Biophilic Cities Journal, Vol. 2/No. 1 (June 2018)

BIOPHILIC CITIES A Global Journal of Innovation in Urban Nature Vol. 2/No. 1 June 2018 FEATURE Elevating Nature: Milan’s Bosco Verticale / Reid Coffman FEATURE Blue Cities for Better Health / Jenny Roe RESEARCH PROFILE The City of Crows / Kaeli Swift PARTNER CITY PROJECT Austin’s Central Library / Kathy Zarsky PIONEER INTERVIEW The Ground Beneath Interview / Paul Bogard



T he Biophilic Cities Journal is produced by Biophilic Cities, which partners with cities, scholars and advocates from across the globe with the aim of helping to build an understanding of the value and contribution of nature in cities to the lives of urban residents. As a central element of our work, the Biophilic Cities Network is a global collaboration of partner cities committed to working in concert to conserve and celebrate nature in all its forms and the many important ways in which cities and their inhabitants benefit from the biodiversity and wild urban spaces present in cities. Participation in the network acknowledges the importance of daily contact with nature as an element of a meaningful urban life, as well as the ethical responsibility that cities have to conserve global nature as shared habitat for non-human life and people. Many individuals and organizations are due thanks for helping produce the Journal. We owe special thanks to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Summit Foundation for their generous and continuing financial support for Biophilic Cities. We also thank the University of Virginia School of Architecture for hosting and supporting Biophilic Cities in many ways. For more information on the Biophilic Cities, and to learn about ways to become involved in this global movement, please visit us at BiophilicCities.org. Director Tim Beatley Program Director JD Brown Journal Design Developer and Editor Mennen Middlebrooks Director of Partner Cities Carla Jones Director of Biophilic Research Julia Triman BIOPHILIC CITIES ADVISORY BOARD Julian Agyeman (Tufts University); Bill Browning (Terrapin Bright Green); Lena Chan (National Parks Board of Singapore); Richard Louv (Journalist, Author); Peter Newman (Curtin University); Wallace J. Nichols (Blue Mind Fund); Richard Piacentini (Phipps Conservancy and Botanical Gardens); Fritz Steiner (University of Pennsylvania School of Design); Amanda Sturgeon (International Living Future Institute); Catherine Werner (City of St. Louis); Jennifer R. Wolch (UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design); Celia Wade-Brown (Wellington City, New Zealand). BIOPHILIC CITIES STEERING COMMITTEE Julia Africa (Boston, Massachusetts); Amber Bill (New Zealand Ministry for the Environment); Peter Brastow (San Francisco Dept. of the Environment); Matt Burlin (Portland, Oregon, Bureau of Environmental Services); Rebeca Dios (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain); Scott Edmondson (San Francisco Planning Dept.); Nick Grayson (Birmingham, U.K.); Cecilia Herzog (Inverde Institute); David Maddox (The Nature of Cities); Luis Orive (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain); Erick Shambarger (City of Milwaukee); Jana Soderlund (Curtin University); Stella Tarnay (Biophilic DC); Helena van Vliet (BioPhilly).

CONTENTS | BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL Vol. 2/ No. 1 | June 2018 1 Photo Credit: Stefano Boeri Architetti THE NATUREFUL CITY: 6 MARCHING FOR OUR LIVES AND FOR NATURE BY TIM BEATLEY 6 FEATURE: 12 ELEVATING NATURE: MILAN’S BOSCO VERTICALE BY REID COFFMAN FEATURE: 16 18 PLANT SELECTION AND PERFORMANCE IN A VERTICAL CITY BY JULIA KANE AFRICA FEATURE: BLUE CITIES FOR BETTER HEALTH BY JENNY ROE PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: 22 THE CHICAGO WHEAT PRAIRIE - PROJECT DESIGN BY OMNI ECOSYSTEMS 22 PROJECT PROFILE: 24 ANLONG VILLAGE (CHENGDU, CHINA): INTEGRATING BIOPHILIC CITY AND 30 COUNTRYSIDE BY PHOEBE TRAN & ROSITSA T. ILIEVA 4 PROJECT PROFILE: 28 LONDON AS THE WORLD’S FIRST NATIONAL PARK CITY BY TIM BEATLEY PARTNER CITY UPDATE: 30 THE SINGAPORE RAIL COORIDOR: TRANSFORMING A FORMER RAILWAY LINE INTO AN EXTRAORDINARY COMMUNITY SPACE BY SEE NIN TAN

RESEARCH PROFILE: 34 THE CITY OF CROWS BY KAELI SWIFT 34 BOOK/ FILM REVIEW: 38 “DIRT IS GOOD: ADVANTAGE OF GERMS FOR YOUR CHILD’S DEVELOPING 34 IMMUNE SYSTEM” BY JACK GILBERT & ROB KNIGHT - REVEIW BY MARTHA MORRIS NEW FROM BIOPHILIC CITIES STAFF: 40 BLUE BIOPHILIC CITIES BY TIM BEATLEY HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS, HEALING SPACES EDITED BY TIM BEATLEY, CARLA JONES, 42 & REUBEN RAINEY PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: 42 THE PERTH URBAN WETLAND BY TIM BEATLEY RESEARCH NOTES: 44 NEW DIRECTIONS FOR BIOPHILIC DESIGN RESEARCH BY JULIA TRIMAN 42 PARTNER CITY PROJECT: 46 AUSTIN’S CENTRAL LIBRARY IS AN EXPERIENCE IN ORCHESTRATED DELIGHT BY KATHY ZARSKY RESEARCH PROFILE: 54 A BIOPHILIC CITY INDEX BY DR. GUOPING HUANG PIONEER INTERVIEW: 56 INTERVIEW WITH PAUL BOGARD ON “THE GROUND BENEATH” 54 46 BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 5

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / THE NATUREFUL CITY *** March for Our Lives Protest; Charlottesville students in Washington D.C. Photo Credit: Tim Beatley Marching for Our Lives and for Nature By Tim Beatley My high school daughter sadness has been followed by High School connect with recently boarded a bus very hope and inspiration as we see or relate to biophilia, and to early in the morning, carrying the leadership of high school biophilic cities? her to the Marching for Our students, who have become There are many connections, Lives protest in Washington, voices of reason and beacons I believe. It starts for me DC, where she spent the day. of hope. I’m not sure why we with the school’s namesake, She worked the night before are surprised by this. They are someone who for many of us on a sign that carried a Nelson clearly angry about the direction was an admired champion of Mandela quote. Seeing her the world is taking. I know conservation, author of the and half a million young people from my own high school-age classic 1947 book River of (likely more) descend on daughter the trauma and fear Grass, and tireless advocate for Washington was a moment of that attending school today the Everglades. Others have optimism in an otherwise dismal entails, complete with actual made similar connections. The spring. The unfathomable level lockdowns and numerous Washington Post ran a story on of gun violence seen in the drills to prepare for the kinds Stoneman Douglas’s life, noting Parkland, Florida shootings of unthinkable things that her activism on behalf of the and the tumult of too many happened in Parkland. Everglades: “She believed that similar events in recent history How does the tragedy at the circumstances demanded tests our collective sense that Marjory Stoneman Douglas her participation.” She would change is possible. Deep 6

very much approve of the work visit and celebrate the nature all nature is often what often these young people are doing. around us in cities. gives me the strongest sense As the Parkland students have We need these nature spaces of solace and hope. Nature been quick to note, many of to heal, to celebrate, to come is a balm in the face of anger the ideas offered for hardening together. We need to be near trees and hatred, and increasingly schools (more bullet proof glass, and shorelines and walking on the evidence suggests that in arming teachers), won’t do urban trails -- we need natureful the presence of nature we are anything to protect them (and us) spaces in which to grieve, to more likely to be generous, beyond schools. Visiting a local contemplate, and sometimes to be cooperative, to be more park, hiking a community forest, to argue. Nature is an essential concerned about the long term, tending a garden plot, watching backdrop to our lives and when in short to be better human shorebirds at the beach, are these places are not safe they lose beings. This is at least a partial just a few of the many natureful those functions for us. This is one antidote to Parkland. experiences that require us to be reason why the Parkland kids have About a year ago, I had the in the public realm; indeed nature it right: we can fortify schools, but chance to film a segment of a is the ultimate public space. that misses the larger point. new documentary film about Tackling guns and gun violence In the face of such unthinkable connecting oceans and cities make sense to ensure that we may events as Parkland, I find that (called “Ocean Cities”) at the continue to actively enjoy and Seagrass Adventure at the Marjory see what marine life they could The scene was magical as kids Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature find. They divided that day into discovered many things and Center. Photo Credit: Tim Beatley groups of around eight, each brought them to the surface to accompanied by a naturalist. a chorus of collective surprise. Marjory Stoneman Douglas Each pair of students was There were filefish and sea Biscayne Nature Center, which given a net and encouraged to worms and Queen Conks. My shares its namesake with the scoop the sandy sea bottom favorite discovery that day was Parkland school. We spent to see what they could find. a puffer fish: it looked to us like several hours filming something an over-inflated tennis ball, they called the “Seagrass Adventure”, where groups of BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 7 4th-graders from area schools waded into the Atlantic ocean to

