• Wellness is trending across hospitality, with increased efforts to make common areas both more relaxing and inviting.
• More hotels are also incorporating clubs and social activities to improve guests’ stays.
• Wellness in the bathroom is another priority in hospitality, with more amenities to enhance the self-care experience.

Health and wellness have become increasingly important in recent years, shaping our personal lives and how we travel and experience hospitality. As a result hotels and resorts are constantly evolving to meet the growing demand for health-conscious amenities.

The question is: What is wellness, and why is it trending in hospitality?

Wellness in hospitality refers to integrating health and wellness concepts into the guest experience at hotels, resorts, and other accommodation establishments. It involves providing amenities, services, and programs that promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being for guests during their stay.

We recently attended The Lodging Conference in Phoenix. As one of the leading hotel industry events in the world this event brings together the hotel industry’s most influential owners, operators, presidents, CEOs, investors, and dealmakers to strategize development, finance, franchising, management, construction, design, and operations.

During the conference we noticed a few exhibitors displaying a variety of elements that would enhance a person’s wellness while staying in a hotel. Some were innovative in their use of technology; others were thoughtful about utilizing space that would best suit their hospitality guests. In addition to presenting what we learned at the conference, this article will explore overall health and wellness upgrade trends in hospitality.

1. Common Areas & Wellness Spaces

Photo courtesy of Oatey

Common areas in hotels play a crucial role in enhancing the guest experience. These spaces foster relaxation, socialization, and overall enjoyment during a stay. By incorporating wellness elements into common areas, hotels can create an environment that promotes their guests’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Running or book clubs where guests can share these interests or hobbies are other ways hotels are working to promote guests’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

For book club enthusiasts, a common area in a hotel specifically designed for their needs can greatly enhance their experience. This designated space could feature cozy and comfortable seating arrangements with plush armchairs and reading nooks. Ample natural and soft ambient lighting options can create a warm and inviting atmosphere for reading and discussions.

Additionally, providing a quiet and peaceful environment away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the hotel creates an ideal setting for members to gather and engage in meaningful conversations about their shared passion for reading.

Fostering social interaction in common areas has become more crucial for hotels. By strategically designing and utilizing common areas, hotels can create spaces that support and enhance the wellness of their guests.

2. Wellness in the Bathroom

Photo courtesy of Oatey

Wellness in the bathroom has become a priority in the hospitality industry, with various features and amenities being introduced to enhance the self-care experience for guests. Linear drains are one notable upgrade.

Part of luxurious “wet-room” spa baths, linear drains are used in curbless showers and are popular for how they marry style and functionality. A curbless shower means cleaner lines in the bathroom, less visual clutter, and added accessibility—all features that enhance well-being.

QuickDrain linear drains offer a sleek and modern design that improves the aesthetics of showers and wet areas and provides efficient water drainage. Linear drain cover designs continue to evolve, whereas previously a shower drain might be seen as an oversight. Now designs are available to match the stylistic direction of the overall bathroom, complementing different motifs and aesthetics.

These bathroom features reflect the growing demand for self-care amenities that aid in managing stress and promoting rejuvenation. Additional inspirations like steam showers, extra-deep soaking tubs, water filtration systems, and voice-activated smart features further enhance the wellness experience, allowing guests to create a personalized oasis within their own bathrooms.

3. Lighting Options

Lighting plays a significant role in creating a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere in hotel rooms and can contribute to guests’ overall wellness. Hotels can consider incorporating the following lighting options to enhance both hospitality and wellness.

Natural Light. Maximizing natural light is essential for promoting well-being. Hotels can design rooms with large windows and curtains or blinds that allow guests to control the amount of natural light entering the space. Natural light has been shown to improve mood, boost productivity, and regulate sleep patterns.

Adjustable Lighting. Providing guests with adjustable lighting options allows them to customize the ambiance of their rooms. This can be achieved through dimmable overhead lights, bedside lamps with various brightness settings, and task lighting for reading or workspaces. Control over lighting levels allows guests to create their desired atmosphere and promote relaxation or productivity.

Warm and Cool Lighting. Different light color temperatures can affect mood and well-being. Warm lighting in the 2700K to 3000K range creates a cozy and relaxing ambiance, ideal for winding down in the evening. Cool lighting in the 4000K to 5000K range mimics natural daylight and can help guests feel more alert and energized during the day.

By incorporating these lighting options hotels can create a guest-room environment that enhances hospitality and wellness. Providing an optimal balance of natural and adjustable lighting and options for warm and cool lighting contributes to hotel guests’ overall well-being and comfort.

4. Touch-Free Technology

In light of global health issues and the increased focus on health and hygiene, touch-free technology has become essential in the hospitality industry to enhance wellness. This technology offers guests a safer and more hygienic experience, minimizing physical contact and reducing the risk of germs and infections. Hotels can implement touch-free solutions in areas like the check-in and check-out processes, room access, elevators, and bathrooms.

Touch-free faucets are revolutionizing the hospitality industry, especially regarding wellness and hygiene. These innovative fixtures provide a hands-free experience, allowing guests to access water without touching surfaces. This eliminates the risk of cross-contamination and the spread of germs, which is especially crucial in high-traffic areas like hotels and wellness facilities. By minimizing contact touch-free faucets promote a healthier and more sanitary environment, reducing the chances of illnesses and improving overall wellness.

Guests can enjoy a heightened sense of security knowing they can wash their hands or fill up water bottles without worrying about coming into contact with harmful pathogens. Furthermore, touch-free faucets contribute to a luxury experience, as they are often associated with modernity and sophistication in the hospitality industry. With these innovative fixtures wellness and hospitality establishments can prioritize the well-being and comfort of their guests, providing peace of mind and an enhanced sense of self-care.

5. Guest Room Enhancements

Photo courtesy of Oatey

To increase wellness in hospitality guest room enhancements play a crucial role in creating a comforting and rejuvenating environment for guests. Incorporating elements like aromatherapy diffusers and sprays, soothing lighting, and calming color schemes can significantly contribute to the overall wellness experience. Including ergonomic furniture, supportive bedding with hypoallergenic materials, and noise-canceling features can further enhance guest comfort.

In addition, integrating advanced air purification systems and incorporating natural elements like indoor plants can improve air quality and create a serene atmosphere.

Access to wellness resources like on-demand fitness classes, meditation apps, and healthy food options can also contribute to a comprehensive wellness experience. By investing in these guest room enhancements hospitality establishments can prioritize their guests’ well-being, leaving a lasting positive impression and garnering loyalty.

Overall wellness in hospitality aims to provide guests with opportunities and resources to prioritize their well-being while traveling. By offering a wide range of health and wellness options, hotels and resorts can cater to the needs and preferences of health-conscious travelers and provide a truly transformative and rejuvenating stay experience.

The post 5 Health and Wellness Upgrade Trends in Hospitality appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• The New York School of Interior Design (NYSID)’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments program is focused on design for deconstruction and more.
• Interior design and architecture professionals from all over the world enroll in the NYSID program in-person and remotely to gain more knowledge in the field of sustainability.

David Bergman has always been interested in the environment—all the way back to when he ran his high school’s ecology club. “We called it ecology back then,” he laughs. “We did paper recycling drives, stuff like that.”

The founder of David Bergman Eco and author of Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide, Bergman is an “eco optimist” who founded the blog EcoOptimism—dedicated to the belief that positive, often symbiotic, solutions exist to our environmental and economic issues.

Today Bergman is the director of sustainability at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID), where he oversees much of the programming, including teaching for NYSID’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments (MPSS) program. Professional students from all over the world study at NYSID—some in person, some remotely. The program is one of the leading educational programs in the industry when it comes to integrating design with sustainability.

We recently talked to Bergman—who’s also on the executive board of the NYC 2030 District and the Designers Lighting Forum of New York—about how he’s seen the industry change over the years. He shared some of his experience and insight about today’s demands and how NYSID is preparing the next generation of design professionals to provide more sustainable interiors.

What does sustainable interior design mean to you?

