biodiversity

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How our Brains respond to Biophilic Design

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How our Brains respond to Biophilic Design

In a world increasingly disconnected from nature, the principles of biophilic design offer a powerful antidote.

Chintamani Bird, an Australian designer committed to biophilic design, shared her insights on how Biophilic Design can heal both people and the planet. She emphasizes that biophilic design has a profound impact on the brain, reducing stress, improving cognitive function, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, and enhancing overall mood and well-being.

As the Journal of Biophilic Design expands to Australia in 2025, this is the first in a series of interviews with leading names in Biophilic Designers from that side of the globe and who champion the transformative potential of this design philosophy.

At the heart of Biophilic Design is the recognition that humans have an innate need to connect with the natural world. "Biophilic design has the opportunity to heal and heal through biodiversity, heal the soil, heal the environment, heal communities," Chintamani emphasized.

Listen and Read on...

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Biophilic Design healing our earth - interview with Jojo Mehta co-founder of Stop Ecocide International

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Biophilic Design healing our earth - interview with Jojo Mehta co-founder of Stop Ecocide International

"I love this term biophilia, because it's this, in a sense, it's a love of nature in a word, isn't it? And I had this beautiful description recently of what it actually means to love something or to love someone. In very plain terms, it means to include that person or that thing's interests as one's own." Jojo Mehta, Co-founder, Stop Ecocide International.

 

For me Biophilic Design has the potential to heal more than just physical and mental health of people, it has the potential to help heal our earth too. If we implemented Biophilic Design in cities for instance, we can help mitigate climate change, even just by planting more trees which is a Biophilic Design solution, we increase tree canopy cover, increase biodiversity, mitigate flooding. There are many more, from creating Blue cities with cleaner rivers and waterways to planting on roofs and sides of buildings helping reduce the need to switch on air conditioning units in the summer and heating in the winter, which in turn reduces energy consumption. Also, as interior designers we specify more natural materials, reducing plastic, are more considerate of what textiles are made of and originate from.

With our global temperature reaching a danger point, we need to do all we can as designers, architects, fit out managers and anyone who works in the built environment at any point.

Today we have got the amazing Jojo Mehta with us on the podcast. Jojo is CEO and co-founder of Stop Ecocide International (SEI), the hub of the global movement to create a new international crime of ecocide to protect the Earth from the worst acts of environmental damage, a movement that is gaining significant political traction.  She co-founded SEI with the visionary lawyer, Polly Higgins, who died in 2019, having devoted the final decade of her life to the cause.

 

We explore and put into context just WHY we need to do more as designers, seize every opportunity we can to create better environments, not just for people, but for planet too and also how Biophilic Design is an essential part of the solution.....

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Natural Dimensions - Transforming Schools with Biophilic Design

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Natural Dimensions - Transforming Schools with Biophilic Design

There is strong evidence that strong green environments can improve educational outcomes as well as improving focus and concentration restoration levels, and for Nicholas Artherton, a chartered Landscape Architect and qualified Urban designer, Biophilic Design is a core tenet to create connections with natural elements and outdoor spaces through diversity, movement and multi-sensory interactions. 

Nick is founder of Natural Dimensions, a multi-award-winning landscape architecture and urban design practice. For Nick, Biophilic Design is: “a way of incorporating into design a balance of ecological planning and planning for mental well-being and responding to systems which encourage human health.”

One of Nick’s most celebrated designs was for Merstham Park School where, Natural Dimensions were appointed to design extensive ground around a ground-breaking new pathfinder secondary school that is a template for low carbon technology and biophilic landscape principles.

From the entrance to the school and throughout the grounds, Natural Dimensions created a beautiful space with varied spaces incorporating many different habitats, spaces and an overall feeling of the school sitting within nature.

With a rich variety of planting, and so much thought gone into choosing a mix of species that change throughout the seasons, the school is nestled in a beautiful “hug” of colour, shapes and biodiversity. But not only is the landscape beautiful, with the deciduous trees, it maximises solar heating in winter and solar cooling in summer. Nick has also optimised the use and preservation of rainwater through some clever tech under the permeable pathways and planting areas which is then used for irrigation and recycling… READ ON and LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

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Creating Eden

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Creating Eden

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries and this fact is yet another reason we need more Biophilic Design included into urban planning, architecture, design, and every environmental facet of city and town life.