but when deposited into the important places of solace and democracy work. floating receptacle it returned to respite. But much of the nature I have also been thinking a the shape of fish, a wondrous we want to spend time in and lot about the role of protest, transformation. This was a visit celebrate is in the public realm, something critical in the fight these kids would not forget, and that is part of the point of it. to protect nature. A city (or we captured a bit of this magic We want to be in nature, enjoy culture) must avoid making on film. seeing and hearing birds, for earnest and heartfelt protest I believe there are clear instance, or walking in a park, difficult or dangerous. As connections between violence not separated from people but with the Washington march, of all kinds towards other amongst others. And there and countless others, it is an humans, and violence towards are special times in our lives essential element of a free nature and the natural world. when we need and must come society. And it is an essential It is a fair question to ask together in public spaces to act avenue for expressing our whether we ever hope to truly together, and these are often collective values about the care for the other organisms urban parks. natural world; it is a part of the and the larger ecosystems we collective conscience that steers admittedly depend on if we us to a better, gentler path; one are not able to prevent events that recognizes the need for like Parkland. Erich Fromm’s nature in our lives and in our original notion of Biophilia, and communities. the way in which he defined the concept, was about the contrast Statue of Marjory Stoneman Douglas at I spent much of June and between those choosing Fairchild Tropical Botanic, Miami. July (2017) in Perth, Western goodness, life, and hope, as Photo Credit: Lisa Jacobs Australia learning about and contrasted with those who filming the story of how a support the opposite. Fromm Here then we have a problem. community came together to was trying to make sense If we fear for our lives in public oppose a highway expansion of the horrors of war in the spaces, how can we enjoy project (known as Roe 8) that aftermath of WWII. Wars have parks and city forests, how can was threatening to destroy a continued of course, and the we wander and stroll the streets remarkable ancient banksia war on nature is as relentless of our neighborhoods, how woodland and wetland. as ever. But in the concept of can we paddle our harbors or Thousands actively campaigned biophilia perhaps lies the kernel rivers? To be outside requires in a variety of ways, occupying of a different approach. Nature not only a shared sense of trees, marching, showing up can help to foster the best in community and personal ahead of land clearance crews, us all, the common humanity, safety, but confidence in the standing up for wildlife and and the care, respect and, dare reasonable laws and regulations nature. There are many lessons I say, love, we must show for that create this safe context for to learn here, including: how to each other and and the larger us to come together. There is creatively protest -- with humor, biological community of life with no place for military weaponry music, poetry. One protester which we share this planet. here, certainly no place for guns dressed up in a Black Cockatoo Much of the nature found in of any kind in places where costume and confronted the cities is harbored in private we come together to debate, Premier at a shopping mall. spaces, of course; often these disagree, share, and protest. The road was stopped are places we don’t see and In this way, the nature and the ultimately, but not before about can’t access -- backyards, natural spaces of communities half the land was cleared. balcony feeders, rooftop are at the heart of what makes I saw the sad aftermath of gardens - -and they are this campaign: 500-year old 8

*** Kate Kelly, Founder of Save Beeliar Wetlands Photo Credit: Tim Beatley trees felled and lying on the of the remarkable remnants experience that further ground, and a landscape that saved from the bulldozers. She reminded me of the essential had been brutally scraped and talked compellingly of the way value of protest, and the role bulldozed. The violence of this that forests like that one soften of nature in reminding us of land clearance was not lost us, open us to feelings and the sanctity of life. Speaking on those who witnessed it, connections; it is her church, at the annual Land and Water including traumatized children. she tells us. Symposium at Kent State Bandicoots and other small Another day, we filmed Noongar University, I visited the memorial mammals and birds were elder Noel Nannup, who spoke there to the victims of the seen fleeing, and witnesses of the sacred role these lands National Guard shooting there (including children) were have played in the lives and in May 1970. Four students understandably shaken and culture of his people. These were killed and nine others emotional at what they were lands contain storylines and are wounded when guardsmen witnessing. places that the Noongar return opened fire. It was a horrific and My filmmaking colleagues to throughout their lives. It was defining moment as the nation (Peter Newman and Linda a privilege to help to collect grappled with an unpopular war. Blagg) and I spent one these voices and to tell this These college kids, not much afternoon filming Kate Kelly, one hopeful story of how biophilia older than those from Parkland, of the main organizers of the was channeled into a potent similarly saw the need to stand opposition to the road, founder political force. up against something they saw of the group Save Beeliar Later in 2017, I had an as senseless, in this case the Wetlands. She took us into one carnage of the Vietnam War. Cleared Wetlands in Perth, Austrialia Photo Credit: Tim Beatley BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 9

*** *** Endangered Numbat Mural Photo Credit: Tim Beatley It is worth remembering that alliances with other networks nature, in the form of a flower and organizations. Urban Forest Plan, has piloted (“flower power”) became the New Cities joining include: installation of vertical green symbol of the peace move- Curridabat, Costa Rica; Reston, walls in the city, and is one of ment of the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia; and Fremantle, in the most impressive walking I remember the imagery of the Western Australia. Conversations cities anywhere. Public art, such anti-Vietnam protester facing a with prospective partner cities as the endangered numbat wall of soldiers, bravely placing have been extensive and shown above (the state’s official flowers in the barrels of their numerous: from Toronto to mammal), is a priority, and the M1 rifles. Fast forward a few Richmond to Dubai. city has adopted a unique one- decades to the work of Rutgers Reston and Fremantle are percent-for-art public art policy environmental psychologist two examples of the biophilic that applies to private as well as Jeannette Haviland-Jones who power of smaller cities. Reston, public projects. showed through her creative a famous new town, was We continue to explore work how humans presented conceived from its beginning new relationships and new with flowers respond with a true as a city in a park. Its biophilic partnerships with a variety of smile -- the so-called Duchenne stats are impressive: some organizations, including the U.S. Smile -- demonstrating biophilia fifty-five miles of trails, a tree Green Building Council, Green and the deep and innate ways canopy coverage of fifty-three Roofs for Healthy Cities, and the that nature can reach us. percent, and a high percentage Half Earth Project, among others. In the spirit of embracing this of residents participating in We are collaborating in several remarkable power of nature, some form of citizen science major upcoming conferences our Biophilic Cities Network from dragonfly counts to stream where Biophilic Cities will be continues to grow and blossom. monitoring. Fremantle, a bit a major theme, including the Most gratefully, we have smaller still, is the region’s International Federation of received a two-year grant from historic port city, with strong Landscape Architects World the Robert Wood Johnson environmental bona fides, and Congress in Singapore in July Foundation to grow the network, a strong connection to water. 2018 and the Activating Biophilic deepen the connections among It has recently adopted a new Cities Conference in London in its partner cities and build new September 2018. We recognize that growing our global network 10

and achieving the vision of There are pigs and chickens, Resources: Biophilic Cities will require the and the sounds of birdsong all Biophilic Leadership Summit. http:// work and efforts of many people around. I came away convinced biophilicsummit.com. and many different disciplines and of the promise of these students Chattahoochee Hills Charter School. voices. -- they are learning how we are https://chatthillscharter.org. Our monthly partner city calls all connected, how we are and City of Fremantle. Public Art. https:// have become a highlight for must be part of the environment, www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/publicart. sharing, inspiring, and growing and how we ought to be City of Fremantle. Urban Forest Plan. the global movement, and we compassionate about the other https://www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/ continue to work on ways to forms of life with which we share council/key-council-strategies/urban- facilitate interaction between the world. They, like the Parkland forest-plan. and among cities. This includes students, are not likely to just Greening Youth Foundation. https:// regional meetings and exploring stand by but are learning to stand www.gyfoundation.org. new web based tools for up for nature (and for themselves). Jessica Contrera (March 22, 2018). connecting and collaborating. I have been heartened to see the “At March for Our Lives, you’ll see This past April we had a very now more common references her name again. But who was successful second Biophilic to Biophilic Cities in the press Marjory Stoneman Douglas”The Leadership Summit, co-hosted and in social media. Our partner Washington Post. https://www. by the Biophilic Institute and cities, moreover, increasingly washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/ the community of Serenbe, represent points of reference. at-march-for-our-lives-youll-see-her- near Atlanta. Leaders from the One small example can be seen name-again-but-who-was-marjory- biophilic design field converged in the recent controversy over the stoneman-douglas/2018/03/22/ there for three days to hear about cutting down of street trees in the e85dc728-2d49-11e8- and discuss inspiring projects, UK city of Sheffield. As a result of 8688-e053ba58f1e4_story. ideas, and future directions. a flawed and unpopular contract html?noredirect=on&utm_term=. Social equity and inclusivity with a management company, b78bc348b5da. were key themes this year as we thousands of beloved street Never Again: a story about a learned of remarkable efforts of trees have been cut down, to the highway and remnant bushland the Truly Living Well Center for surprise and sadness of many [video]. https://www.youtube.com/ Natural Urban Agriculture and residents. A protest has been watch?v=0uiVUiAqUzU. the Greening Youth Foundation mounted, coordinated through Save Beeliar Wetlands. http://save- to tap the power of nature in an umbrella group called STAG beeliarwetlands.com. underserved communities -- Sheffield Tree Action Groups. Sheffield Tree Action Groups (STAG). in Atlanta. We also had the The protests, around single https://savesheffieldtrees.org.uk. remarkable opportunity to spend trees, have been personal and The Marjory Stoneman Douglas several hours interviewing and courageous. In the case of one Biscayne Nature Center. http://www. filming students and teachers at tree threatened with felling, the biscaynenaturecenter.org. the Chattahoochee Hills Charter Vernon Oak, residents mustered Truly Living Well Center for Natural School. This K-8 grade school is with “songs, poems and speeches Urban Agriculture. https://www. unusual in many respects. It is and a good crowd of 120 people.” trulylivingwell.com. designed as a series of smaller What has been unfolding in University of Virginia, School of Archi- classroom buildings embedded Sheffield seems inconsistent with tecture (Jan. 23, 2018). UVA’s Biophilic in a forest, where the kids spend the ideals of a Biophilic City and Cities Receives Grant to Expand Its a large part of their day outside. some observers have noticed. Reach and Impact. https://www.arch. They tend food gardens, go As one recently tweeted: “What virginia.edu/news/uvas-biophilic- on hikes, and use the nature happened Sheffield? You were cities-receives-grant-to-expand-its- around them as a laboratory and once a leading biophilic city. Not reach-and-impact. extended learning environment. anymore it seems.” Vernon’s Week (Oct. 22, 2017). tree- bound: a sheffield’s community’s love for its trees. https://treeboundblog. wordpress.com/2017/10/22/ver- nons-week. BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 11

