconnecting people to nature

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Skogluft – Forest Air. Reconnecting people to nature

We speak with Morten Kvam, CEO of Skogluft. Not only does it sound beautiful and uplifting, in Norwegian it means “Forest Air”. We talk about how plants are essential to have in the built environment and how the main founder of Skogluft Bjorn Virumdal was a mechanical engineer and realised that biological models were needed to explain the effects of nature indoors. NASA had conducted some research on how astronauts would be affected by the lack of nature. After speaking with them to explore their findings Bjorn then conducted further scientific research to prove how different plants and different light affected people in different working environments.

His research looked at three main aspects: the feeling of being awake, headaches and respiratory problems and he took readings before and after the intervention.

The results showed the positive effects of having nature indoors. Tiredness reduced by 40%, headaches reduced by 35% and concentration problems reduced by 16%. Morten tells us that they have over 7.2kg worth of evidence that nature indoors is good for us!

We also talk about the importance of light. The positive effect of light reflecting on nature. “We are programmed to stay in nature, we have always been surrounded by plants and light together,” Morten says. “It makes people react more positively when we see light reflected on plants.”

In his magic brush of biophilia, he says we should be looking to install nature everywhere, and “just like toilets are compulsory in buildings so should nature be compulsory indoors everywhere.” I think I’ll be sharing that last thought many many times. It’s straightforward and simple to grasp - nature should indeed be compulsory in every building.

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Pioneer Nature Method in Architecture

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Pioneer Nature Method in Architecture

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.

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"Living Machines" - The Case for Plants

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"Living Machines" - The Case for Plants

Carpets, glues, cigarette smoke, paints, plywood, emit gas, formaldehyde, benzene which are linked to cancer, anaemia, lung disease. These are in most workplaces and homes. We speak with Johanna Truestedt, based in Switzerland, she is Senior Consultant for Drees and Sommer on how we can improve air quality, making the working and living environment healthier by learning how the building lives.

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