Envisioning innovative post-COVID approaches toward LTCF design in dense urban areas: Exploring an evidence-based design prototype

The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic has posed greater challenges to older adults, especially those who live in congregated long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in dense urban settings. These facilities struggle with high rates of COVID-19 infections and other challenges that undermine LTCF residents' well-being. These challenges, including social isolation and limited access to nature and community, have been exacerbated by the pressures of the pandemic. This has led to feelings of loneliness, depression, and other mental health issues among residents and a higher risk of psychological stress and infection among nurses. The pandemic has challenged the existing built environment of LTCFs. Issues regarding physical and mental health, quality of life (QoL), infection control, and pandemic resiliency have been shown to be increasingly interwoven. This chapter envisions innovative approaches toward a post-COVID-19 environment for older adults and their caregivers. This chapter provides an extensive review and synthesis of the lessons learned from LTCFs during the pandemic, with a focus on how their experience was impacted by design. The authors also draw from current design trends to identify their potential to support residents', staff, and visitors' needs during and after pandemics. From these learnings, the following design principles were developed: (1) small household model, (2) biophilic design, (3) intergenerational community, and (4) multi-tier infection control strategies. These design principles were then translated to a prototype through a graduate capstone studio project, which provides a visual illustration of how these evidence-based design solutions can be applied within a dense urban environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

All That Glitters is Not Green: Impact of Biophilic Designs on Customer Experiential Values

Since COVID-19, people appreciate fully immersing themselves in nature. Bringing elements of nature into service spaces has been an important concern for marketers. Yet, there have been only a few studies addressing the impact of natural and biophilic aspects within servicescapes. This study investigated the effect of biophilic design on experiential values such as esthetics, escapism, economic value, and attitude toward hotels and the role of the hotel segment and its environmental beliefs regarding green behavior on the relationships. The results indicated that in a luxury hotel setting, the biophilic design engendered better esthetic perceptions, escapism, economic value, and attitude toward the hotel. At a midscale hotel, a non-biophilic design induced higher experiential values. In addition, customers' environmental beliefs had significant effects on experiential values. Results provided practical suggestions for hotel managers, marketers, and interior designers on how biophilic servicescapes can enhance a hotel's marketing effectiveness.

Toward Regenerative Sustainability: A Passive Design Comfort Assessment Method of Indoor Environment

The fact that people spend a major part of their lifetime indoors, together with the lethal COVID-19 pandemic which caused people to spend even more time inside buildings, has drawn attention to the significance of achieving Agenda 2030 SD goal number three: good health and well-being, in reference to the indoor environment. The research subject is the health and well-being of building users explored through the sustainable (passive) design principles having an impact on the comfort and quality of the indoor environment. It is set within a regenerative sustainability framework encompassing the physiological, biophilic, psychological and social aspects of comfort. The Comfort Assessment Model's categories, to some extent, rely on the first author's doctoral thesis, with further modifications regarding the passive design criteria and indicators. A comparative analysis of the model with international sustainability certification (rating) systems has been performed, proving the significance of introducing more passive design comfort (health) related criteria into sustainability assessment models. In addition, a focus group of expert architects contributed to the research conclusions by responding to a questionnaire addressing the issues of sustainability, comfort and passive design, in terms of the health and well-being of building users, which confirmed the relevance of applied passive design measures for providing comfort indoors and fulfilling sustainable development goals. © 2023 by the authors.

Work from Home: Lessons Learned and Implications for Post-pandemic Workspaces

The experience of working from home (WFH) has evolved due to the COVID-19 response. A concurrent mixed-methods approach was used to assess the experiences and needs of WFH during COVID-19 pandemic across eight countries. Input concerning office workspace modifications was also explored. Participants (n = 82) were from Asia, Europe, and North America. Participants were working from home more and indicated they were somewhat satisfied with WFH and saw no change in productivity. The most common experience was feeling distracted while others experienced focus or calmness. Most participants were challenged by the lack of appropriate furniture and equipment, as well as being distracted by technology and communication. Participants most frequently used dedicated workspaces and outdoor views. They preferred workspaces with natural light, neutral colours, and natural ventilation. Participants reported better thermal comfort and air quality when compared to their pre-pandemic office but less access to necessary equipment, collaboration, and communication. WFH during the pandemic challenged how people worked and shifted their experience of home interiority. The key outcomes show support for hybrid work options as well as design strategies offered for accommodating home offices in the future. © 2023, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia. All rights reserved.