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / FEATURE The Vertical Forest *** Photo Credit: Stefano Boeri Architetti ELEVATING NATURE: MILAN’S BOSCO VERTICALE By Reid Coffman, MLA, PhD Finding nature in a high-rise single-family neighborhoods. The eighteen- and twenty- Boeri envisioned public exchange six-story tree-covered towers apartment seems quixotic, with neighbors occurring emerge from the historic stone but it may be just the biophilic through a terrace-scape on the and brick city as an aberration injection dense cities need. building’s exterior façade. In to the sculptured glass buildings After centuries of practice this space, residents would have flourishing today in Milan’s distinguishing the urbane from views of nature, direct access to Porta Nuova district. Taking a wilderness, a pair of residential vegetation, and the opportunity closer look at the neighborhood, high rises in Milan, Italy has for neighborly exchange about it is easy to see how Bosco’s flipped the paradigm by the pleasantries of gardening, 800 trees, 4,500 shrubs and proposing a new social ecology plants, and wildlife. Relying 15,000 plants are an unfolding within its building façade, and on a compact intimacy of the evolutionary adaptation of is providing an option for ultra- gardening tradition, Bosco the local balcony gardening urban access to nature. Verticale expands Milan’s cultural tradition. habits of terrace gardening into a Bosco Verticale, designed by community level asset that occurs architect Stefano Boeri, opened as a forest on a building within in 2014 to provide residents the city. with an alternative to suburban 12

New opportunity comes from varying distances from trees The experience is magnified when how the terraces connect and plants creating a feeling standing outside on the terrace. trees and people. By looking of being cloaked in nature. Every terrace is more than an at the façade from the city, the Yet, in the background, the city extension of private real estate. overall terrace layout breaks is alive with activity, creating Stepping outside, one notices regimented uniformity common an extremely uncommon very few terraces align on the in high-rise balconies to create association of nature in its same floor creating a nice sense a seemingly random visual context. For example, residents of privacy. Instead, diagonal condition. This design offers can sit at the kitchen table views downward and upward spaces that accommodate tree within a few inches of glossy offer views that prioritize the canopies while echoing the green foliage and beautiful vegetation while composing a mysteries of larger systems that warm colored branches while, casual environment of chance are at play. through the canopy, they encounter common in the The selection and arrangement can enjoy the view to the city city. These staggered, off-set of trees and vegetation creates streets filled with motorists, terraces are where the neighborly neither landscape nor garden. It bicyclists and pedestrians. This discussions of plants, weather, and is a novel environment, a sort of comforting prospect is enriched local community can begin. phyto-scape or terrace-scape, with the realization that the The engineering systems that if you will. More than simple vegetation being enjoyed is not provide support, water, and balcony gardening, the setting one’s own, but a neighbor’s. nutrients to the trees and plants provides an exposure to plants The plants enjoyed through the are equally unique. Structural and wildlife inside and outside windows are part of a much larger planters contain light-weight the building while delivering a interdependent social experience. designer growing media, shared set of ecological benefits The tree canopies visible through irrigation tubing, and drainage including: beauty; mystery; windows are actually growing pipes that service the plant light filtration; and air and from a downstairs neighbor’s roots while wires stabilize tree temperature regulation. terrace and the tree planted on trunks to withstand extreme It is rare to have an intimate one’s terrace is enjoyed primarily winds. All the plant material is experience with plants in a by the upstairs neighbors. This maintained and stewarded by high-rise building, let alone one overlapping creates a one-of- a team of professionals that that is so exposed to the public. a-kind social ecological setting is governed by a residential Through the windows, residents that exceeds anything found in board making the entire façade are continuously oriented at the single-family home suburban a public space organized and garden. operated by the community. View from the 20th floor & View through neighbors’ trees Photo Credit: Reid Coffman BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 13

The neighborhood context LEFT & ABOVE: Bat Photo Credit: Stefano Boeri Architetti Cloud The settings at Bosco exploring how living architecture Reid Coffman is the Editor Verticale begin to defy current engages urban culture and of the Journal of Living categorization. Using the term politics and, if expressed beyond Architecture and an Associate “garden” to describe these convention, could offer a larger Professor at Kent State places is inaccurate, because language of urban nature. In University. gardens have traditional creating innovative ways to practices, orders, and narratives engage nature, we must develop Resources / Projects: that fail to properly translate new verbal expressions and in these new settings. Bosco terminology to help explain Journal of Living Architecture. Verticale places humans the value and benefits of such Research. https:// in contact with nature, and experiences. livingarchitecturemonitor.com/ subsequently other people, It turns out that growing a research. in a novel way to reveal the vertical forest on a building M6B2 Tower of Biodiversity. innovative potential of biophilic façade is a visionary, workable, Eduardo Francois. http://www. architecture. and realistic form of biophilic edouardfrancois.com/en/projects/ Other speculative projects offer architecture that can be a towers/details/article/58/m6b2-tour- similarly compellingly experiences refreshing way of accessing de-la-biodiversite/#.WplTKejwaUk. that require translation and nature in the densifying city. New Government City. Balmori definition. At the building scale, Associates. http://www.balmori.com/ Torre Rosewood by Ateliers Jean Photo Credit: portfolio/new-government-city. Nouvel (São Paulo, Brazil), Solaris Stefano Boeri Architetti The Vertical Forest. Stefano at Fusionopolis by T.R. Hamzah & Boeri Architetti. https://www. Ken Yeang (Singapore), and the stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/ M6B2 Tower of Biodiversity by portfolios/vertical-forest. Eduardo Francois (Paris, France) Torre Rosewood. Ateliers Jean each aggressively address social Nouvel. http://www.jeannouvel.com/ and vegetative dynamics in the en/projects/torre-rosewood. exterior façade and are far from T. R. Hamzah & Ken Yeang (April being categorized as gardens. 2014). Solaris at Fusionopolis. Meanwhile, at district scale, New Greenroofs.com. http://www. Government City by Balmori greenroofs.com/content/articles/126- Associates (Sejong, South Korea) is SOLARIS-at-Fusionopolis-2B-From- Military-Base-to-Bioclimatic-Eco- Architecture.htm#.WplVaejwaUk. 14

Looking up from the public park APRIJLU2N0E182/01287 | 15 Photo Credit: Elijah Less

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / FEATURE COMPANION Milan’s Bosco Verticale Photo Credit: Stefano Boeri Architetti Plant Selection and Performance in a Vertical City By Julia Kane Africa Dense urban centers struggle trees and long-stemmed CO2 absorption, it may also to satisfy residential demand wildflowers whereas conifers, provide objective improvement for privacy and contact with woody shrubs and low, hardy in air quality through removal of nature. Milan’s Bosco Verticale plants dominate the chilly contaminants. How does plant is a striking example of the peaks. Following the principle filtration of airborne particles trend towards distributing that “nature knows best,” we work, and how might that process green space vertically, joining see that leaf characteristics change with elevation in an urban similar projects worldwide in a evolved to protect plants from context? race to improve environmental the elements while enabling Popular anxiety regarding air health, residential well-being, vital metabolic functions quality is increasing; terms like and biodiversity. While this of photosynthesis and gas particulate matter (PM) 10 (larger building is an exemplary project respiration. Accordingly, the particles like dust or pet dander) and has inspired many, it also plant specifications in our and PM 2.5 (smaller byproducts offers opportunities to examine “Vertical Forests” may vary of combustion) are common how elevation changes the from the ground floor to the in popular media. Smaller size ecological performance of the penthouse. particles are considered more facade. Milan has historically struggled hazardous because they have with poor air quality stemming the capacity to penetrate the Generally speaking, increases from both pollution and airborne lungs more deeply. The external in building height expose plants dust particles. The increase in leaf surface of the particle determines to increased wind speed and surface area on the façade of the synergies with other allergens decreased temperature. Given Bosco Verticale will doubtless and irritants. The absolute amount that we seek to replicate nature improve occupants’ perception and allergenicity of ambient in the sky, we might do well of important sensible air quality pollen is expected to increase to consider the example of a parameters like temperature as temperature increases and mountain. In the foothills, one and freshness; in addition to growing seasons lengthen expects broadleaf deciduous 16

globally; particulate matter bound to pollen will continue to elevate the incidence of asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular disease. With this knowledge in hand, the performance of design interventions that improve air quality takes on renewed importance for population health. Environmental characteristics Diagram: Plants of the Chicago Region like wind, temperature, and Credit: Indiana Academy of Science, vplants.org precipitation interact with the surfaces of leaves to mediate habitat – and, in the process, Phytofiltration of airborne the fate of particulates. Leaf size, reliably improve our habitat – is contaminants is still a relatively thickness, surface roughness, both a science and art. new field with footings in botany, and distribution of stomata While it is true that the addition forestry science, meteorology, (the pores through which gas of plants to our facades improves physics and environmental health; exchange takes place) have building performance through in order to fulfill the promise of evolved strategically to protect cooling and physical barriers to green facades, we must continue plants from water loss, wind shear, airborne contaminants, their most to rigorously evaluate our designs and predators. Stomata serve to important contribution may also to ensure optimal performance. control the gas exchange process be their most ephemeral. The Julia Kane Africa is a Biophilic for the plant; the goal, at a very perception of cool, clean air or Design and Wellness consultant simple level, is to accept gaseous shelter conferred by a balcony and researcher formerly with the CO2 for energy production that resembles a sylvan grotto is Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public without losing much water vapor less trendy amenity than critical Health. in the process. As a general habitat to support health and matter, most particles are too big wellbeing. And yet while we to be absorbed by the stomata. recognize how extraordinary The physical structure of a leaf these spaces are, we must remain (rough, hairy, waxy, smooth) sanguine about our expectations combined with the micron-thin of the plants we have chosen to boundary layer determines sheath our buildings. whether particles stick to the leaf surface or are sloughed off. While it is true that a leaf may remove dust and particulates from the air (think of the film you can wipe off your long-suffering houseplants), it cannot do so under all conditions. High winds disrupt the boundary layer, stripping the plant of the electrostatic and moisture properties that encourage particle deposition and retention. Waxy, water repellant leaf surfaces also shed particles easily. Choosing plants that will thrive in their built environment BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 17