Robert Delius, Associate Director, Architect and Head of Sustainability at Stride Treglown is doing just that. Aiming to maximise biodiversity through design, Robert has a passion to create an Eden, where buildings and landscapes come together and there's a feeling of abundance, where there's nature and birdsong and insect life and a powerful sense of well-being.

 

Robert’s background in housing design and master planning has set him up in good stead to create good design and great places.  Distinctiveness and place making are a thread through his career.  He also has a particular interest in regenerative design and how great design can have a measurably positive impact on climate, ecology and people.  In short, he is a brilliantly creative proactive advocate for Biophilic Design.

 

He believes that forging a closer connection to the natural world, is extremely good for our well-being as well as being good for the planet and good for nature, and his passion for Biophilic Design is life-long. One of the projects he discusses is his Great Bow Yard project in Somerset from 2008. This had gained media attention because it had been flagged as the most energy efficient scheme in the UK.  Having recently revisited the project, Robert notes that residents, are not only pleased with the low energy costs, but were actually most enthused by the shared garden and the feelings of well-being that stem from it being a beautiful spot.

 

In this podcast, Robert talks of his background and upbringing and how that has led him to his passion for living in harmony with nature.  He discusses how on his projects, and those of his colleagues, he always looks to introduce as many opportunities as possible for planting in designs, both internally and externally to reduce hard space and introduce a softer more natural element…. READ ON and LISTEN to the PODCAST

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Right Light, Right Place, Right Time

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Right Light, Right Place, Right Time

Steve Tonkin is the Dark Sky Advisor to Cranborne Chase National Landscape, in Wiltshire. Cranborne Chase is a designate Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that, since 2019, has been recognised as an International Dark Sky Reserve.

Steve can pinpoint 4 October 1957 as the first became aware of dark skies. His family were, at the time, living 8 miles outside Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and his father took him outside to see if they could see Sputnik which had been launched the previous day. It was his first time looking up at a pristine dark sky and it triggered a life-long passion for astronomy which has made him aware of the effects of light pollution, and he has been raising the issue with anyone who will listen for the last 30 years.

After a first career as a telecommunications engineer, he did a BSc in Human Environmental Studies, then postgraduate work in technology policy, before training as a teacher. He taught physics, maths and astronomy in a variety of settings for 35 years, before retiring from teaching to concentrate on astronomy outreach activities. He has written several books on practical astronomy, has a monthly column in BBC Sky at Night Magazine, and is a regular speaker on astronomical topics.

Starting with a programme he made for BBC Radio Bristol in the 1980s, Steve has long been an advocate of reducing light pollution. He supported the Cranborne Chase’s International Dark Sky Reserve bid as a volunteer, taking sky quality readings and supporting the stargazing evenings by giving talks and showing people the night sky. His primary task as Dark Skies Advisor is to continue and consolidate the good work that has already been done and strengthen the Cranborne Chase’s standing as an International Dark Sky Reserve.

Light pollution is a global issue. The pollution itself is known to affect human health and wildlife behaviour and that is before considering the wasted energy involved in sending light upwards instead of downwards to where it is required. To take a Biophilic approach to the design of lighting is to reduce light pollution with direct and indirect benefits to nature… READ ON and LISTEN to the PODCAST…

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A task force for nature – where sustainability matters

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A task force for nature – where sustainability matters

Morgan Taylor leads the biodiversity side of Greengage, a multidisciplinary environmental consultancy who cover everything from energy and carbon assessments, sustainability, health, wellbeing, socio-economic assessment, and EIA management as well as the whole gamut of biodiversity assessment through to planning.

As designers, architects, or planners, we all need to be mindful of the impact our ideas, advice and decisions have on the world around us. We recorded this interview in the summer last year* Their work is focused outside of the legislative and planning policy sphere in the world of natural capital and ecosystem service value assessment. So rather than working with developers where they are only brought in because there is a potential impact on biodiversity in the first place, they're working with a lot of people with regards to asset management, land management, informing how financial capital is put towards recovery of natural capital across managed assets.

 We’ve got hundreds, maybe thousands of years of degradation and we need to take measures and understanding to address the impacts of our actions, and account for the significant loss of biodiversity particularly since the Industrial Revolution.

Morgan outlines all the different levels of legislation and planning policy that impact biodiversity in the built environment. He highlights three aspects of legislation and regulation that particularly drive positive change...

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Building with Nature

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Building with Nature

Are you an agent for change? What is the barrier to designing better? Sometimes it is the apparent complexity of legislation governing ecology, planning and design that prevents people from discovering the best way of doing something. Fortunately, there is a simple award scheme that helps developers, builders, planners and designers navigate the myriad of paperwork and advisory bodies.