Let’s start by asking what it is we’re trying to sustain in sustainable design. I dislike when people say they’re trying to save the planet, because it’s a cliche, and really the planet will do just fine—maybe better—without us. What we’re really trying to do is to sustain a planet that we can survive on, or better yet, where we can flourish.

Then when we ask what sustainable interior design means, we can approach this even more selfishly, which, by the way, I don’t think is a problem because that’s often what appeals to people. It’s not just the universal or local ecosystem we’re concerned about; it’s also the number of indoor mini ecosystems we spend most of our lives in. Essentially what we’re doing is adding concerns about human health to planetary health.

How is the practice of sustainable interior design changing?

We’ve known for a long time that buildings are responsible for 40% of global energy consumption through their lifetimes. What wasn’t widely acknowledged until more recently is that the interiors of our buildings are responsible for a much larger chunk of that than was thought. That has to do with the relatively short life of many interiors versus the longer life of buildings—especially in areas like the hospitality industry, where an interior might get replaced every seven or 10 years. That’s a lot of material churn, a lot of embodied energy, and a lot of landfills.

We’ve gotten a reasonable start on improving energy efficiency of the operations of buildings, which means we now have to shift our attention to the materials, specifically interior materials, and bring those into scrutiny. We need to start thinking in terms of their embodied energy and in terms of the circular economy.

How do you address that high turnover rate in interior design?

That statistic came around a couple of years ago, and we’ve taken it very much to heart. I don’t think any of us really had numbers in front of us that showed the dramatic difference in the longevity of a building of 50 to 100 years versus an interior. You can’t point to very many interiors, except perhaps in landmark ones, that last that long. Look how frequently restaurants change over and how big the dumpsters are going out.

How can that be addressed in current training?

Student work from NYSID’s MPSS program. Rendering courtesy of NYSID

One of the big tools we’re starting to use is something called design for deconstruction; we’re designing for disassembly. The materials are put in knowing they may not stay there that long. How do we take that into account? How do we make that not a total loss? At the same time, by designing with that near future in mind, it may save the client money.

What are NYSID students looking for?

The students who are in the program already have professional degrees in interior design or architecture. Some of them have been working for a while. They’re looking now to focus on sustainability—to add that to their toolkit and be able to apply it in their work. Hopefully the degree opens doors for them.

I tell students as they’re finishing the program that maybe they’ll go into a firm that is already practicing a fair amount of sustainable design and they’ll become an asset to the team. Or maybe they’ll go into a firm that isn’t really there yet, and they can push the firm along.

What is the MPSS program providing the industry?

This work comes from NYSID students Grace Spiezia and Samantha Berlanga. Rendering courtesy of NYSID

It’s literally filling a void. I haven’t heard of any other degree programs where the sole focus is on sustainable interior environments. You’ll find a course or two in sustainability in most any architecture and interiors program, but this is designed for people who already have those earlier degrees. We do nothing but sustainable interiors.

And it’s in-person and remote?

Yes. That’s a big draw for the program. A student can participate from the classrooms here or from anywhere else in the world with a laptop simultaneously. They get exactly the same education. And that was not a Covid development; we’ve always offered this.

What are architects and designers demanding in projects these days?

Almost any design team now is looking to incorporate sustainability at some level into their projects, whether it’s because a client wants them to or because the team brings it into the picture. It’s almost a given that there’ll be some level of sustainability in any project. I think that’s very significant because it’s not only the designers promoting it; it’s the market demanding it.

With more focus on sustainability, are you seeing more sustainability-focused roles?

There are some firms that do have exactly that title—director of sustainability. It’s a specialty. For those of us in the earlier generations of this, we had to figure things out on our own. The people who are now becoming directors of sustainability or starting with a degree like this are still going to have to figure out a lot on their own, but they’ve got a big head start. There’s a lot more knowledge out there and a lot more technical expertise than there was, say, 30 years ago. That leads itself to be more easily embedded in an office.

How has that conversation changed since you were in school?

When I got out of college and grad school it was after the oil embargo. Energy prices got low and cheap again, and people suddenly didn’t care so much about sustainability, though we didn’t call it sustainability then. The firms I was working in didn’t do much about it.

In the early ’90s I started seeing really cool materials that were sustainable in varying degrees, things like wheat board that I would enjoy putting in my projects. I saw this possibility of merging good design with sustainable design that really hadn’t been that possible before. For instance, I had a secondary related company where I designed and produced light fixtures. I did that because I found these cool materials we could make fixtures out of and because compact fluorescent lighting hadn’t become any better at that point. This was long before LEDs. I saw a way to do energy-efficient lighting that looked cool. That was my stepping stone in the early mid-’90s into sustainability.

What do today’s sustainable projects look like?

Biophilic design and natural light are among the sustainable interior design elements seen in students’ work. Rendering courtesy of NYSID

The field of sustainable interior design is maturing. This is something I’ve been saying about the program and the field for a couple of years now. Not long ago a sustainable design might have meant energy efficiency or avoiding paints with VOCs. It’s now much more developed, especially in material health and how materials affect us. It’s so critical because we spend 90% of our lives indoors. All those chemicals are around us. It’s become even more critical in energy-efficient buildings because, ironically, they’re more airtight, so the cocktail of toxic chemicals in interior furnishings and materials stays inside unless the space gets mechanically ventilated. It’s great that our buildings are more insulated. It’s wonderful for energy consumption. But it’s created a secondary problem in the process.

The other thing is that now we’re getting this flood of information and data. It’s hard to understand what it means and how to apply it. When, as a designer, you’re presented with an LCA or EPD, you have to know how to interpret it, how to make comparative judgments, and how to arrive at your own decisions. That’s a big thing I emphasize in the materials course at NYSID. I tell students they have to understand what all the information is because then they’re going to make their own decisions.

How is sustainable design changing commercial projects?

If we’re talking about offices, mostly that brings in a whole additional aspect of employee productivity and efficiency. We’ve found things like daylighting and whether you have local control over the air temperature around your workstation, whether you have a good view of nature, those things can have a tremendous impact on sick days, productivity, and even employee happiness. That becomes a big value proposition to clients.

If a company has poor productivity or high turnover and they have to retrain new people, that’s a huge expense. Investing in sustainable design has a great ROI.

What do NYSID MPSS students learn?

We tackle sustainable design throughout all our BFA and MFA programs, but we really drill down into it in the MPSS because it’s the focus of our courses. We look at both the impacts and tools at our disposal in materials and lighting, mechanical systems, hard and soft goods, and the design, construction, and operation process.

Once we’ve gone through and investigated all of these we ask what’s next. We’re looking at not just what sustainable design is and how we do it, but what we need to be doing moving forward. It’s our hope that the graduates from the MPSS will become the next leaders in the field. We’re seeing that now.

Back to that idea of sustainable design allowing us to flourish—I like talking about that because people sometimes talk about sustainable design as this compromise or things we have to give up. It’s exactly the opposite in most situations. When we practice sustainable design, when we live in sustainably designed places, we live better and we can flourish as people.

When we live in sustainably designed places, we live better and we can flourish as people.

What’s changing now is that we have to simultaneously understand both the big picture and the small picture. It’s not just about specifying low-VOC paints and non-PVC flooring. We now need to be experts in so much more.

We used to practice sustainable design by a gut feeling or, in aviation lingo, flying by the seat of our pants. Now we have modern tools—something more akin to a digital cockpit, but we don’t have autopilot yet. This may be where AI comes in and helps, but who knows at this point?

How are students changing?

I’ve been teaching sustainable design at NYSID and other places for a while. One of the things I’ve noticed is the students coming into these programs—whether it’s a sustainability program or just a design program—know a lot more about sustainability now than they did 10 or 20 years ago.

I teach not just in the MPSS program but sometimes I teach first-year students, and I don’t really have to explain anymore what the greenhouse effect is. They know what fossil fuels are. They see what is happening; they’ve seen it in the news, and maybe they’ve experienced it. So we can start at a higher level.