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / FEATURE *** Photo Credit: Jan Woudstra, University of Sheffield Blue Cities for Better Health By Jenny Roe “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever” - Jacques Yves Cousteau These words, penned by the for example, can improve how A Blue Model of Health French conservationist Jacques we manage stress. Even viewing The notion that a dose of nature Cousteau, articulate what we images of the sea in a virtual is good for our health is not new all intuitively feel about moving reality environment can reduce or novel. There is now a wealth water – be it the sea, a river, the pain we experience at the of evidence to show that access or a downtown fountain – and dentist. to nature in our cities provides the unique magic and wonder In this article, I address why water multiple benefits, from improving it harbors. Recall when you settings have this positive effect life longevity to alleviating were a child: running through on us, citing research from around depression. The World Health fountains, the irresistible urge the world. I argue that access Organization’s 2016 review of the to dip your feet in a pool, or the to water in our cities is not just a evidence currently offers the most thrill of diving into the ocean. “necessity of life” for basic human rigorous overview of the benefits survival, for example, providing of urban green space to physical, This inherent fascination and safe drinking water and sanitation, mental and social well-being. curiosity in water, in turn, triggers but is integral to sustaining our Collectively this is referred to as a host of well-being benefits, psychological well-being. “green health.” including a change in our mind- body interactions. Taking a walk In recent years, researchers have along a downtown riverfront, 18

begun pursuing the evidence regulation, for example, water this context, the curiosity and in relation to “blue health” – bodies help mitigate urban heat wonder that water sparks – is the positive health benefits of island effects. A second direct a critical environmental cue in access to our coasts, rivers and pathway is stress regulation with the process of psychological canals – led by several European evidence to show that contact restoration. research groups. By “blue,” I mean with nature slows down our stress any environment that fosters response and induces calm. The Health Benefits of Blue interactions with water: from The other two pathways in the Space walking along a canal towpath, model are physical activity and interacting with the sparkle and social contact. These pathways Blue Space Makes Us More flow of a city water fountain, or indicate that we are more active Physically Active even through virtual reality in a in environments where there hospital or care home. is access to water and more We are more likely to be The evidence for blue health has likely to meet people in these physically active if we live recently been brought together environments, either incidentally near inland water or the in a systematic review by Gascon or for organized activities. In coast. Blue features – such et al. (2017) with limited evidence these two scenarios, there is as fountains – simply make showing the benefits of blue purposeful, direct interaction walking about a city a happier environments to physical health with the blue environment: we and more enjoyable experience. and psychological well-being. I’ll consciously choose to engage Sheffield, in the UK, is one take a look at this evidence below, with the setting. city where urban designers but first I explore the theory Another complementary, but and engineers have worked to behind blue health. distinctive theory, posits that integrate blue features into the What Triggers Blue Health? our response to the blue urban fabric. The water theme There are four main pathways environment is primarily a is announced at the city’s major through which it is believed cognitive one, and that the arrival point, the train station, that nature contact (including soft stimuli of water – the that has a linear water feature blue environments) supports patterns and light falling on screening the sound of the health (Hartig et al. (2014)). Two it as it flows – promote our adjacent traffic, making the of these pathways are direct, involuntary attention and arrival experience welcoming meaning nature has a direct recovery from cognitive and memorable. impact on our health without us fatigue. Called Attention consciously being aware of it. In Restoration Theory (ART) There are a handful of studies the case of blue environments, (Kaplan and Kaplan (1989)), showing that living near inland one direct pathway is temperature it argues that “fascination” in water increases one’s likelihood the natural environment - in *** Water, water everywhere … in Sheffield, UK . Photo Credit: Jenny Roe *** BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 19

*** Photo Credit: Jan Woudstra, University of Sheffield to walk or run (see Gascon et al. waterfront can improve perceived blue space (ocean and freshwater) (2017) for a full review). The most and physiological stress as (Nutsford et al. (2016)) (NZ). powerful evidence, however, measured by heart rate variability The benefits of blue space are comes from research in coastal and self-reports. sustained across the life course: settings. Studies from the UK Furthermore, a tactical urban for children (Amoly et al. (2014)) (Wood et al. (2016)) and New intervention along the waterfront (Spain), adolescents (Huynh et al. Zealand (Witten et al. (2008)) have significantly improved self- (2013)) and seniors (Finlay et al. found a link between living near reported well-being, by directly (2015)). Older adults, in particular, the coast and a lower Body Mass engaging participants with have distinctly therapeutic Index in children, and adolescents the blue environment (via relationships with blue space, and adults. Several studies from historical imagery of the sea) providing opportunities to Croatia have observed reduced and improving the waterfront’s connect with the past as well as hypertension among adult comfort level by offering shade assisting with independent living coronary heart disease patients and seating. In this unique in the present (Coleman and Kerns in hospitals located in coastal experiment, we showed how (2014)). areas (Bergovec et al. (2008)) as encouraging fascination in the well as a higher prevalence of blue environment can further Blue Space Makes us More cardiovascular health problems enhance its effect on visitors’ Sociable among those living inland well-being. compared to those living near Further evidence is provided by Only a handful of studies to date coasts, particularly in women a handful of studies showing the have found relationships between (Kern et al. (2009)). effects – mostly of coastal settings access to water and improved – on psychological well-being (see social well-being (for example, While the evidence is very again Gascon et al. (2017) for a see Triguero-Mas et al. (2015)). limited currently, it does review). Individuals report being Our study in West Palm Beach suggest that access to water happier in marine and coastal found significant positive change improves the chances of being areas, as well as freshwater, for social well-being indicators physically active, and potentially wetlands and floodplains, (including social trust and sense reduces the risk of obesity compared with urban or rural of belonging) from walking along and associated chronic health settings (MacKerron and Mourato a downtown waterfront designed problems, such as diabetes. (2013)) (UK). Living nearer coastal with short-term seating, shade areas has been shown to bring and interaction opportunities, Blue Space Improves multiple benefits: better mental compared to an exposed and Psychological Well-Being well-being (Alcock et al. (2015)) empty section of the waterfront. Access to blue space can reduce (UK); improved life satisfaction Although the evidence is currently our stress levels and improve our (Brereton et al. (2008)) (Ireland); limited, access to canals and psychological well-being. Our and reduced psychological waterways arguably afford study carried out in West Palm distress in adults and adolescents, significant opportunities for Beach, Florida, has shown how simply from increased views of social connections, including: a short walk along a downtown impromptu activities, for example walking the dog; organized 20

activities such as canoeing or Amoly, E., Dadvand, P., Forns, J., López-Vicente, 1: 11–17. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ rowing; or purposely designed M., Basagaña, X., Julvez, J., Alvarez- Pedrerol, M., pubmed/19563140. activities with environmental cues Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J., Sunyer, J. (2014). Green MacKerron, G., Mourato, S. (2013). Happiness is that trigger engagement. and blue spaces and behavioral development in greater in natural environments. Glob. Environ. Blue Environments for All Barcelona schoolchildren: the BREATHE project. Chang. 23: 992–1000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. As yet, we don’t have a full Environ. Health Perspect. 122: 1351–1358. gloenvcha.2013.03.010. understanding of the impact https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408215. Nutsford, D., Pearson, A.L., Kingham, S., Reitsma, of blue environments on our Bergovec, M., Reiner, Z., Milicić, D., Vrazić, H. F. (2016). Residential exposure to visible blue health and well-being but what (2008). Differences in risk factors for coronary space (but not green space) associated with low- we do know – outlined above – heart disease in patients from continental and er psychological distress in a capital city.Health suggests great potential for blue Mediterranean regions of Croatia. Wien. Klin. Place 39: 70–78. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ space as a health resource. The Wochenschr. 120: 684–692. https://www.ncbi. pubmed/26974233. fountains and waterways in our nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19116710. Tanja-Dijkstra, K., et al. (2017). The Sooth- cities are not only practical and BlueHealth. https://bluehealth2020.eu. ing Sea: A Virtual Coastal Walk Can Reduce aesthetically pleasing, but are a Brereton, F., Clinch, J.P., Ferreira, S. (2008). Hap- Experienced and Recollected Pain. Envi- human necessity that sustains piness, geography and the environment. Ecol. ronment and Behavior, 1-27. https://doi. our health and well-being. If blue Econ. 65: 386-396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. org/10.1177/0013916517710077. space is to be employed as a really ecolecon.2007.07.008. Triguero-Mas, M., Dadvand, P., Cirach, M., useful health tool, it needs to Coleman, T., & Kearns, R. (2014). The role of blue Martínez, D., Medina, A., Mompart, A., Basagaña, offer a quality environment that spaces in experiencing place, aging and well-be- X., Gražulevičienė, R., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J. is accessible and safe for all. As ing: insights from Waiheke Island, New Zealand. (2015). Natural outdoor environments and Sheffield demonstrates, managing Health & Place. 35: 206-217. https://www.ncbi. mental and physical health: relationships and urban water systems with an nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25456013. mechanisms. Environ. Int. 77: 35–4. https://doi. integrated and sustainable urban Finlay, J., Franke, T., McKay, H., Sims-Gould, J. org/10.1016/j.envint.2015.01.012. water planning system, makes (2015). Therapeutic landscapes and well-being University of Exeter Medical School. BlueHealth. for a joyful and health promoting in later life: impacts of blue and green spaces for http://www.ecehh.org/research-projects/blue- place that leaves a long-lasting older adults. Health Place 34: 97–106. https:// health. sense of wonder. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25982704. Witten, K., Hiscock, R., Pearce, J., Blakely, T. Gascon, M., Zijlema, W., Vert, C., White, M.P., Nieu- (2008). Neighbourhood access to open spaces Resources wenhuijsen, M.J. (2017). Outdoor blue spaces, and the physical activity of residents: a national human health and well-being: A systematic re- study. Prev. Med. 47: 299–303. https://www.ncbi. Alcock, I., White, M.P., Lovell, R., Higgins, S.L., Os- view of quantitative studies. Int J Hyg Envir Heal nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18533242. borne, N.J., Husk, K., Wheeler, B.W. (2015). What 4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.08.004. Wood, S.L., Demougin, P.R., Higgins, S., Husk, K., accounts for England’s green and pleasant land? Happy City, University of Virginia, Street Plans Wheeler, B.W., White, M. (2016). Exploring the A panel data analysis of mental health and land Collaborative and Space Syntax (2017). Happier relationship between childhood obesity and cover types in rural England. Landsc. Urban Plan. by Design. https://thehappycity.com/wp-con- proximity to the coast: a rural/urban perspec- 142: 38–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurb- tent/uploads/2017/04/STC-report-final-version- tive. Health Place 40: 129–136. https://doi. plan.2015.05.008. v.5.pdf. org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.05.010. Hartig, T., Mitchell, R., de Vries, S., Frumkin, H. World Health Organization Regional Office (2014). Nature and health. Annu. Rev. Public for Europe (2016). Urban green spaces and Health 35: 207–228. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. health. http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/ gov/pubmed/24387090. pdf_file/0005/321971/Urban-green-spaces-and- Huynh, Q., Craig, W., Janssen, I., Pickett, W. (2013). health-review-evidence.pdf?ua=1. Exposure to public natural space as a protective factor for emotional well-being among young Jenny Roe is Director of the Center people in Canada. BMC Public Health 13: 407. for Design + Health, in the School https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-407. of Architecture, University of Kaplan, R. and Kaplan, S. (1989). The Experience Virginia and is an environmental of Nature: A Psychological Perspective. Cam- psychologist who explores restorative bridge University Press. environments, natural or built. Kern, J., Polasek, O., Milanović, S.M., Dzakula, A., Fister, K., Strnad, M., Ivanković, D., Vuletić, S. (2009). Regional pattern of cardiovascular risk burden in Croatia. Coll. Antropol. 33 Suppl. “A river is more than an amenity.... It is a treasure. It offers a necessity of life that must be rationed among those who have power over it”. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. U.S. Supreme Court justice, New Jersey v. New York, May 4, 1931. The delight and curiosity of interacting with water in Sheffield, a UK city with an integrated urban water plan. Photo Credit: Jenny Roe BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 21