EcoRealms: Improving Well-being and Enhancing Productivity Through Incorporating Nature into the Workplace

Work-induced stress is a large problem that has only been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Nature has beneficial effects on psychological and physiological well-being, with an abundance of scientific literature demonstrating the ability of greenery to reduce stress. As such, the fusion of nature-based design into the work and academic environments has the potential to greatly decrease student and employee stress. Primary methods of incorporating greenery indoors include living walls and potted plants. However, these methods fall short of creating an immersive environment that maximizes the positive impact on worker well-being, and additionally, barriers such as maintenance, costs, and extensive construction limit implementation. This paper outlines a new method to integrate nature into the work environment through 'EcoRealms,' which are immersive, natural spaces created by modular and self-maintaining 'living partitions.' These low-cost, easy-to-install partitions act as design elements to create a flexible space that serves worker well-being and enhances productivity. Discussed are prototypes that demonstrate the design's technical feasibility and results from a self-reported questionnaire that validate the positive impacts of the EcoRealm on wellbeing. © 2022 IEEE.

All That Glitters is Not Green: Impact of Biophilic Designs on Customer Experiential Values

Since COVID-19, people appreciate fully immersing themselves in nature. Bringing elements of nature into service spaces has been an important concern for marketers. Yet, there have been only a few studies addressing the impact of natural and biophilic aspects within servicescapes. This study investigated the effect of biophilic design on experiential values such as esthetics, escapism, economic value, and attitude toward hotels and the role of the hotel segment and its environmental beliefs regarding green behavior on the relationships. The results indicated that in a luxury hotel setting, the biophilic design engendered better esthetic perceptions, escapism, economic value, and attitude toward the hotel. At a midscale hotel, a non-biophilic design induced higher experiential values. In addition, customers' environmental beliefs had significant effects on experiential values. Results provided practical suggestions for hotel managers, marketers, and interior designers on how biophilic servicescapes can enhance a hotel's marketing effectiveness.

CONTRIBUTION OF THE BIOPHILIC DESIGN APPROACH TO THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

In the last decade, biophilic design under the concept of creating strong connections between nature and manmade environments have spread significantly. Because of the rapidly increasing environmental crises and climate change phenomena globally. Consequently, biophilic design has become associated with sustainable applications, the question this research discusses is if this approach contributes to achieve the aspects of sustainability, under the umbrella of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study will investigate biophilic approach contribution to sustainable design through defining aspects of nature that most influence human satisfaction of built environment. Aligned with the European Commission (2015) series actions titled “nature-based solutions” that are inspired by nature systems. During the COVID-19 lockdown, humans had minimal interaction with nature, and access to green public spaces, at the same time, an increasing interest to integrate nature in design, reducing humans impact on nature were recognized in the contemporary built environment. The study adopts William Browning’s (2014) “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design” framework, that lays out a series of tools experiencing science and nature contribution for promising opportunities creating sustainable built environment design applications. In addition to identifying and analysing the current practices for biophilic design in the built environment and its’ impacts on nature and human wellbeing. The results conduct design strategies, and guidelines that integrate biophilic approach as a base, within the 14 patterns framework for better practices creating innovative and responsible built environment. © 2022 WIT Press.

Biophilic design for urban hotels – prospective hospitality employees’ perspectives

Purpose>The purpose of this paper is to investigate a holistic way of incorporating biophilic building design that creates a restorative environment attractive to prospective urban hotel employees. This study additionally examines the role of perceived well-being from nature attributes and associated impacts on emotions and likelihood to choose to work for a hotel with nature attributes.Design/methodology/approach>This study used a conjoint analysis to detect the most resotrative individual and combinations of biophilic attributes that can improve employee well-being. In addition, nature attributes influence on emotions and intentions to work for a hotel were analyzed.Findings>Results showed that not all nature attributes are equally evaluated by urban hotel prospective employees. In this study, the authors found that natural lighting, outdoor green views and indoor landscaping are important factors in the evaluation of an urban hotel with biophilic features. However, this tendency varies when the sample was divided by prospective employees’ who perceived higher or lower levels of well-being would be influenced by nature attributes.Originality/value>Unlike previous studies, the authors tested a multiattribute design and results demonstrate the perceived restorative effect of nature attributes in an environment on prospective employees. In addition to extending the biophilic design in hospitality literature, the authors provide practical suggestions to urban hotels incorporating biophilic design and propose that specific elements have the propensity to enhance the well-being of prospective employees and reinforce positive emotions and intentions to work for urban hotels that incorporate them.

Biophilic Experience-Based Residential Hybrid Framework.

There has been increasing academic interest in biophilic design in response to recent environmental and climate change issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic. However, discussions of the utilization of digital technology in providing universal access to nature, and opportunities to experience more diverse nature, are lacking. This study aimed to compare and analyze major theoretical systems for biophilic experiences in a residential environment, and to propose a hybrid framework that combines physical and digital design techniques for comparison and analysis. This paper discusses framework application strategies in line with scales of residential environments. Based on a systematic literature review, this study integrated and derived key elements of biophilic experience for a better quality of life in a modern residential environment and proposed a hybrid framework and strategy based on this. As a result, a hybrid framework of 15 integrated factors for three biophilic experiences was derived, and various strengths and potential opportunities were identified in terms of application depending on the scales. At the unit scale, it was found that the well-being and health of residents improved; at the building scale, the potential for sustainability was highlighted; at the complex scale, there was a contribution to higher residential competitiveness in multi-dimensional aspects. In particular, the biophilic experience-based hybrid framework in this study provided insights into addressing the weaknesses and threats discussed in the existing biophilic design.