The post Exploring the Evolution of Sustainable Interior Design at NYSID appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• The Global Cement and Concrete Association includes members who are producers of Portland cement.
• The group and its members are aiming to deliver net zero concrete by 2050.
• Governments around the world are being asked to help stimulate demand for low carbon concrete.

For at least two millennia the world has built with concrete. The Romans developed their own version, and it was probably used even further back in time.

Today modern concrete is the second most used substance after water. It is a highly versatile material, offering the potential for beautiful design as well as durability and strength. It is also vital for key infrastructure enabling modern life around the globe. It gives us bridges, tunnels, roads, housing, dams, clean water, clean energy networks, and much more. But we know there is a major carbon challenge to address; because it is so widely used, cement and concrete also currently account for around 7% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

What is the Net Zero Concrete Goal?

The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and its member companies are collectively working to reduce concrete’s emissions, making it greener, especially given the material’s importance in our lives. Two years ago the GCCA and its members launched the 2050 Net Zero Roadmap, with a commitment to achieving net zero concrete by the mid-21st century. By doing so we became the first global heavy industry to set out a clear decarbonization pathway, to help limit global warming to 1.5oC.

Our independently verified data shows progress is being made—a 23% reduction in the CO2 intensity of cement-based products since the data was first recorded in 1990. That is encouraging progress for an essential industry, but through our roadmap the GCCA and its members are committed to achieving much more. Our sector is now aiming to accelerate progress and achieve in the next decade what we achieved in the last three decades in terms of CO2 reductions, on our way to delivering net zero concrete by 2050.

The GCCA Roadmap targets CO2 reductions through greater efficiencies in cement, clinker, and concrete production, the rollout of renewable energy, the expansion of CCUS, better building design and construction, and maximizing the natural carbon absorbing benefits of concrete in the built environment.

The Evolution of Progress

Concrete project in Dubai. Photo courtesy of the Global Cement and Concrete Association

What was pioneering work even a few years ago is now accelerating across our industry; consider the search and development of alternative materials and processes for making clinker (the binder in cement, the adoption of renewable energy, and the move toward commercial development and deployment of carbon capture.

The GCCA is proud of its joint work with our members driving innovation, including with researchers and academics involved in the Innovandi Global Cement and Concrete Network (GCCRN) as well as with startups from across the world through our pioneering Innovandi Open Challenge. This program is now in its second year, and 15 startups have recently been shortlisted to help in the search for new materials and processes for making low carbon concrete. The first challenge launched in 2021 and primarily focused on carbon capture and utilization; it has already seen two projects go to pilot stage.

Work Being Done Today

Meanwhile the decarbonization efforts of all our members continues to gather pace with some groundbreaking work.

For example, Cemex has been working with Switzerland-based Synhelion to produce clinker using solar energy. Votorantim Cimentos in Brazil is using discarded pits from the native acai fruit to turn into biomass as an energy source. And Heidelberg Materials is building the world’s first large-scale carbon capture plant at its site in Brevik, Norway. It aims to start capturing emissions from production by the end of next year with the capacity to absorb about 400,000 tons a year, when fully operational. The GCCA Roadmap anticipates 10 carbon capture plants being operational at commercial scale by 2030.

What’s Next

The rollout of CCUS is expected to provide 36% of the CO2 reductions our industry is committed to achieving by the mid-21st century. Industries like ours will need the support of governments around the world and the right policies to drive such technology forward.

Through our Net Zero Roadmap the GCCA is working with national cement and concrete industries, policymakers, designers, and the construction sector to overcome procurement and resourcing challenges as well as advance the business case for greener technologies. We need governments around the world to help stimulate demand for low carbon concrete, reward innovation, and provide the right frameworks to accelerate our industry’s transition to net zero.

Why It Matters

Sharp House was designed to be as economical as possible in construction, with exposed cast-in-place concrete and large glass exposures to the north and south to allow for solar gain and cross ventilation. Photo courtesy of Marc Thorpe Design

Adequate housing is fundamental to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Three-quarters of the infrastructure that the world needs by 2050 has yet to be built. And concrete will play an essential role in creating the homes and infrastructure of the future.

Concrete’s remarkable properties make it resilient to damage from heat, wind, fire, and floods. But designers and architects will need to use it more efficiently in the future, to reduce embodied carbon in new structures. Voids in non-load bearing areas and arches, which were popular in mass post war reconstruction all use less concrete. Less could well become more.

The GCCA and its member companies, who operate in nearly every country in the world, are delivering a pioneering decarbonization program as well as playing an increasing role on the world stage. In fall 2023 GCCA will be attending New York Climate Week, taking part in the UN Secretary General Climate Ambition Summit, and will have official observer status and a major pavilion at COP28 in Dubai.

The road to net zero concrete will not be completed overnight. It is about our members taking everyday steps to achieve the goal. But by doing so, and through industry and governments working together, we are confident we will complete the journey.

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• A study from HGA and the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership examines the need for climate adaptive design solutions.
• Changes in climate that have already occurred and are projected to occur must be accounted for when designing for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Architects and engineers are well-positioned to use climate projection data to inform design and provide clients with climate adaptive solutions. Yet there remains a concerning lag in industry-wide adoption of these forward-looking metrics. A joint study from HGA and the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership takes a closer look at this disconnect.

Typically design professionals rely on historical weather data as a primary resource for performance analysis and design. This data, sometimes more than three decades old, is based on past median weather conditions and has traditionally been considered sufficient for establishing “climate normals” and is reinforced by existing standards, laws, and conventions. However, our changing climate renders these characterizations much less useful—poorly reflecting the range, frequency, and intensity of potential future weather conditions a building will need to withstand during its lifespan. Put simply—changes in climate that have already occurred and are projected to occur must be accounted for when designing for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

To better understand how building professionals are (or aren’t) addressing this tension between the lack of codified climate projection data and the obligation to design a built environment prepared for climate risk, HGA and the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership (MCAP) conducted a study focused on the current practice, barriers, and opportunities related to the use of climate projection data—and the state of current climate change and resiliency services by architects and engineers in the US.

This mixed-method study was conducted between April and November 2022 and involved a tiered approach including a literature review, an online survey, and focus groups.

Key Findings

HGA and the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership conducted a study focused on the current practice, barriers, and opportunities related to the use of climate projection data. Photo courtesy of HGA

The resulting report details four key findings that demonstrate a gap between the current state of our industry and climate science and articulates a key role for boundary organizations and climate data developers for building partnerships and capacities to bridge this gap alongside architecture and engineering professionals.

Image courtesy of HGA

1. Sustainable design services are primarily focused on climate change mitigation (reducing carbon emissions) and do not often include designing for climate change resilience (design measures that factor in the projected climate over the lifespan of the building and systems).

2. While industry professionals are aware of and interested in using climate projection data in their work, few firms are regularly using projections to inform design decisions.

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3. Industry professionals identify a number of barriers to using climate projection data—including a lack of client requests; a lack of standards and codes; resolution needs; format, content, and cost; trust of the data; and a need for internal expertise to use the data.

4. There is a strong need for the development and promotion of industry standards, mandates (including building codes), guidance and training for using climate projections in architecture and engineering applications.

HGA designed the Westwood Hills Nature Centerto be zero energy. Photo by Pete Sieger

The climate is changing rapidly. Action must be taken now and must involve substantive collaboration with climate data developers, boundary organizations, industry associations and professionals, policy makers, building code and standards bodies, higher education institutions, and any organization that hires architecture and engineering professionals.

Industry associations should provide guidance and standards to their members and by code bodies to require these new workflows to be followed. In addition, these results communicate to climate experts and agencies like the US Global Change Research Program and boundary organizations like MCAP that the research and reports they release—providing information on population-level climate risks and impacts—are being utilized by industry professionals motivated to increase resilience in the built environment. This should be a motivation to bolster direct industry involvement in these influential reports to continue capturing concerns and perspectives.

Heidi Roop, director of the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership, contributed to this article.

The post How are Climate Projections Used to Inform Design? appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• “Vibes” may feel like a slang term, but for consumers, vibes are very serious and can make or break whether someone returns to your space.
• The latest consumer research from Ambius shows the principles of biophilic design play directly into how visitors to your establishment feel about its vibes.