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / PROJECT SPOTLIGHT The Chicago Wheat Prairie Project Design by Omni Ecosystems A pastoral wheat prairie sits atop a historic three-story building in Chicago, bringing amber waves to the heart of the city. This project is the work of a team of architects and ecologists led by Omni Ecosystems and garnered a Green Roof and Wall Award of Excellence. The winter wheat is one of fifty different incorporated prairie plant species providing an ecosystem for a va- riety of wildlife (and humans). The initial wheat harvest resulted in sixty-six pounds of high quality, hyperlocal whole wheat pastry flour. Thank you to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities for highlighting this project. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities has been a leader in promoting the growth of living architecture for nearly twenty years. Please visit them to learn more about this and other innovative green roof and wall projects. XXXXXXXXXX 242 Interior Main Lobby XXXXXXXXXX

Rooftop Wheat Prairie Photo Credits: Hannah Hoggatt Photography BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 23

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / PROJECT PROFILE Above: Crops grown along the river in Pixian Medellín River Parks Right: “Welcome to our Happy Farm!” Photo Credit: Jorge Pérez Jara- Photo Credits: CURA Anlong Village: Integrating Biophilic City and Countryside By Phoebe Tran and Rositsa T. Ilieva The biophilic city can hardly decentralized ecological the Anlong Village Project, interventions in the rural areas emerged in 1992, when the be attained by keeping action of the region, like the Anlong City of Chengdu launched the in the city alone. Considering Village Project discussed below, Funan River Comprehensive ecological networks, rather effectively demonstrates the Renovation Project to recover than administrative boundaries, virtues of a multi-scale strategy the city’s most important as the domain of nature- for planning the biophilic city. waterway from severe pollution. centered policies and actions What is more, it calls attention Over ten years, the government is imperative if cities are to the importance of people- invested RMB 20 billion to advance human and centered biophilic interventions, (USD 3.4 billion) in pollution environmental well-being in empowering urban and rural management, flood control, tandem. Rivers are arguably communities, as a means to housing and infrastructure the urban systems that best an inclusive and durable urban programs, and the construction exemplify the need for a ecosystems governance. of a greenbelt along the river. “rooftop to region” approach to The impetus for the restoration Despite these extensive efforts, biophilic urban development. of the Funan River, and the results proved unsatisfactory. The ecological restoration of ensuing development of the Funan River in the City of Chengdu, China through 24

This was due to a considerable miles) northwest of Chengdu economic, social, and amount of chemical fertilizer along the Funan River. CURA environmental issues affecting run-off from rural areas took the approach of rebuilding Anlong Village. They addressed upstream, causing sixty percent the community’s ecological the issue of river contamination of the total pollution in the system and promoting mutually from households by installing a river. In 2003, to address the beneficial rural-urban linkages closed-loop system consisting root cause of river pollution in to ensure resiliency in the co- of urine-diverting toilets (UDT) the city, the City of Chengdu evolution of the city’s urban and phytoremediation systems, supported the establishment and rural landscapes. The also known as constructed of the Chengdu Urban Rivers association aimed to construct wetlands. With the UDTs, Association (CURA) – a non- a river protection belt along the urine was used as fertilizer governmental organization Funan River bank by integrating and feces were used for the funded by government pollution-free, closed circuit 8-cubic meter bio-digesters, sources, private corporations, ecological resource systems in which were built by households foundations, embassies, and villages. Anlong Village served and compensated with RMB individuals to explore new as the pilot project for this 500 (USD 75) by CURA in approaches to river pollution plan, demonstrating that the order to curb deforestation and through research projects sustainable ecosystem model cut down on household use and environmental protection is replicable, scalable, and has of wood for fuel. CURA also activities. One of CURA’s most significant potential for positive collaborated with Huang Shida, notable initiatives, the Anlong change. the bioengineer who designed Sustainable Development Over five years, CURA’s team the Huoshui Park’s Water Model Village Project, took carried out their comprehensive Purification System, to create a place in Ande town, Pi county program to address the micro-water purification system about 40 kilometers (24.8 for Anlong. Wetland construction in Anlong Photo Credit: Mark Takefman, CURA BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 25

A hydrophyte filter bed was farming practices to villagers, organic farmers and organic used to connect a waste water but also to increase their food consumers to interact in pipe to a natural filtration income through a community- a shared space. To maintain system made of gravel and supported agriculture (CSA) information sharing within the plants with extensive root program that targeted the urban environmental sphere, CURA systems to absorb and break market for organic food. also established the Farmer’s down toxic substances in the In 2006, twenty households of Forum, a regularly held meeting waste water. The constructed the 160 with UDTs, wetlands, that connects villagers with wetlands were tested by and bio-digesters in Anlong urban resources such as the Director of the Chengdu Village took part in a trial to organizations and practitioners Center for Disease Control & return to traditional agricultural as well as new technologies Prevention, Li Xiaohui, with production. These farmers and ideas. In addition, the funding from the National made a commitment to Green Consumption Alliance Geographic Air and Water eliminate the use of pesticides was founded to mobilize and Conservation Fund. After a year and fertilizers, only plant connect a network of over 2,000 of testing, the wetlands were seasonally, and attract wildlife urban volunteers and organic shown to successfully treat the back into the farmland to re- consumers who are interested water for use in farmers’ fields establish a natural biologic in farming in their spare time. for irrigation or directly back into chain. The re-establishment of trust the river. Since the grey water The project allowed villagers to between urban consumers from the water treatment system adopt a more environmentally- and rural residents has, in fact, and biofertilizer from the biogas conscious lifestyle and created effectively enabled villagers residue could be used for the opportunity for new initiatives to sustain their production village’s agricultural production, such as the Field with Hope independently from CURA, grow they were able to eliminate use organic plantation, a monthly a strong relationship with city of chemical inputs and therefore philanthropic event hosted dwellers, and, in the process, reduce river contamination. by volunteers that invited transition Chengdu to a more CURA was not only able to biophilic city-region. systematically introduce organic Gao family’s constructed wetland in Pidu District 26

Family farm at Anlong Village While different components of CURA’s Photo Credit: CURA project are still carried on to this day, such A Closed Cycle Eco-Household of Anlong Model as monthly tours to the village and use of Village the Environmental Center for teaching and Wetland construction in Anlong events, many eco-installments were lost Photo Credit: Mark Takefman, CURA when the local government replaced several of the village’s households to build small, centralized hamlets. The number of farm- ers still growing organically has reduced to about eight due to a number of reasons tied to their inability to achieve economies of scale and organic certification. As Cheng- du’s urban area encroaches upon Anlong Village with high-rise buildings, the local communities of Ande Town will need to harness the support of their urban network to preserve the ecosystem that they have worked so hard to restore and preserve. Phoebe Tran is a student in sustainable foodscapes from The New School, New York, NY. Rositsa T. Ilieva is Adjunct Faculty at The New School, New York, NY focused on urban food systems. Resources Beatley, T. (2010) Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning. Washington, DC. Island Press. Hsu, A. (April 19, 2008). Working the Land the Natural Way. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/cheng- du/2008/04/last_week_melissa_block_and.html. Moon, P. (July 11, 2010). A Fresh Start. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from http://www.scmp.com/article/719396/ fresh-start. Ten Anlong Village Web Stories with CURA. (2015, July 13). Retrieved from http://www.rivers.org.cn/en/ news/201507/658.html. Ye, Y., Legates, R., & Qin, B. (2013). Coordinated Urban-Rural Development Planning in China. Journal of the American Planning Association. 79(2), 125-137. Retrieved from https:// www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944363.2013.88222 3?scroll=top&needAccess=true. Zhao, R. (2013). Solving the Problem of Urban River Pollu- tion: Protect the River from the Headwater and Restore the Ecosystem. China NGO Case Study Series. Rutgers Univer- sity. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9ba3/ e68a55d589811d6b4cff6992b1b89f48073f.pdf. BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 27