We speak with Dr Gemma Jerome, Director of Building with Nature, which helps define what good looks like in terms of green infrastructure (the way planners talk about nature). What I particularly love about Building with Nature is that it also helps give nature a seat around the table, especially at the beginning of the planning process and helps nature become a specification driver in planning and development. Building with Nature has an open-source Standards Framework, a one-stop-shop for all sectorial knowledge and expertise including Nature recovery, Sustainable water management through nature-based solutions, wellbeing, access and inclusivity to open and green spaces.

We talk about how planners and designers can use the Building with Nature Award Scheme as an external verification to tell the story of what they’ve done, to share learning, and to reassure key stakeholders who want better outcomes for people and wildlife. For instance, if you need to reassure communities that the developer has thought about all these things, or the local authority needs external verification, or investors need assurance. The Award Scheme is measurable and so offers this metric-based assurance to help you demonstrate to stakeholders you are planning and designing with the goal of reaching net zero, supporting nature recovery, as well as supporting people’s health and wellbeing 

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Making a Difference, One Roof at a Time

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Making a Difference, One Roof at a Time

Did you know that London is an average of 10 degrees warmer than other cities in the UK? Imagine if we had green roofs on every building in the city, the temperature of our city would reduce and lessen our impact on our fragile planet. Sedum absorbs the heat, it doesn’t bounce the heat back into the atmosphere. The plants are also air purifying, afford insulation, they help mitigate flood risk, encourage biodiversity, reduce air pollution and the urban heat island effect and also prolong the lifespan of the roof covering. One amazing fact I learnt today, was that they also increase the efficiency of solar panels, with a 5% gain as they stop the UV rays hitting and damaging the roof. Liv Eyres from Sedum Green Roof who will also be at Planted Country 9-11 June 2023 at Stourhead in Wiltshire, shares with us why they make for good habitats for biodiversity and so much more. Liv Eyres from Sedum Green Roof who will also be at Planted Country 9-11 June 2023 at Stourhead in Wiltshire, shares with us why they make for good habitats for biodiversity and so much more.  

A sedum roof is essentially an additional layer on top of a finished waterproof roof. Little plants nestle in a tray, sitting in healthy (peat-free!) soil, on top of filter fleece and a drainage layer.

Read on, listen to the podcast and watch the DEMONSTRATION video too…

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Designing Climate Change Resilience

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Designing Climate Change Resilience

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. 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 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.

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.

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My Green Pod - How to have a Biophilic Lifestyle

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My Green Pod - How to have a Biophilic Lifestyle

The journey of My Green Pod founder, Jarvis Smith, is a fascinating one, and one that is inspiring to fellow environmentalists. We chat to Jarvis about his Shamanic training, his epiphany on the set of an observational documentary on a rubbish tip and how we can each make conscious decisions that will help this beautiful planet we are living on.

We also look at his office which was designed by Biophilic Design expert, Oliver Heath, and explore some of the features, from the living wall to the paint colours and materials used, and importantly what it feels like to work there.

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Biophilic Cities - how Architectural Technologists can use Biophilic Design to support people and planet

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Biophilic Cities - how Architectural Technologists can use Biophilic Design to support people and planet

Did you know an Oak tree is home to over 3000 different life forms? We all have a choice how we can design. How can we make things better? How can architects and town planners design differently? When we are faced with a “blank canvas” how can we create a building and environment that will benefit the people, views, wildlife and our planet? It’s all possible.

I interview Robert Bedner of Cura Design who shares with us his fascinating journey working with Renzo Piano, and Theo Fenn. Robert calls for architecture and design to enhance and protect nature, the more we are connected to nature, the better it will be for our wellbeing, health, spirits. It is what life is all about to begin with.

It is important for cities to design biophilically - it is future of urban design. We need to bring nature back into the urban environment. It is good for biodiversity, it is healthy for people.

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Complex Patterns, Biodiversity & Nature Views

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Complex Patterns, Biodiversity & Nature Views

Environmental Psychology is the study of the relationship between people and their physical environment. They look at how psychological processes (emotions, behaviours and cognitions) are place-related and place-dependent. In other words, they look at how environments influence people -- as well as on how people influence the environment. We speak to Melissa Marselle, academic, writer and environmental psychologist about patterns in nature and how creating a biodiverse environment has positive impact not just on the natural world but also us as human beings and our cognitive and physical health. We also speak about Goldilocks...

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