Ever walk into a business, building, or room and get a gut feeling before you even interact with an employee or another person?

Whether you instantly felt at home, unwelcomed, energized, or sophisticated, your subconscious was likely reacting to elements of the environment. In modern parlance, you were picking up on the “vibes” of that space. Architects and designers have a huge role to play in setting the stage for good vibes that keep people coming back to a place over and over again, as evidenced by new consumer research from Ambius.

What Consumers Have to Say About Vibes

This moss and living plant green wall paired with wood paneling and organic patterned flooring is a great example of a natural element. Photo courtesy of Ambius

Vibes isn’t just a slang term. It’s a general sense of environment, atmosphere, and feelings consumers take seriously. In fact, in a recent Ambius survey of 3,000 North American adults ranging in age from 18 to 77, 83% say vibes are very or moderately important to their overall enjoyment of a space, making vibes critical to the overall customer and brand experience.

Vibes can have a tangible impact on a business in terms of return traffic and sales. More than three out of every four respondents (83%) said they strongly or somewhat agreed they would go back to a place if they’d picked up a good vibe. Slightly less, 81%, strongly or somewhat agreed they would not return to a place if they picked up a bad vibe. Millennials were the most likely not to return, with more than half saying bad vibes would keep them away.

But the misery doesn’t stop there. Bad vibes, it seems, are contagious. More than one-third of respondents (35%) said if they had a bad experience at a business, they would actively dissuade others from visiting that business. Gen Z and Millennials were slightly more likely than their Gen X and Baby Boomer counterparts to engage in dissuading their peers; however, older generations were more likely to post a negative online review.

First impressions are critical because people make decisions about the vibes of a business quickly. More than one out of every two people (58%) say they can establish the vibes of a business within 20 minutes.

Given that vibes can be subjective, how can a business set the vibe from the second someone walks in the door? That’s where architects and designers can make a considerable difference.

Vibing with Biophilic Design

A large living green wall paired with floor to ceiling windows brings life to a commercial space. Photo courtesy of Ambius

Biophilic design is the process of creating environments that allow people to reconnect with nature in the built environment. It does so by using holistic design strategies that combine vegetation, scents, light, the acoustic environment, color, texture, daylight, fresh air, and views of outdoor green spaces in a way that physical and psychological comfort are improved. These strategies have been proven to have a positive impact on brand perception, mental health, well-being, productivity, mood, and more.

It should come as no surprise principles of biophilic design align with elements people say instill a space with good vibes, boosting the likelihood of a positive brand experience and increased customer satisfaction.

Ambius is guided by eight features of biophilic design that strengthen the human-nature connection. As we think about creating a positive, engaging atmosphere—aka good vibes—it’s worth reviewing them:

1. Scattered and clustered vegetation, varying height, distribution, randomness. Use a variety of plant species, different heights and forms, grouped together, and visible from near and far.

2. Dynamic and diffuse light, shadows. Incorporate natural and decorative lighting into design to allow people to experience light as they would outside. Make use of natural shadows and position decor to help increase shadow and to diffuse lighting.

3. Natural and local materials. Instead of synthetic materials, rely on wood, stone or ceramic finishes and natural accessories throughout a space.

4. Water. Adding water features, the sounds of running or splashing water, views of exterior water features, and pictures of waterbodies can add calm and connect people with nature.

5. Natural scents and odors. Infuse light, pleasant odors into spaces with transient occupancy to enhance emotions, spur desired actions, or form positive brand associations.

6. Refuge and shelter. Create a sense of protection through the use of design, plants, and temporary structures. This may include plants and trees with sheltering foliage, arching fronts, privacy-providing hedges, and green walls, or the addition of arbors and pergolas.

7. Connections between the interior and exterior. Use interior plants so that they align with exterior plant styles or naturally occurring landscapes, including visually through windows. Introduce natural sounds, such as birdsong.

8. Positioned at height and overlooking the landscape. Use design to create the feeling of being outdoors while inside. Create the illusion of height by using tall plants near where people are present and shorter plants further away.

Finding ways to utilize these principles throughout a space can establish a great first impression and help to sustain engagement and positive brand experiences throughout the duration of an individual’s time in a space.

The Generational Complexities of Good and Bad Vibes

Image courtesy of Ambius

Consumers have strong feelings about what specific elements create vibes, but there are also generational preferences that need to be taken into account. Depending on the people visiting your space, that may mean leveraging biophilic design for multipurpose needs.

Ambius presented survey respondents with a list of 13 elements and asked them to choose three that they felt were essential to establishing good vibes. There were clear leaders across all age groups: Cleanliness (53 percent), windows (31 percent), and good smells (31 percent).

Nearly two-thirds of Baby Boomers selected cleanliness, while only half of Millennials, and even fewer Gen Z respondents did (40%). Meanwhile, trendy design was more important to younger generations, with more than one quarter (26%) of Gen Z respondents and 23% of Millennial respondents choosing this as a top three element. Comfortable temperature was also more important to Gen X (19%) and Baby Boomers (24%).

When asked what specific design elements gave off the best vibes, decorative plants edged out wood elements by a narrow margin. Minimalism and white walls ranked highly, too. The use of geometric shapes was more pleasing to Gen Z and Millennials. High-end touches like leather upholstery and marble, also scored more favorably with younger generations. Gen X and Baby Boomers preferred more natural elements like water features and green walls.

Given 10 negative elements, unpleasant smells were the most likely to give bad vibes overall, with over half of respondents (53%) choosing this as one of their top three. Surprisingly, this outranked a dirty environment, which came in second at 41%. Temperature comfort level was next, with 37% reporting that being too hot or too cold can lead to bad vibes. Nearly one-third of respondents (32%) said that dead or unkempt plants would be a detractor for them.

For Gen Z and Millennials, a space with no windows gave off more bad vibes than it did for Gen X and Baby Boomers. Older generations were more likely to rank elements that negatively impact comfort as giving bad vibes, such as cramped or crowded spaces or inadequate seating.

4 Tips for Good Vibes

Plant immersion is seen here at The Puttery. Photo courtesy of Ambius

It’s easy to see how these elements can fit in with the principles of biophilic design. However, given consumer preferences, designing spaces that speak to all generations can be more challenging. But that doesn’t mean architects and designers should scale back and aim for neutrality over bold features and character. Instead look for ways to meet the needs of all who enter a space. Ambius recommends these four tips for establishing good vibes that speak to everyone.

Know your audience. Gone are the days of monotone sameness. To truly create a good vibe, architects and designers should understand the principal occupants or users of a space and incorporate biophilic design elements to enhance their engagements with a space. Consider generational differences and preferences as you develop your space.

Use windows to open your space. Windows and the light they let in are important to set the tone with both employees and consumers. Exposure to daylight, especially when many of us are inside for the better part of the day, is important for both physical and mental health. Windows can also make small spaces feel bigger and help large spaces inspire awe.

Amplify your experience with scent. Pleasant smells and aromas play a critical role in establishing a good vibe for visitors. Scent is one of our most powerful senses and is intrinsically linked to emotion and memory. Ambient scenting can help enhance the way people experience your space and forge strong connections to your brand. Scents can evoke a sense of cleanliness, freshness, relaxation, and more.

Don’t skimp on plants. With decorative plants ranking the highest of specific design elements likely to give good vibes, incorporating greenery and vegetation into your space should be paramount. Ensure you have plant care knowledge and manpower or contract with a company that can do it for you—dead or wilting plants send the wrong message.

Architects and designers have a significant amount of influence on the end customer experience. Use this latest consumer research to stress the importance of biophilic design with your partners. Whatever space you’re creating, don’t discount the power of those gut instinct vibes to turn your customers, employees, and guests into raving fans of a brand.

The post New Consumer Insights on How to Design for Good Vibes appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• NYSID’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments emphasizes that energy efficiency, health, and eco materials don’t have to be at odds with good design.
• There is a growing interest and need for intergenerational housing that enables more belongingness and allows the older, retired generation to assist in caring for the youngest family members.
• Designers need to more fully incorporate and integrate equity, and NYSID revamped its project briefs in both the fall residential studio and the spring contract studio to do so.

