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Biophilic Design Biophilic Design David Howell and Elizabeth Gearin December 5, 2019 Biophilia is the science-based understanding of the importance of nature for our health, our happiness, and even our economic and environmental sustainability. A rapidly increasing knowledge base and sophistication of research have begun to demonstrate that humans benefit from being in proximity to nature on a regular basis. This concept has become established in fields from medicine to psychology to child development—and it is now becoming a central principle in urban planning and design. Why is biophilia important for Arlington, and what does biophilic design involve? The Relevance of Biophilia The presence of nature in daily life is not a luxury; it is a necessity for well-being. Nature promotes physical and emotional health and also soothes and protects us from some of the negative impacts of modern urban life. The core benefits that come from everyday experience with nature stem from the genetic evolution of humans in nature, and the continued responses we have through our senses to the myriad stimuli of natural sights, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations. These translate into physical, mental, and emotional responses that help restore, refresh, ease anxiety, bring focus, and just make us feel good. The reality and recognition of that value carries over to everything from the workplace and schoolroom to property values, retail sales, community identity, energy conservation, and environmental stewardship. The mainstream prevalence of natural products and nature-infused advertising are examples of how we already implicitly recognize the value of nature in everyday experience. This value is increasingly being adopted by leading policymakers, investors, and service providers across the professional spectrum. A biophilic city is one that recognizes the importance of natural habitat and intentionally designates natural space and natural features as a priority in its planning and development. Similarly, a biophilic community is an urban population for which natural space is everyday space, and the opportunity to experience nature is both readily available and regularly practiced. Biophilic planning and design emphasize elements that enhance the innate human response those natural features will elicit, bringing ongoing benefit to individuals and the community. As such, biophilic planning and design provides a strategy and a mechanism for Arlington to remain a healthy, livable and sustainable community even as the county becomes more densely populated and faces other challenges in future decades. Biophilic Spaces and Biophilic Approach to Design What are some types and examples of biophilic spaces and features, and how can they be employed in urban planning, development design, and individual experience? At the core, the answer to this is that urban areas—and the built- environment in them—must be natureful; they must have nature integrated into their structure and arrangement. Most obvious and perhaps most important is that urban areas conserve and create adequate natural spaces for their residents and others who spend time there. This includes natural resource protection areas, natural habitats in public spaces, natural design and accessible nature for infrastructure projects such as transportation corridors and storm water management, and natural features in recreational parks. These all involve publicly owned and publicly used spaces, and are often relatively large tracts in relation to the many private urban parcels. As such, they provide a significant opportunity to benefit residents, and also to set an example of a jurisdiction’s local priorities. It is also possible that an urban area has substantial privately held spaces, or spaces owned by other levels or units of government, that are available to residents. The overall potential varies with the geographical and governmental characteristics of each jurisdiction. Few jurisdictions, however, have sufficient natural spaces to rely heavily on them to provide everyday biophilic experience for residents. So the built environment, both public and privately held, must also be natureful space, because it constitutes the majority of acreage in urban jurisdictions and it is where most people spend most of their daily lives. For the biophilic connection to be relevant to them, nature must be cultivated—organically and architecturally—in the developed urban habitat. The consulting firm Terrapin Bright Green, in its report “The Economics of Biophilia,” collates biophilic design into three general categories (Page 8): • Nature in Space: This category refers to the incorporation of nature into the built environment, to include plants, light, trees, animals, water, and both visual and audial access. Trees, indoor and outdoor gardens, potted plants, water features, and window placement and type are examples. 2 • Natural Analogues: This category refers to features that are nature-like in that they remind those who experience them of nature, while not necessarily being actual natural elements. Architectural features, décor, and furniture can be analogues when their design and the materials from which they are made evoke nature. Artwork, photos, building materials that are or that imitate bark, wood or other living things are analogues. Analogues convey the biophilic theme and ethos, although they are not as effective as genuine natural elements in bringing biophilic benefits. 3 • Nature of the Space: This category refers to the arrangement of space, and the placement and orientation of spaces, from the perspective of how it affects individuals who are engaged with that space. This category recalls the evolutionary experience of our earliest human ancestors and many of our more recent ancestors who had the opportunity to choose the location and placement of their habitat. As humans, we innately favor views of open spaces and spots that allow both perspective and protection. Elevated and protected locations on the borders or edges of more open spaces provide both a broad view and security. Research indicates that these conditions resonate strongly with humans today and are key considerations to the initial design concepts for both indoor and outdoor urban design. Together, these three categories and the availability of undeveloped natural spaces are the tools and the opportunities for creating a biophilic habitat in urban areas. 4 Designing Biophilically Biophilic spaces can exist and can be created nearly anywhere. The concept of biophilia is premised on the measurable impact and interaction of humans with natural elements. While immersion in large, outdoor natural parks is beneficial and desirable, so is experience in smaller biophilic spaces, places, and features—both indoor and outdoor—in the built environment. These are no less important to the value of the habitat in which most urbanites live. The size and type of natural features embedded in the built environment are relevant to those who encounter them. But their physical limitations are offset by the frequency and duration of inhabitant encounters that result precisely because of the density and activity in those developed areas. All biophilic spaces matter, even though they do not all matter in the same way or the same amount, especially when the alternative is urban habitat with no nature at all. How best to consider biophilic design in urban planning, development, and habitat and infrastructure restoration? New ideas are often introduced as add-on features after everything that is routine and familiar is already decided. That approach rarely demonstrates the full potential of a new concept, and for biophilic purposes, fails to fully realize access to nature (or biophilic access) because it minimizes the integration and impact of the concept into the overall project or plan. Biophilic planning and design, being a holistic approach to creating multi-value spaces, places, and structures, is most advantageously included in the initial planning and conceptualization stage. Adding consideration of biophilic objectives as an integral strategy element to our planning and policies process allows for a cascade of design choices that enhance the overall biophilic value as part of a project’s purpose. Specific decisions about characteristics, arrangements, and functional reQuirements can then flow from the concept as varieties of win–win options before committing significant resources to detailed design and analyses work. This “design-with-nature” approach can help promote better-integrated products and is a more cost-efficient approach to design decisions. Biophilic Design Characteristics: Examples of Natureful Spaces and Features The range of potential spaces and features that have biophilic characteristics and biophilic benefit for communities is vast. While being natureful is the core reQuirement, how that nature is created and experienced depends on the context, and can range from a replication of desirable features in different places to individually customized designs in response to unique opportunities. The following is a list of types and categories of spaces, places, and features that have been employed or can be employed in the Arlington setting to enhance the biophilic value of our county. These pertain to county priorities and guidelines and to county projects, as well as the development and business sector, adult and youth service organizations, and local schools. Becoming a biophilic community calls for a community-wide effort. 5 Policies and Priorities
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