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / PROJECT SPOTLIGHT London as the World’s First National Park City By Tim Beatley At Biophilic Cities, we are I spoke recently with Daniel support for making London frequently suggesting the need about the genesis of this a National Park City, and he to reimagine cities and urban work. It grew for him out of the believes that they will reach a life. We need a new narrative, experience of visiting all fifteen majority of wards voting in favor a new story that blends the of the UK’s national parks, (only one has voted against natural and the cultural. We and finding the lack of any so far). There is also an online believe that future cities should urban connection curious: “I petition and he has attracted the aspire to an immersive vision just wondered why it was that support of London Mayor Sadiq of nature and we often suggest considering the fact that 10% of Khan. What the designation will the need to transition from England, and 7% of the United ultimately mean in practice is designing parks in cities to a Kingdom, is urban habitat, unclear -- no new budgetary or vision of a city as a park. why that kind of habitat wasn’t planning powers would derive The work of geographer and reflected within the family of from it. The effects will be National Geographic Explorer national parks.” Cities are also more mental and perceptual; Daniel Raven-Ellison is moving places of remarkable agency a shift that will hopefully, in us close to such a vision, for residents, Daniel tells me: turn, convert to new personal through what he calls a National “I have incredible power to commitments and public Park City. For him, it flows from influence my street, my garden, priorities. an epiphany that more than my house, my local community.” Raven-Ellison has been half the London metro area is In these ways, urban doing many things to raise comprised of parks and nature communities have significant awareness for this idea. He -- 53% to be more precise. It power to shape future nature. recently completed a “Big Walk is a startling number and to be By “flipping”, in a big way, our Around London” covering 560 sure this represents a highly collective conception of what kilometers and crossing the fragmented and fractured set a “national park” is (think your Thames River some eleven of small spaces around the city, backyard, or the town square) times. You can see here the from road verges to backyards we begin to see these spaces spiral route he took, speaking and some larger parks and with new eyes, new possibilities, with people along the way. I landscapes such as Hampstead new reverence as habitats that followed his progress on Twitter Heath (one of my favorite support significant biodiversity and was amazed at his obvious places). The 53% number and ecosystem functions. stamina as he conducted many is in some important ways a Much of the work to date has walking conversations with mental gamechanger. There been mustering support for the various citizens and officials is more land area in greater idea. Raven-Ellison believes along the way. London undeveloped, and in that the best level to work at Ravens-Ellison is busy some degree of natural state, is the “ward”, essentially the building support in other ways than there is in the homes and smallest electoral unit in the too. One major initiative has offices that make up the built British system. Already, some been publishing a map of the environment. 238 wards have voted their 28

Big Walk Around London Created by: Charlie Peel Image Credit: Greater London National Park City Greater London National Park natural synergies with the idea Resources: City. It is beautiful, at once a of DC as a National Park City, practical guide to where to as DC is also a partner city in City of London. Hampstead Heath. find nature, and a useful guide the Biophilic Cities Network. https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things- for residents to see how they And in DC’s case there are to-do/green-spaces/hampstead-heath/ might enjoy nearby nature (and already more than thirty different Pages/default.aspx. how remarkably close it is). It U.S. National Park System units Daniel Raven-Ellison: Guerilla Geog- is also a tool for grasping the within the city (Rock Creek Park rapher & Creative Explorer. https:// larger concept and for seeding and Anacostia Park to name ravenellison.com. a new mental map of the city. just two) making the idea even Greater London National Park City Already, 6,000 copies have more appropriate. We can only Initiative. http://www.nationalparkcity. been distributed. There is also a hope that the idea catches london. crowdfunding campaign to raise on. Daniel speaks of the first National Geographic Society. Guerilla funds to plant wildflowers -- 9 reactions that he gets when he Geographer: Dr. Daniel Raven-Ellison. million wildflowers actually, one introduces the idea of a National https://www.nationalgeographic.org/ for every resident of London. Park City: “On the whole people news/real-world-geography-daniel-ra- Daniel and I spoke of applying tend to think ‘this is crazy.’ But ven-ellison. this idea to other cities. then you explain to them the U.S. National Park Service. District of Washington, DC, another capital idea and they think ‘okay, that’s Columbia. https://www.nps.gov/state/ city (and home to the National pretty awesome, how can I get dc/index.htm. Geographic Society), might be involved?” a logical next step. There are BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 29

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / PARTNER CITY UPDATE The Singapore Rail Corridor: Transforming a Former R By See N Singapore is an island city- Melayu (KTM) railway line that throughout its length. Vestiges linked Singapore to Malaysia. of railway history such as state with a land area of about It is twenty-four kilometers the black painted steel truss 720 sq. kilometers (just over long (nearly fifteen miles), bridges and a small country- 275 sq. miles) and a population stretching across the entire style railway station are of 5.5 million. While the country island from Woodlands Town retained and conserved as has earned its name as a “City in the north to the old Tanjong heritage structures. The Rail in a Garden”, the need to set Pagar Railway Station in the Corridor with its green biophilic aside green community spaces south. Since the railway ceased experience and historical setting for relief and recreation is operations in 2011, the Rail contrasts sharply with the rest of increasingly important in the Corridor became an informal modern urban Singapore. years ahead as the country public space popular with nature The extraordinary length of the continues to progress and lovers, trail runners and cyclists. Rail Corridor and the diversified develop. To the people who use it, it is character of its surrounding The Rail Corridor was part a delightful “green corridor” neighbourhoods make it truly of the former Keretapi Tanah characterized by the un- unique. An estimated one manicured natural landscapes 30

Aerial view of Former Bukit Timah Railway Station node Photo Credit: MND Railway Line into an Extraordinary Community Space Nin Tan million people live within one A Request for Proposals (RFP) to 2) Retain its sense of place and kilometer of the Corridor. There develop a Concept Master Plan celebrate its railway heritage. are also many workplaces and for the Rail Corridor was awarded community facilities nearby to a multidisciplinary team led 3) Re-establish a seamless that include offices, retail areas, by Nikken Sekkei in late 2015. connectivity along the entire industrial and business parks, The Concept Master Plan aims to twenty-four- kilometer route for a hospital and more than fifty achieve the following planning pedestrian use and cycling. educational institutions ranging and design goals established from primary schools to a by the Urban Redevelopment 4) Enhance its biodiversity polytechnic. Where the former Authority (URA) after extensive and function as an ecological KTM line physically divided public engagement with various corridor through improved communities, there is now the stakeholders, interest groups and landscaping. opportunity to transform the Rail the wider community: Corridor into an inclusive and 1) Reinforce its unique identity as 5) Create an inclusive, safe extraordinary community space a “green corridor.” and inviting public space that connects neighbourhoods that encourages the spirit of and links communities. exploration and discovery. BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 31

Artist Impression - Station Master Quarters re-purposed as Cafe Photo Credit: URA 6) Promote its use as a leisure Corridor. The rest of the Rail See Nin Tan is Senior corridor for sports, arts, education Corridor will be developed in Director of Physical Planning and various community activities. stages with a basic trail in place at Singapore’s Urban 7) Pilot community ownership for most parts of the Corridor by Redevelopment Authority. and stewardship in accordance 2021. with local residents’ interests The Rail Corridor project won Resources: and needs. URA and the Nikken Sekkei Urban Redevelopment Author- 8) Create opportunities for Design Team the 2017 Landscape ity. Singapore. Rail Corridor. promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Institute (UK) Award for Urban https://www.ura.gov.sg/ms/rail- 9) Propose innovative and Design and Master Planning, and corridor/overview. sensitive design solutions with the 2017 International Federation possibilities for urban integration of Landscape Architects (IFLA) with the Corridor. Asia Pacific Region “Outstanding Award” for Analysis and Master Planning. The first phase of detailed design and implementation will commence in 2018 and will address a four-kilometer “signature stretch” of the Rail 32

Rail Corridor Map Photo Credit: URA Artist Impression - Forest Valley stretch of the Rail Corridor Photo Credit: URA BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 33