Environmentalism has often been defined by the triple bottom line. In its first incarnation it was the three Ps of people, planet, and profit. In more recent years it’s been superseded by the (arguably more accurate) three Es of economy, ecology, and equity. This variation, by replacing the business world origins of the triple bottom line, was also better suited to the goals of sustainable design.

Economy, Ecology, and Equity in Sustainable Design

Mountain Center Youth Residency Retreat by Sarah Espinosa and Madelyn Cichy. Image courtesy of NYSID

Ecology is the one most of us are most familiar with. It’s where sustainability—back before it was called that—and sustainable design have focused: how we directly address ecological issues such as climate change, resource depletion, water pollution and scarcity, biodiversity, and so forth.

Economy, a far better term than the confusing and capitalistic “profit,” addresses the micro- and macroeconomic costs and a related concept I’ve termed “Eco Optimism”—the under-emphasized point that the steps needed to mitigate environmental ills will, contrary to what many people object to, often improve more than just the environment.

Of those three Es we’re only now really beginning to come to terms with equity, or what had been known as “people” in the three Ps. In its most fundamental definition equity looks at individual and community health and environmental justice and acknowledges that much of the world has benefitted less from economic development while bearing a disproportionate environmental burden.

How NYSID Embraces Equity

Site plan and Accessory Dwelling Unit floor plan of Seattle townhouse project by Linda Diaz. Image courtesy of NYSID

From the point of view of a sustainable interior environments program, what that means is going beyond the essentials of ecodesign. Yes, sustainable interior design has come a long way. It’s matured to a pretty good understanding of energy efficiency, health, and eco materials (especially now that the carbon footprint significance of interior design materials is becoming better understood) and has proved we can do this without sacrificing design.

Indeed, that’s one of the explicit goals of sustainable design at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID), and more specifically in our Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments. In the MPSS studios we don’t separate the aesthetics of design (let’s call that the Fourth E, for the British esthetics) from ecology and economy.

With ecology, economy, and aesthetics more or less in hand, what about the missing E of equity? Two years ago, in an acknowledgement that we need to more fully incorporate and integrate equity, we revamped the project briefs in both the fall residential studio and the spring contract studio.

Here are five examples of sustainable design projects.

1. A Townhouse in Seattle

One of the fall briefs in NYSID’s MPSS studios had involved renovating a high-end townhouse in Seattle. We cut down the McMansion-esque size of the house and, in its place, added a Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit for the family’s grandparents.

An aspect of broadening our project briefs has been to include diverse clients and non-traditional families. This project acknowledges the growing interest and need for intergenerational housing, which enables more belongingness, allows the older, retired generation to assist in caring for the youngest family members while the parents worked and, simultaneously, addresses the housing shortage.

2. A Duplex Townhouse Apartment in Manhattan

Lower level and section of Manhattan intergenerational duplex apartment, Johanna Sy and Samantha Berlanga. Image courtesy of NYSID

As with the Seattle brief, we modified this assignment to make it intergenerational. It became a residence for an elderly woman living alone and a NYSID student who would offer company and assistance. The students had to work on how to give each of the occupants personal space while providing the degree of interaction the owner desired.

3. Tiny Homes and 4. Micro-Apartments

Concept for Brooklyn cohousing micro-apartment by Amaris Woodson, Tugce Buran and Jiayi Xu. Image courtesy of NYSID

We then added two briefs for cohousing/intentional communities composed of tiny homes (for the rural one) and micro-apartments (for the urban one) in conjunction with communal shared facilities to augment the small individual residences.

Intentional communities look to balance needs for individual or family space with the benefits, both environmental and community, of shared facilities. For each of those projects the students were assigned the communal space and one of the residences.

A tiny home or micro-apartment might have, for instance, a small, basic kitchen and eating area—the type that many use daily—while having access in the communal facilities to a larger and better-outfitted kitchen and a dining area for a group gathering.

Rather than having that expensive Peloton idly taking up valuable space at home (how many of us have, with the best of intentions, purchased one only to have it become an annoying reminder that we should, but aren’t exercising?), members have a gym upstairs or across the yard. No space for a workbench? You can have a well-stocked workshop or a tool library.

So how do you design to interpret this new typology best and most environmentally? The students with those two briefs got to investigate that.

5. A Southwestern Home Turned Retreat Center

A fifth brief took the footprint of a previously assigned southwestern home and, instead of designing it for a presumably wealthy family, made it a residency retreat center for a youth program providing vocational and leadership training in land management.

Exploring the Future of Sustainable Design

Common space of Brooklyn cohousing project by Amaris Woodson, Tugce Buran, and Jiayi Xu. Image courtesy of NYSID

In each case, though the assigned clients were different from the previous focus on, one might say, two of the three Es, adding the Equity leg by no means meant sacrificing that implicit Aesthetics fourth leg. Just because the clients (expecting maybe the Manhattan brief) were not in the one percent, did not mean we no longer emphasized design.

This expanded approach has also emerged from a course we instituted two years ago: Frontiers of Sustainable Interior Environments. The course is offered in the final semester where we say to our soon-to-graduate students: Now that you know what sustainable design is and now that the interior design field is beginning to truly embrace sustainability, let’s talk about what it needs to be, and what the next goals and frontiers are.

We do this through a combination of student research and guests who are working in those frontiers. Some of it is about the next steps for obvious topics such as certifications and developments in new materials, but much of it is also about how we break sustainable interior design out of its reputation for being for the well off.

We start by understanding that healthy environments should, of course, be for everyone. Why should the residents of a low-income apartment building be exposed to toxic materials, while more affluent clients are not? Why should fast food or less tony restaurants not receive the same attention to environmental health?

Admittedly, these project briefs are US-specific. Ideally equity should be addressed internationally with an emphasis on the countries and groups, as mentioned above, that have been most affected by environmental issues. There’s a larger discussion to be had about the difficulty of designing for contexts that one is not familiar with. Given the range of international students in our program, perhaps this is a next step in the evolution of our briefs.

Embracing and exploring the third E of equity, while never sacrificing the other Es, is the goal of NYSID’s MPSS program, and indeed should be the goal of sustainable design more generally.

The three Es are sometimes referred to as the legs of the sustainability stool. Until now we’ve had a lopsided three-legged stool that leans to one side. The equity leg needs to be lengthened, all the while adding the fourth leg of esthetics.

A four-legged stool, if the legs are uneven, may be more off-balance. But it also, perhaps counterintuitively, is more stable in that it is less prone to falling over. The trick is to make those four legs as equal as possible, not emphasizing one leg over the others.

The post Balancing the Three Es in Sustainable Design at the New York School of Interior Design appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• Green architecture and urbanism offer many tools for helping to combat climate change.
• Industrialization created the climate crisis and the contemporary city—and it’s essential to the solution.
• Cities still offer our greatest opportunity for a sustainable future.

We are in the midst of a revolution to fight climate change at every level—from homes to buildings to cities. The architect, planner, developer, agencies, and officials have many tools at their disposal—from energy infrastructure to transit systems to building technologies. But green architecture and urbanism offer a particularly effective range of options, including urban trees, rain gardens, and green networks. The constructed landscape and artificial nature are tools in this fight.

What is Artificial Nature?

Artificial nature is seen here at Halletts North. Rendering courtesy of STUDIO V Architecture

“Artificial nature” is not a contradiction. I don’t mean artificial in a pejorative sense—fake or false, less than nature. I mean real, green, growing, gorgeous nature in all its glory within our man-made environments: trees, parks, and public spaces. Today, in some ways, all nature is artificial. In the Anthropocene there is no unaltered nature. Everywhere on earth bears the marks of man, from the densest cities to the remotest regions.

Combining earth with artifice and nature with technology, we invoke park networks, urban forests, green architecture, and biophilic technology. Despite these concepts becoming embedded in our consciousness and co-opted in our language, the questions on how they are explored and explained remain.

