(E01) Nature-based interventions in buildings: If you build it, will it work?

There is increasing pressure to incorporate nature-based solutions at multiple scales: from global sustainability reporting and biodiversity initiatives, to urban re-wllding, to workplaces interested in the benefits that providing access to nature may have on their employee health and well-being. At the same time, organizations and cities are under increasing pressure to report on their environmental and social impact, all the while balancing questions on whether or not employees want to go back to the office. Adding nature into buildings, often through biophilic design, has been touted as a solution to many of these problems, but it is still seen as nice to have amenity versus an evidenced-based intervention. And while there have been several seminal studies over the last forty years on the benefits of nature, evidence on how specific aspects of nature can be incorporated into buildings to positively impact occupants' health and well-being are still lacking.

This session provides a comprehensive and critical overview of emerging research linking health, performance, and creativity outcomes with nature and its patterns in buildings, a translation of evidence for workplace outcomes, case studies, links to WELL v2-specific features, and specific design tools for biophilic design. Key questions covered by the session include:
● What does the evidence say about the benefits of adding nature to buildings and workplaces, especially around creativity?
● How can organizations use nature-based interventions as part of their larger reporting strategy that includes environmental and social impact reporting?
● What design tools exist to translate biophilic principles into practice, and what are some lessons learned from case studies?
● What does research tell us about fractals, and what are some implications for applying fractal patterns in architectural systems?
● What do studies inform us about the relationships between daylight, cognition, creativity, and health?