Biophilic Design as a Strategy for Accomplishing the Idea of Healthy, Sustainable, and Resilient Environments

This study aims to identify and compare the objectives and elements of three emerging concepts, Health, Sustainability, and Resilience (HSR), which are proposed in this paper working together to provide a better response to the post-pandemic challenges that cities face today. This paper argues that it is possible to create sustainable, healthy, and resilient environments by reconnecting with nature through biophilic design (BD) by answering the following questions (1) What would be the common variables and elements when seeking to create a sustainable, healthy, and resilient environment and (2) How can those resultant elements be linked to biophilic design patterns to achieve solutions focused on improving people’s health and well-being by reconnecting with nature? Consequently, this paper tries to integrate biophilic design with the healthy, sustainable, and resilient environments while comparing the variables and indicators of each concept to demonstrate that there is a common connection between them. As a result, 19 overlapping concepts are identified through the content analysis method, namely: safety, crime, risk, adaptability, environment, green, land, water, pollution, food, affordability, housing, education, transportation, planning economics, policy, community, and management. Finally, it is shown that 16 of the 19 concepts are closely related to biophilic design. In conclusion, through biophilic design, it is possible to solve the problems represented in the HSR model. For those that are not contemplated by any of the patterns, it provides an opportunity for further research.

A Biophilic Design Approach for Improved Energy Performance in Retrofitting Residential Projects

The existing building stock is recognised as a major contributor to total energy consumption and related carbon emissions around the globe. There is increased attention on the retrofit of existing building stock, especially residential buildings, as a way of curbing energy consumption and carbon emissions. Within this context, human nature connectedness (HNC) has the potential of further amplifying the benefits of sustainable buildings both from an energy conservation practice and tangible improvements to users’ satisfaction, health, and wellbeing. This study attempts to show a case study of the potential of using HNC through the adoption of biophilic design principles to improve a residential building performance. A terrace house located in Sydney, NSW, was used as a case study and proposed retrofit scenarios were simulated with DesignBuilder® and Rhinoceros/Grasshopper with a view of improved daylighting, thermal comfort, and energy consumption. The building performance is improved in terms of daylighting, thermal comfort, and reduced energy consumption, additionally enhancing HNC.

Impacts of biophilic design on the development of gerotranscendence and the Profile of Mood States during the COVID-19 pandemic

To live in a good mood is not only a key consideration for future age-friendly communities, but also a critical necessity for positive ageing. Despite growing evidence of correlations between contact with nature and stress reduction, little is known about the effect of nature integration in indoor environments. Thus, this study aimed to answer the following research questions: (a) How do biophilic characteristics of home environments correlate with older adults' experience of the multiple levels of the theory of gerotranscendence? and (b) What is the relationship between these experiences and the mood states of these older adults? The study was based on a comparative analysis to scrutinise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these questions. The data were gathered through questionnaires with 450 older adults aged between 65 and 95 years, and stratified by the biophilic characteristics of their living environments: indoor biophilic, outdoor biophilic and non-biophilic. Two sets of data were collected with the same participants, respectively, before the COVID-19 pandemic (June to October 2018) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (June to October 2020). It found that the biophilic characteristics of home environments are correlated dynamically with older adults' ageing experience and mood states. The study indicates that outdoor biophilic features facilitate the recovery of tension mood effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas indoor biophilic features facilitate recovery from depression and anger. Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Multisensory, Nature-Inspired Recharge Rooms Yield Short-Term Reductions in Perceived Stress Among Frontline Healthcare Workers.

We are currently facing global healthcare crisis that has placed unprecedented stress on healthcare workers as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is imperative that we develop novel tools to assist healthcare workers in dealing with the significant additional stress and trauma that has arisen as a result of the pandemic. Based in research on the effects of immersive environments on mood, a neuroscience research laboratory was rapidly repurposed using commercially available technologies and materials to create a nature-inspired relaxation space. Frontline healthcare workers were invited to book 15-min experiences in the Recharge Room before, during or after their shifts, where they were exposed to the immersive, multisensory experience 496 Recharge Room users (out of a total of 562) completed a short survey about their experience during an unselected, consecutive 14-day period. Average self-reported stress levels prior to entering the Recharge Room were 4.58/6 (±1.1). After a single 15-min experience in the Recharge Room, the average user-reported stress level was significantly reduced 1.85/6 (±1.2; p < 0.001; paired t-test). Net Promoter Score for the experience was 99.3%. Recharge Rooms such as those described here produce significant short-term reductions in perceived stress, and users find them highly enjoyable. These rooms may be of general utility in high-stress healthcare environments.