The irony is that industrialization created both parts of this story—the climate crisis and the contemporary city. It contributed to the problem, and it’s essential to the solution. Industrialization created the technologies and tools, the cultural norms and lifestyles, and the improvements to health and humanity that raised our standards and lifespans. These same benefits led, tragically, to climate change. This same industrialization created the contemporary city in an explosion of urban growth from the 19th century continuing through today. Innovations in transportation, energy, and building technologies encouraged the expansion of human habitation at scales previously unthinkable.

But if modern technology forged the contemporary city, modern architecture originally attempted its assassination. Modernism’s misguided vision for the “radiant city” (“towers in the park!”) provided towers in the parking lot—and disinvestment in transit, highways carving through downtowns, red-lining, suburbanization, astonishingly destructive urban “renewal.” And also, tragically, climate change.

There is hope. Cities still offer our greatest opportunity for a sustainable future. Despite their flaws and failures, cities offer the greatest tools for reducing carbon use, expanding opportunity, education, and equity. If modern architecture was once the vehicle for the city’s near destruction, today it offers a catalyst for its rebirth. It’s making cities more green, sustainable, and human. The intersection of nature and artifice is the core of the contemporary city. The green revolution is embodied in the contradiction of reconstructed nature. How can it redress our failures and remake our cities?

How Can Artificial Nature Remake Our Cities?

Overall view of Halletts North. Rendering courtesy of STUDIO V Architecture

Artificial Forests

We require forests of urban trees. Every city in America should adopt a scaled version of NYC’s million tree program. Urban trees provide a canopy, and wildlife corridors, mitigate the heat island effect, and offer neglected communities greater social justice.

Constructed Earth

New York City’s 526 miles of waterfront comprises hundreds of acres of constructed “land.” Utilizing and manufacturing soil is central to artificial nature; reconstructed waterfront edges mitigate sea level rise, and composting for urban farming removes methane. Combined tree pits, use of structural soil, soft engineered edges, and conjoined plant networks encourage competition, biodiversity, and resiliency.

The New Natives

All plants were once native. Nature today is a curious conjoining of invasive, interloper, and adapter. We now tear out masquerading nature composed of invasives and replace them with reconstituted original natives. We also embrace new natives—pollution-tolerant, saltwater-tolerant, and modern disease and invasive insect-tolerant plants, adapted to the modern conditions and the nature we have irrevocably altered, offering bioremediation, resiliency, and biodiversity.

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Restoring Rain

All gardens were once rain gardens. Today rainwater is trapped and diverted into sewers, dumped into rivers, and overwhelming sewage treatment plants forcing outflows of raw sewage. Rain gardens recharge aquifers, create diverse riparian environments, assist resiliency, and alleviate combined sewer outflows.

Sky Gardens

View of rooftop and bridge at Empire Stores. Photo by K. Taro Hashimura

If home is where the heart is, then ground is where you make it. Nearly all modern ground is artificial; every surface manipulated. The artificial ground offers spectacular and creative opportunities for precious open space to sustain and humanize dense urban environments. Future parks are being elevated on buildings and former infrastructure, threaded through elevated highways, and perched above waterfronts creating gardens in the sky.

Where does the green revolution go from here? Some speak of retreat: abandoning waterfronts, leaving the city behind for the country.

To address these doubts, I invoke American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Looking upon his work, many incorrectly assume Olmsted preserved pristine landscapes around which vast cities sprang up. But Olmstedian nature is all artifice. Central Park is a brilliant artificially constructed green tapestry that radically transformed its difficult site. Prospect Park is all constructed views, manufactured experiences intermixed with artificial lakes and waterfalls. Buffalo’s interconnected parks and parkways offered the world’s first network of artificial nature.

We can’t ignore climate change. There’s no “metaverse” in which to hide. And two things remain sure. The solution must embrace the reconstruction of living nature within the living city. And there is no do-over.

The post What is Artificial Nature? appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• Covestro shares a practical approach for transitioning the built environment to clean energy.
• Building and construction is responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
• Methane matters, and builders can mitigate methane by knowing where their steel is coming from.

The transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy is evident everywhere. It is in the proliferation of solar panels on residential rooftops, electric vehicles on roadways, and wind turbines across the countryside.

Accelerating the transition requires work in so many areas. At COP26, the Glasgow Breakthroughs set ambitious targets for the deployment of clean technologies in the five key sectors of power, road transport, steel, hydrogen, and agriculture.

The one missing? Building and construction.

Surprising, since the sector, which is responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, is a prime candidate for decarbonization.

Now that is changing. At COP27, France and the Kingdom of Morocco reaffirmed their co-leadership of the Buildings Breakthrough with the support of the Global Alliance for Building and Construction and the United Kingdom and Germany expressing their support. They also issued a call to other countries to join. The Buildings Breakthrough is expected to lay out a revolutionary and evolutionary pathway for achieving zero or near zero emissions—something that is critical if we are to meet the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement.

That builds on news presented at a recent event co-hosted by Covestro and Pittsburgh-based Green Building Alliance that brought together international, national, and regional clean energy policymakers and practitioners to examine solutions and strategies for decarbonizing the built environment.

As one international expert said, “Buildings stand out as a major challenge but also a great opportunity for improvement due to the massive role they play as end users of energy. The reality is that renewable energy technologies alone cannot meet the enormous energy requirements of buildings. Solutions must be sought elsewhere. The world is not on track to meet its environmental goals. We cannot pick and choose the solutions. We need them all and we need them now.”

We previously shared with gb&d the first of two articles detailing the important information that emerged from the all-day event hosted by Covestro and the Green Building Alliance. That first article focused primarily on policy issues like the new Buildings Breakthrough. In this piece we explore some of the more practical approaches presented that architects, builders, and developers may find useful in their own work.

Where Does Methane Fit In?

In the discussions about greenhouse gas emissions, methane traditionally has taken a back seat to carbon dioxide. It shouldn’t.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. Even though CO2 has a longer lasting effect, methane sets the pace for warming in the near term. At least 25% of today’s global warming is driven by methane from human actions. Atmospheric concentration of methane is increasing faster now than at any time since the 1980s.

One source of methane is coal. Another more surprising source is the gas used for stovetop cooking.

Builders can assist in methane mitigation by being cognizant of where the steel they use is coming from. If the source relies primarily on coal for production, they may consider alternative supply chains. They may also consider other options for cooking. Induction cooking is being held up as an example. This 1970s energy-efficient technology has evolved to the point where it has become a more effective cooking technique while offering consumers a way to transition away from fossil fuels without having to sacrifice convenience.

Codes are King, but the Kingdom is Diverse

Building and energy codes play a fundamental role in achieving decarbonization of buildings. They serve as the basis for impacting a broad segment of buildings, particularly relative to new construction.

This is critical since in the coming decades an estimated 80% of the population growth will be in places that today lack mandatory energy codes. Setting up those communities and buildings for success is critical.

At the same time, many of those communities are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. While codes can help address extreme heat, hurricanes, and wildfires, the necessary infrastructure must be in place to actually make codes useful. Infrastructure that includes regulatory frameworks and education systems that train trades, builders, and code officials.

Another challenge with codes is consistency.

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“Everyone is on a different code schedule, a different code journey, even a different code decade,” explains Chris Cieslak, who oversees GBA’s 2030 District. “Buildings are built at different times of their lifespan, and they have to comply with different codes, which means they’re all over the place and their progress is uneven.”

It cannot be a one-size fits all approach. Codes that work in one part of the world may not work in a place with a different climate or weather systems.

Policies that put minimum codes in place are an important first step to ensuring the solutions for advancing to near zero energy are available to all people across the world in the rural areas, the global south, and in low-income urban areas. This means the codes apply whether you’re building affordable housing or a corporate office building, and every member of society has the same level of protection and access to energy efficiency no matter where they live or work.

