From Architecture Design: Patterns of Biophilic Design

Happy to see architects debating the benefits of biophilic design!

From the Architecture Design website:

"American sustainability consulting and strategic planning firm Terrapin Bright Green has released a white paper that promises to guide building designers towards more environmentally connected outcomes...  The Terrapin document goes further than just abstract observations however, and offers 14 building design interventions that can be incorporated to facilitate this human connection to nature through built form."

The 14 interventions are:

Nature in the Space

1. Visual Connection to Nature
2. Non-Visual Connection to Nature
3. Non-Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli
4. Thermal & Airflow Variability
5. Presence of Water
6. Dynamic & Diffuse Light
7. Connection to Natural Systems

Natural Analogues

8. Biomorphic Forms & Patterns
9. Material Connection to Nature
10. Complexity & Order

Nature of the Space

11. Prospect
12. Refuge
13. Mystery
14. Risk/Peril

Read more here: Architecture Design.

Photos from Architecture Design

Propagation Project Exhibition (Windsor)

How brilliant is this?  I love the impact this has - seeing trees growing from discarded disposable drinking cups. From Broken City Labs.

TRIAGE: A PROPAGATION PROJECT BY PATRICIA COATES
Exhibition Runs September 16th – 26th 2013  (Windsor)

"Triage: A Propagation Project by Patricia Coates is an ecological intervention and a commitment to acquiring a personal knowledge of the land where she lives... During Triage, a search to acquire a personal knowledge of how the land, trees, soil, and the ecosystem as a whole function has revealed her own complicated relationship, in which good intentions and ‘saving nature’ are questioned." 

Also from the website: "The seedlings are grown from acorns gathered from Pin and Chinquapin Oaks, two Carolinian species indigenous to Essex County. The ‘pots’ were gleaned from city streets, rural roads, dumpsters and contributed to by family, friends and her own consumption. The trees will be planted on the restoration site and the Essex County landfill: enthalpy and entropy–growth and decay–playing out simultaneously." 

*Patricia Coates Image (from Broken City Lab website)