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / RESEARCH PROFILE *** Bathing Crow Photo Credit (all): Kaeli Swift THE CITY OF CROWS By Kaeli Swift It’s a river of red lights ahead of surfaces, these commuters generally is. me as my bus sits on a Seattle need no manufactured aids to As a doctoral candidate at the freeway during rush hour. The get to their destination; their soft University of Washington, my seemingly endless merging black feathers will carry them job over the last five years has traffic continues to choke our where they are going. I attempt been to think deeply about the progress, and I settle further to count them, but cannot keep funeral behaviors of American into my seat, resigned to my pace with their progress from crows, but they are undoubtedly stifling crawl home. I press my vantage point. There are on my mind even when I am my face to the window to get thousands of them at least. away from the office. In contrast a better look at the sky. High Their wings beating against the to some of my colleagues above our heads a different sky, calling out to one another who travel great distances to commute is taking place. In with caws, rattles and squawks, access remote field sites, I contrast to mine, this commute as they make their way to their can see my subjects or reach moves freely, even acrobatically, nightly place of rest. My body my areas of study simply by as evidenced by the dips, dives may be trapped among my looking out the window or and flips of its participants. human commuters, but my mind walking out the door. With our Rather than rubber and hard is in the sky with the crows, as it 34

industrial lawns, fondness for we suspect they aid in predator a chorus of harsh alarm calls trees, and our ability to produce aversion, warmth, and may and threatening dive bombs. profuse amounts of garbage, provide social opportunities. Perhaps more surprising was metropolitan areas like Seattle As I scan the flock, I can’t that this reaction was not limited are magnets for crows, and they help but wonder if my path to the birds they had captured. thrive among us. These are has crossed with any of these Indeed, the masked person not animals that have adapted birds before. Having interacted found that their reputation was to living in the anthropocene, with hundreds of crows being passed to unmarked adult these are animals that have across Seattle in the course crows and even the offspring exploited it. In Seattle, there is of my graduate work, it seems of the original subjects. It’s probably no better illustration of possible that at least one would been over a decade since this than the great river of crows show a sign of recognition. that study, and still the sight of that flows above our heads at That such a feat is possible—a that masked person stirs up a dawn and dusk. wild animal recognizing and response. Although there’s been Unlike my peers and I who remembering a person with no published work, there’s no are now heading towards our whom it had a substantive doubt that something similar individual territories, these experience—was the focus of can be said about people who crows are just departing theirs. my Principal Investigator, Dr. feed them, but of course in that Soon they will join the many John Marzluff’s, work a decade case their reaction is positive. other thousands of commuters ago (Marzluff et al. 2010). By How many people does each at their destination to form wearing masks while trapping member of this flock know, a black, cacophonous cloud and banding individual crows, I wonder? We still have no before settling into the willow his team was able to test how idea what the limits to their and alder trees to rest for the the banded birds would later memories of us are, though we night in one of Seattle’s mass react to seeing the masked are beginning to understand all roosts. There is still much we person again. They quickly the contexts in which they might don’t know about the functions discovered the answer was, “not learn about us. of these communal roosts, but warmly.”They were met with Zhang, Kang and Kang Fig. 4 Participants in restorative experience *** BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 35

People have known for a long the crows inside my head; the time that corvids seem to recognize and respond to dead character and brainpower that lies ones from experiments past and crows. Konrad Lorez described under those glossy feathers. future. There is so much left to the behavior in 1949 in his Crows share a similar relative brain understand about these birds, seminal book, King Solomon’s size to primates, elephants and from decoding their dozens of Ring. But why they engage in dolphins, and rival primates with unique vocalizations, to further this behavior—alarm calling and respect to complex thinking such exploring their funeral behaviors, gathering around dead crows— as insight, mental time travel, and and testing the limits of their remained mysterious until only hints of consciousness. Couple mental abilities. For me, watching recently. Through my work and that with their territoriality and crows will never grow old. After the work of others looking at fifteen-year lifespan, and the all, what other animal can we say ravens and jays, we are starting average city dweller has access so closely watches us back? to see what role danger learning to a profound opportunity to and avoidance may play in learn about one of the planet’s Resources: motivating these funerals (Swift most intelligent creatures. Crows’ Iglesias, T.L., McElreath, R., & and Marzluff, 2015; Iglesias desire to extract food from us Patricelli, G.L. (2012). Western et al. 2012). In my study, we makes them willing participants scrub-jay funerals: cacophonous confronted wild crows with a in efforts to befriend the specific aggregations in response to dead person holding a dead crow, pair that shares your yard, a conspecifics. Animal Behaviour, and found that they learned relationship that you can maintain 84, 1103–1111. https://www.sci- and remembered that face just for a decade or more. In that encedirect.com/science/article/pii/ as they had done in John’s time, you can learn about their S0003347212003569. original study. Furthermore, family life, witness instances of Marzluff JM., Walls J., Cornell HN., they remain wary of the location play and turmoil, or offer them Withey JC., Craig DP. (2010) Last- where the body was held for challenges designed to test their ing recognition of threatening peo- days following the event. This cognition, or at the very least ple by wild American crows. Ani- impact to their spatial use and test their willingness to work mal Behaviour 79: 699-707. https:// evidence of novel predator for peanuts. There are few other www.sciencedirect.com/science/ learning suggests that dead wild animals for which the same article/pii/S0003347209005806. crows are used, at least in part, can be said; especially for people Swift, KN., and Marzluff JM. (2015) as a way of assessing and living in some of our most densely Wild American crows gather avoiding danger. Whether this populated urban areas. around their dead to learn about more utilitarian motivation is As darkness falls, the crows fade danger. Animal Behaviour 109: complimented with an emotive into the night and I can 187-197. https://www.science- one remains unknown, but no longer make out their direct.com/science/article/pii/ certainly crows possess the silhouettes. My attention turns to S0003347215003188. mental hardware for such emotionally intelligent lives. Looking around my bus, I wonder how many of my fellow passengers feel either in awe of or aghast at the mighty flock above our heads. Given their ubiquity and propensity for eating garbage, too many people write crows off, or simply hate them, without giving a second thought to depth of 36

Kaeli Swift is a doctoral For more on Kaeli Swift’s work Photo credits (except as other- candidate at the School of please visit: Corvid Research. wise indicated): Kaeli Swift Environmental and Forest https://corvidresearch.blog. Instagram: @swiftcrow Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. PhD Candidate, Kaeli Swift Photo Credit: Frank Miller JUNE 2018 | 37

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / BOOK REVIEW Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune System Review By Martha Morris The title Dirt is Good may sound simple enough, Early exposure to microbial diversity kick-starts but research into microbiomes is shaking up immunity. old assumptions about health. Microbiomes, Studies on the microbial landscape of the built the unseen collections of microorganisms that environment suggest that urban homes, offices, live in, on, and around us, coexist in our homes and public spaces primarily contain dead skin and communities. Dirt is Good lays out a wide bacteria shed by humans—not particularly array of microbe-related questions from parents threatening, but not so beneficial to building anxious to support their children’s development. healthy microbiomes or immunity. Reducing Drs. Jack Gilbert and Rob Knight draw from excessive sterilization within buildings and well-rounded expertise as medical professionals, adding indoor plants and animals may help bring researchers, and parents themselves to present some of the outdoors, with beneficial microbes, current hypotheses and new areas of research inside. into how microbes may affect health, particularly Dirt Is Good, while focusing on individual for children. In the process they offer practical parenting choices, offers good takeaways for parenting strategies for navigating the mysteries biophilic city planning. People, especially young of microbes, which in turn support planning children, need opportunities to interact with an strategies that infuse nature—of every size—into abundance and diversity of microorganisms to urban environments. keep their immune systems active and strong. Time spent outside, in nature and particularly in Immediately at birth children begin their lifelong agricultural settings, can deliver those microbes. exposure to microorganisms. Their developing It turns out that fostering good ‘germs’ may be immune systems must learn to recognize both another important, if often invisible, benefit from beneficial and potentially harmful microbes. city green spaces, urban farms, living walls, and Studies have shown correlations between other biophilic strategies. We may not completely indicators of immune function, like fewer understand microbiomes yet, but scientific allergies, and direct contact with domesticated research is adding evidence that beneficial animals and soil early in life. The “hygiene microbes around us promote health, and that, hypothesis” holds that overly sterile environments yes, dirt is good. cannot stimulate the immune system, which ultimately leaves the body more vulnerable. 38

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BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / NEW FROM BIOPHILIC CITIES STAFF Blue Biophilic Cities by Tim Beatley From publisher Palgrave Macmillan: There is a growing recognition of the contact we need with nature to be happy, healthy and to lead meaningful lives. We need that nature daily, if not hourly, and so it must be nearby to where we live and work. This is central to the concept of “biophilic cities” which is emerging as a global movement and guiding framework for city design and planning. Blue Biophilic Cities is about the promise of this movement and a kind of biophilic urbanism that is possible for cities perched on the edge of harbors and seas. In blue biophilic cities, much of the nearby nature is to be found in the marine realm. This book explores the efforts underway in a number of cities to foster new marine connections through a variety of innovative programs and initiatives. It also discusses a number of design ideas, from dynamic shoreline edges and floodable parks to living breakwaters, in order to emphasize the possibility of designing for resilience while also supporting marine biodiversity and strengthening biophilic connections to the marine world. Beatley, T. (2018). Blue Biophilic Cities. London, UK. Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.palgrave. com/us/book/9783319679549. 40

Healthy Environments, Healing Spaces: Practices and Directions in Health, Planning, and Design. Edited by Tim Beatley, Carla Jones, and Reuben Rainey From The University of Virginia Press: This collection of essays by leading scholars and practitioners addresses a timely and essential question: How can we design, plan, and sustain built environments that will foster health and healing? With a salutogenic (health-promoting) focus, Healthy Environments, Healing Spaces addresses a range of contemporary issues, including health equity, biophilic cities, healthcare facility design, environmental health, aging in place, and food systems planning. Contributors: Ellen Bassett - Timothy Beatley - Emily Chmielewski - Jason Corburn - Tanya Denckla Cobb - Tye Farrow - Ann Forsyth - Howard Frumkin - Judith H. Heerwagen - J. David Hoglund - Carla Jones - Andrew Mondschein - Christina Mullen - Reuben Rainey - Samina Raja - Jennifer Whittaker Beatley, T., Jones, C. and Rainey, R. (Eds.) (2018). Healthy Environments, Healing Spaces: Practices and Directions in Health, Planning, and Design. Charlottesville, VA. The University of Virginia Press. http://www.upress.virginia.edu/ title/4988. BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 41