Powering the Future: The Electrification of Everything

The transition away from fossil-based electrification is becoming more prominent, including in electric vehicle charging infrastructure within the built environment. Image courtesy of Covestro

For some time now we’ve seen vehicles, natural gas heating and cooling systems, and other technologies traditionally reliant on combustion be replaced by versions that are instead powered by electricity.

Now imagine, one day in the near future, communities, cities, and entire countries made up of all-electric buildings connected to electrical grids supplied by renewable energy. That is the holy grail of decarbonization.

It is what the utility sector calls beneficial electrification—and the mission of organizations like the Pennsylvania Solar Center. Its number one priority is to get more solar power on the grid. Not only because it is essential for achieving zero emissions, but because it offers home and building owners substantial financial benefits.

“Once we get to 5% solar that starts reducing the cost of wholesale energy across the board. Then that’s starting to benefit everybody, even if they don’t have solar on their rooftops. When we get to 10% solar, then we’re talking about saving millions of dollars for people all across the grid,” says Sharon Pillar, the center’s founder and director.

Still, it’s an uphill climb that requires not only public demand, but political will and the right policies—something Pillar and the center are fighting for every day.

As one panelist put it: “We must sustain public policy that is aligned with public interest. It is a false choice to say you either have to choose solar or gas or electric or something yet to be identified. There’s room for every player to be successful if we are going to reach that vision of a clean energy future.”

As we embark on this transition to clean energy and beneficial electrification, it must be accomplished in way that is just for all. And, to be beneficial, it must meet the three components of affordability, decreased user consumption, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

New Tools Track Embodied Carbon

Embodied carbon increasingly is becoming a concern for many of those on the frontlines of the building and construction industry who are aware of its impact on climate. Unlike operational carbon, which can be mitigated by instituting energy efficiency improvements and through the use of renewable energy, that is not the case for the carbon footprint left by the production and transport of materials needed to construct buildings.

Architecture 2030 reports that embodied carbon will be responsible for almost half of total new construction emissions between now and 2050.
Helping the industry deal with embodied carbon emissions is what the Seattle-based nonprofit Building Transparency is all about. Its core mission is “to provide the open access data and tools necessary to enable broad and swift action across the building industry in addressing embodied carbon’s role in climate change.”

The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool is the result of the organization’s work. According to Building Transparency, it allows benchmarking, assessment, and reductions in embodied carbon, focused on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials. The EC3 tool uses building material quantities from construction estimates and/or BIM models and a robust database of digital, third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

“EPDs are like a nutrition label for building materials,” says Stacy Smedley, senior director of sustainability at Skanska USA, who developed the tool and founded Building Transparency. “Think about being on a low carb diet, going to the grocery store, and shopping for cereal. You’re going to pick up those boxes and read the nutrition labels to check the amount of carbohydrates per serving size. It’s exactly what we’re doing with carbon and building materials through EPDs. We are putting the construction industry on a low carbon diet.”

Up until now EPDs have been difficult and expensive to publish. But the new EC3 tool is making thousands of digital EPDs available, enabling the building and construction sector “to directly measure, compare and reduce the embodied carbon in specific new buildings.” The new EC3 tool is currently offered free to the industry.

Similarly, the Kingdom of Morocco, which has begun decarbonizing its built environment, is developing its own tools and trackers.

As a manufacturer and supplier to the construction industry, Covestro, as part of its commitment to become climate neutral by 2035, is developing a climate neutral product portfolio to help the industry reduce its embodied carbon footprint.

Advancing Sustainable Cooling

Like heating, cooling is essential for human health, comfort, and vitality.

Yet some 1.1 billion people lack access to cooling, with the vast majority of them in Asia and Africa. These are precisely the people who need cooling technologies as the world warms.

According to the World Bank, cooling contributes to climate change by increasing demand for electricity, much of which is still generated from fossil fuels, and through the leakage of refrigerants, which have a much higher global warming potential than CO2 emissions. Conventional cooling devices like refrigerators, room air conditioners, industrial scale chillers, and other devices account for as much as 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than twice the emissions generated from aviation and maritime combined. Furthermore, if left unchecked, emissions from cooling are expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2100, driven by heat waves, population growth, urbanization, and a growing middle class.

Conventional cooling devices like refrigerators, room air conditioners, industrial scale chillers, and other devices account for as much as 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

Today sustainable cooling is an imperative. One many believe we must get right. Putting an air conditioner or refrigerator in every home is not the answer. NGO Sustainable Energy for All says “cooling for all” means providing more sustainable and affordable solutions to address the needs of the vulnerable, including improved access to nutritious food and safe medicines and protection from heat as the world transitions to clean energy.

There is an urgent need to scale up sustainable cooling solutions and innovate new approaches that will ultimately have wide practical application. Current options, according to Sustainable Energy for All, include using insulation, shade, reflectivity, and/or ventilation for natural cooling and working collaboratively to deliver better and more sustainable products, services policies, and financing.

Increasing the use of more energy-efficient appliances is another option. Covestro is replacing raw materials derived from fossil fuels with those made from things like biomass, recycled materials, and CO2. One of these products for the building industry is a cradle-to-gate climate neutral methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), which is used to produce rigid polyurethane foam, the insulation material that increases energy efficiency in buildings and refrigerators.

The Future is Now

The good news is that there are a number of effective best practices available to the buildings and construction sector to increase energy efficiency, reduce embodied carbon, and mitigate climate change in communities around the world. These are practices that can be implemented today.

We need builders and architects to dig deep, learn about as many solutions as possible, and embed them into the building and design process. The planet and all its people will be thankful.

The post Transitioning the Built Environment to Clean Energy appeared first on gb&d magazine.

• Gensler is weighing the benefits of a reduced carbon footprint versus social inequity.
• Design leaders are looking at how to design more inclusive neighborhoods.
• What is really the best kind of green space, and what makes a place walkable?

Live, work, play—the concept of the “20-minute city,” or neighborhoods where everything you need is steps from your door, continues to gain traction across the US.

While the benefits of such urban planning are many, it doesn’t go far enough to address inequities, according to Stacey Olson, Gensler’s global design resilience leader, who writes about the topic on Gensler’s blog. She says dense, urban communities reduce greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to walk and bike, but even though these communities may reduce a city’s carbon footprint, they often spread social inequalities and create niches that lack diversity.

In Detroit, Gensler is working on a mixed-use development called Infill on the Cut that will encompass 350 residential units, 80,000 square feet of retail, and 18,000 square feet of green space. Once implemented, the master plan of this project will bridge the gap between downtown Detroit and the neighborhoods surrounding Eastern Market by creating exciting, beautiful places to live, shop, and play. The plan arranges multiple residential unit types, hyper-local retail uses, neighborhood-serving amenities, and potential hospitality use around a dynamic public space. The design of the project leverages adjacency to the Dequindre Cut—a rail-to-trail greenway conversion to provide future residents and visitors access to an open-space network connecting two of the region’s most cherished assets (the Eastern Market district and the Detroit Riverfront).

We talked with Olson about the future of walkable communities—and what that means for social equity.

What drew you to the 20-minute city concept?

The Infill on The Cut is a development in Detroit that will challenge the conventional mixed-use approach and create a new gateway to downtown that is inclusive, welcoming, and equitably prosperous. Rendering courtesy of Gensler

I’ve been doing some personal research about designing for an equitable future that looks at economy and resiliency, sustainability, health and wellness, and how all of those things really lead to potential for the 20-minute city. When I started going down this rabbit hole, there were some gaps in the 20-minute city. We can design for those, but it has to be thoughtfully designed for. The 20-minute city in and of itself doesn’t check all of the boxes for all of the things we should be doing. So that’s where my passion was: How do I marry all of the things I’m doing with health and wellness? We want to be inclusive.

How is the concept currently flawed?

My original hypothesis was, “The 20-minute city is great.” We’ve been talking about it for a long time—how this will help people be active and help create resilient communities. The more I researched it, there’s a substantial body of evidence in academic white papers and third-party peer-reviewed studies and an analysis that shows that, yes, the 20-minute city can be great, but it can also isolate folks.

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If you have, for example, all of the things you need within your community that’s great, but how many jobs does that provide for? Especially low income jobs. If you’ve got a population who lives in a 20-minute city and there’s not a job market for them, then they’ve been excluded from that city. That’s really when we start to think about transit-oriented development.

Why is transit-oriented development important?

When you have a 20-minute city that is connected to a transit-oriented development, then you can start to get those people mobile. You have to think about mobility. Can people move around and get outside of the city and connect to their hubs?

The other side of that is accessibility. Do they have access to the means to travel? Even if you pair the TOD with the 20-minute city, neither of those fully address resiliency. So you need to start extrapolating: If we can make the 20-minute city connected to mass transit—essentially off the grid, decentralized—then you start to be able to conserve your resources and create different kinds of jobs because you bring the utilities and there are higher grade jobs. It starts to become much more resilient bringing all those things together.

What about walkability? What makes a city walkable?

In order to encourage walkability, people need to have a reason to get outside and go somewhere, to walk. You really want to have a variety of mixed uses. Not everyone’s going to want to go to the same place, so having that rich diversity, whether it’s amenities or open space, you need to have safe spaces to walk and a wide enough sidewalk and protection from the elements. For example, you don’t see people in desert conditions going outside when it’s 105 degrees. So how do we mitigate temperature?

What is the best kind of green space?

Outside of the Hillside Housing Admin Office at CSULB. Photo courtesy of Gensler

One of the things we don’t really talk a lot about is the importance of soil in the conversation for climate change. Soil has a huge capacity for absorbing and really sequestering CO2 emissions. The more green space we have the better. We don’t want to pave over paradise. But that said, we have to get away from this idea that monoculture is beautiful, like just grass or lawns. It’s great to have a field where you can take a blanket and have a picnic, but the idea that we need to have just open green space as a lawn we need to move away from. We have to celebrate diversity, and in the end that’s really going to look different in every climate.

We just did a really great project at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB). The project is pursuing Living Building Challenge LEED Platinum certification, and we had a really rich biodiversity plan for the landscape. When the project was finished we were looking around and, all of a sudden, there was a bunny rabbit. Bunny rabbits, hummingbirds, butterflies, and all sorts of nature showed up. We can really start to make a site really feel special. We can bring all of this back.

What are some common mistakes in today’s designs?

I think if we can shift the way planning approvals are done, that could be a real game changer. When we think about planning approval, it would be ideal if planning approvals were really thought about holistically as integrated systems, not as ‘This is a residential development’ or ‘This is a mixed use development,’ or ‘This is a TOD’ and then mechanical, electrical, plumbing. If it was brought on as a holistic approach where the entire development had to have all of these things—has to have a certain amount of low income housing, a certain percentage of mass transit—if those were fundamental requirements in order to go through the planning approval process, that could be a real game changer for making sure we don’t inadvertently exclude any population.

Why isn’t that the requirement?

We’ve been doing some research on this. There have been instigators in the urban planning department world. And there have been lots of studies arguing that this industry is ripe for a shakeup. I think one of the challenges is that there is a whole sector of urban planning officials who don’t know that this is a problem. If you’re not realizing that as a problem, it’s hard to create change that’s prolific throughout the industry.

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• Biophilic design benefits not just employees, but companies, too.
• Adding indoor plants can improve overall indoor air quality.
• Designers can use images and patterns to mimic the aesthetic qualities of nature.

It’s no secret that the world of work is changing. Nearly 60% of US employees who say their jobs can mainly be done from home are working from home at least part of the time, and many corporations are looking for ways to attract their team members back to the office.

Whether through enticing office perks, hybrid work schedules, or making physical changes to the work environment, employers are finding new ways to enhance comfort, promote productivity, and create a space that workers truly want to work in. One method of advancing the conditions of the workplace is through strategic biophilic design.

Biophilia is the “love of life and living systems,” and biophilic design takes this concept into the built environment by incorporating natural elements through meaningful and impactful architecture and interior design practices.

The premise maintains that humans have an inborn need for contact with nature, and that this connection is essential to our health and well-being. Employers who prioritize wellness through workplace strategy and interior design will most commonly employ biophilic design by integrating living plants, natural materials, and organic shapes to their overall aesthetic and functional workplace experience.

The Benefits of Biophilic Design in the Workplace

Adding plants indoors can improve air quality. Photo courtesy of Ted Moudis Associates

Research shows that access to nature is essential to our physical and mental health as well as our overall well-being, which explains why biophilic design is such an important consideration for our interior environments. For example, access to nature or even viewing scenes of nature can reduce feelings of anger, fear, and stress and can increase positive feelings. In addition, implementing plants indoors has been proven to improve air quality and enhance the perception of interior spaces as benefitting our health and well-being.

The people who most benefit from biophilic design in the workplace are the workers themselves; however, by extension, there are many aspects of this strategy that positively impact the company, too. Some of the effects of incorporating it into the workplace include reduced absenteeism and mental fatigue, improved emotional satisfaction, and increased productivity, all of which directly contribute to the company’s bottom line. In essence, the benefits of investing in smart biophilic design helps boost employee wellness and financially aids the corporation.

How Biophilic Design Can Enhance the Workplace

Designers can use images of nature, a natural color palette, and biomorphic shapes and patterns to mimic aesthetic qualities of nature. Photo courtesy of Ted Moudis Associates

One misconception about biophilic interior design is that it is accomplished by merely adding a bunch of plants to an office space. The reality is that a holistic approach to biophilic design requires a commitment to a broader strategy. For interior designers, two main opportunities for implementing biophilic design are through building considerations, which are the inherent building characteristics, and design features, replicating physical properties and/or experiences of nature in a literal or representational way.

Building considerations entail a building’s orientation, its use of windows and skylights to increase natural lighting, and the strategic use of its existing structure or location to make the most of the surrounding environment. If a workplace is next to a park or body of water, for example, designers can create elements that overlook natural landscapes or in some way incorporate the natural surroundings. Another building consideration is indoor-outdoor space. While not necessarily easy to come by in many major cities, biophilic design features can take the form of incorporating an outdoor terrace or roof patio, creating spaces that encourage a building’s occupants to spend more time outdoors.

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Natural design features can be used for either aesthetic or experiential purposes. These include what you might first think about when you picture biophilic design, literal natural elements like greenery and potted plants, or even fish tanks or office pets. Designers can also incorporate the use of living walls to provide a connection to nature. Other opportunities include raw, natural materials like wood and stone, water features, and live fire in fireplaces.

On the other hand, rather than literal natural features, representational physical properties of nature can take the form of displayed images of nature, a natural color palette, biomorphic shapes, patterns, and even circadian lighting. These design elements are meant to mimic aesthetic qualities of nature without actually using the real thing. Carefully selected earth tones in the furnishings and finishes, wood flooring or ceilings, organic patterns in carpeting, and the use of materials that age gracefully or patina over time all contribute to this approach.

Now is the Time for Biophilic Design at Work

A building’s orientation and its use of windows and skylights are important considerations in biophilic design. Photo courtesy of Ted Moudis Associates

At a time when companies are eager for employees to return to physical workplaces, corporations are embracing a renewed commitment to ensuring offices are welcoming to all demographics and are intentionally designed with sustainability and wellness in mind for building occupants.

The pandemic has brought about an increased public knowledge and awareness of how the built environment can impact our health and happiness. As such, employees are looking for companies that reflect their own personal values, provide a better work-life balance, and maintain a work environment they can enjoy and find fulfillment in.

But even before the pandemic there was a shift in how corporations, public offices, and educational institutions think about the spaces we inhabit—a thought process spurred by the growing focus on wellness among the interior design industry. The trend has had a notable impact on corporate design as more business leaders recognize how crucial it is to promote human health and well-being and their positive impacts on the bottom line.

As the world of work continues to evolve and corporations seek new ways to better engage the workforce and nurture an atmosphere that marries productivity and well-being, biophilic design will continue to be an integral focus. The emerging strategy gives some indication on where the future of workplace design is headed and is a testament that direct connections with nature shouldn’t be seen as an option, but as a proven method for improving the health and happiness of our teams.

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