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / PROJECT PROFILE The Perth Cultural Perth Urban Wetland, Western Austrialia Centre Wetland Photo Credits: Tim Beatley By Tim Beatley Completed in 2010, the Wetland opportunity for reintroducing the amphitheater, with the stage in at the Perth Cultural Centre types of plants and animals that the background, and helps to demonstrates that it is possible were once common through this soften and draw people to these to convert a standard sterile part of Perth before it was drained public spaces. The wetland itself urban water feature (energy- and became the city.” sits on top of a museum storage intensive, heavily chlorinated) From a biodiversity point of facility. into something that can support view, the wetland has been quite The project addresses several native flora and fauna in the heart successful, with flora and fauna goals at once. There are now of the downtown of the city. The thriving on the site. A lot of a variety of events that take redesign is the work of Josh Byrne care went into plant and faunal place at the wetland, including and his firm. Byrne is well known selection. There are Pygmy Perch concerts, and sometimes a light as the presenter for the national chosen to control mosquitos. show is projected on the adjacent television show “Gardening Plants are thriving here, with museum wall. The wetland Australia” and is the author of The varieties chosen in part to ensure adds an unusual dimension and Green Gardener. Byrne speaks they don’t obscure views of Josh describes the setting of about and shows us the wetland an amphitheater stage. The these performances as “quite in a recent documentary film: wetland lies in the center of the magical.”The wetland also adds a “The idea really was to provide an 42

wonderful, cooling, biophilic Resources: Josh Byrne & Associates. Perth Cultur- element to the city’s downtown. Biophilic Cities. Urban Wetland, Perth, al Centre. http://joshbyrne.com.au/ There are stepping platforms Western Australia [video]. https:// project/perth-cultural-centre-2. that allow kids to walk into www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGJhc- the wetland. The wetland also MdQyY8. The Perth Cultural Centre. The Wet- has an important stormwater Byrne, Josh (2006). The Green Gar- land. https://www.mra.wa.gov.au/ management function, collecting dener: Sustainable Gardening in Your projects-and-places/perth-cultur- and filtering stormwater from Own Backyard. Viking. al-centre/organise-an-event/wetland. surrounding buildings before it makes its way into the Swan River. According to Byrne: “It’s a great example of where a bit of inner urban biophilia and civic space can go hand in hand.” The Wetland Photo Credits: Perth Cultural Centre JUNE 2018 | 43

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / RESEARCH NOTES Via Verde, New York Photo Credit: Tim Beatley New Directions for Biophilic Design Research By Julia Triman Our partner cities in the of impacts on employees in empirical research exploring Biophilic Cities Network are office settings (e.g. Gray and biophilic design for buildings actively involved in fields Birrell 2014; Browning 2015; intended for under-served promoting biophilic interventions An et al. 2016; Browning 2016; populations does not exist as of in planning and design Yin et al. 2018) and healthcare this writing. There is convincing throughout the world, and settings (e.g. McGee 2015; evidence of the power of are always seeking cutting Bazley 2016). exposure to green space to, for edge research to support their A significant amount of example, reduce incidence of work. We recently received research energy is directed income-related health inequality an inquiry from a partner city towards the positive effects of (Mitchell and Popham 2008) representative asking for nature and “green” features in among other things. Given this empirical research quantifying disadvantaged communities. evidence, it seems a pressing impacts of biophilic design For example, Jenny Roe, concern to document the on structures designed for contributing a feature for benefits of integrating biophilic people who reside in low this issue of the journal, and elements into existing or new income housing or homeless her colleagues have done buildings designed to serve shelters, and government some incredible work to build those most in need. buildings that provide services evidence in support of green Why is this a gap in the world of to underserved populations. An interventions for deprived urban empirical research? A first concern excellent question, but one not neighborhoods focusing mainly might be the degree to which easily answered in the current on outdoor green space (see, biophilic design, while in some research milieu: much of the for example, Roe et al. 2016 ways an ancient practice and in empirical work on the effects of and Roe et al. 2017). However, others a relatively new biophilic design is in the realm 44

phenomenon, has been biophilic design for buildings Julia Triman is Director of Biophilic incorporated into buildings providing critical resources for Research for Biophilic Cities serving those with the least power underserved populations would and a Ph.D. Candidate in the and influence. With a few notable be an extremely convincing factor Constructed Environment at the exceptions, such as Via Verde (a in producing more and greater University of Virginia School of mixed-income apartment building examples. What might influence Architecture featuring well over half of the the course of research towards units for low income tenants in this type of work, which would the Bronx, New York), there simply likely positively influence the are not many existing examples to day-to-day lives of people in great study. need of a biophilic boost? It is an How might this research be done? open question, one that could be Are there ethical concerns or tackled in many possible ways. I challenges for obtaining consent hope that someone reading this to conduct research with marginal piece will write me an indignant populations? While it is certainly e-mail because this work is possible to extrapolate from already being done somewhere research with other populations (and I look forward to writing a (those in office or healthcare follow-up if this is the case!), but settings, for example), first- barring that, please consider this a hand empirical data supporting call to the research community at large to take up this issue. Resources: An, Mihyang, Stephen M. Colarelli, Johnathan Rose Companies. Via ———. 2017. “Coping with Stress Kimberly O’Brien, and Melanie E. Verde. http://www.rosecompanies. in Deprived Urban Neighborhoods: Boyajian. 2016. “Why We Need More com/projects/via-verde. What Is the Role of Green Space Nature at Work: Effects of Natural McGee, Beth, and Anna Marshall- According to Life Stage?” Frontiers Elements and Sunlight on Employee Baker. 2015. “Loving Nature From in Psychology 8 (October): Mental Health and Work Attitudes.” the Inside Out: A Biophilia Matrix 1760. https://doi.org/10.3389/ PLoS ONE 11 (5): 1–17. https://doi. Identification Strategy for Designers.” fpsyg.2017.01760. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155614. HERD 8 (4): 115–30. https://doi. Yin, Jie, Shihao Zhu, Piers org/10.1177/1937586715578644. MacNaughton, Joseph G. Allen, Bazley, C., P. Vink, J. Montgomery, Mitchell, Richard, and Frank Popham. and John D. Spengler. 2018. and A. Hedge. 2016. “Interior Effects 2008. “Effect of Exposure to Natural “Physiological and Cognitive on Comfort in Healthcare Waiting Environment on Health Inequalities: Performance of Exposure to Areas.”Work 54 (4): 791–806. https:// An Observational Population Study.” Biophilic Indoor Environment.” doi.org/10.3233/WOR-162347. The Lancet 372 (9650): 1655–60. Building & Environment 132 (March): Browning, Bill. 2015. “Healthier https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140- 255–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. Workplaces, Happier Employees.” 6736(08)61689-X. buildenv.2018.01.006. People & Strategy 38 (3): 14–17. Roe, Jenny, Peter Aspinall, and ———. 2016. “Biophilia, Buildings, Catharine Ward Thompson. 2016. and Your Brain.” People & Strategy 39 “Understanding Relationships (2): 8–11. between Health, Ethnicity, Place Gray, Tonia, and Carol Birrell. and the Role of Urban Green Space 2014. “Are Biophilic-Designed Site in Deprived Urban Communities.” Office Buildings Linked to Health International Journal of Benefits and High Performing Environmental Research and Public Occupants?” International Journal Of Health 13 (July): 681. https://doi. Environmental Research And Public org/10.3390/ijerph13070681. Health 11 (12): 12204–22. https://doi. org/10.3390/ijerph111212204. BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 45

BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / PARTNER CITY PROJECT Austin’s Central Library Photo Credit: Nic Lehoux AUSTIN’S CENTRAL LIBRARY IS AN EXPERIENCE IN ORCHESTRATED DELIGHT By Kathy Zarsky Wonder in Architecture invitation the moment you walk Local to Global Benefits of inside, and gravity is no match Integrating Nature Austin’s Central Library is for the stairs that bait feet to Paul Hawken, in his book a highly anticipated public Escher-like stairs in an upward, Drawdown, outlines an extensive structure sited along Shoal spiraling ascent. Whether arrival variety of technological and Creek and Lady Bird Lake on takes place on foot, bicycle or ecological solutions to the urgent the western edge of downtown. car, the library is a destination predicament of climate change. Its climatic responsive design that connects visitors to nature Drawdown’s research emphasizes and use of local materials inside and out in ways that many of the same solutions lend a timeless and iconic are immediately sensed if not recommended by Biophilic fit to its place amongst the easily articulated. The building Cities, namely the protection and many towering giants that are siting and design arouse promotion of nature within cities. commonplace in the urban delight and well-being through Austin’s Central Library includes core. It’s a place that visitors experiences of connection, five “drawdown” design elements relish and dream of frequenting, activity, mindfulness, learning worth emulating elsewhere within coining it “Austin’s living room.” and curiosity. the city. The building’s atrium captivates and signals an irresistible 46

The first biophilic solution is Austin is also investing more biophilic drawdown solution. It is design that promotes walkable in bike infrastructure within by far one of the most cherished cities. If anything, the Central the Seaholm EcoDistrict and design features. It offers expansive Library is a destination that is beyond, and the library serves views of Lady Bird Lake, Shoal enjoyable to access on foot. The as the primary catalyst for more Creek and the always changing most popular way to approach biking surfaces, maintenance downtown skyline. The native the building is along the Shoal stations and parking for the vegetation is diverse and lush with Creek Trail or across the new general public. Employees of a variety of textures and massing Butterfly Bridge. This path the library enjoy gracious biking to attract people, pollinators introduces visitors to a vital link accommodations and changing and wildlife. The dappled light to the pulse of one of Austin’s facilities, making the commute a under the photovoltaic canopy primary watersheds. The Shoal viable means of transportation all is similar to sitting under the Creek Trail will include ten miles year long. The public has access shade of a tree, with soft slits of of connections to neighborhoods, to one of the most extensive and light slowly shifting across the schools, parks and employment protected bike corrals in the city, wood decking as the sun travels centers when completed. making the library a likely staging across the sky. It is exactly the Walkability correlates with area for a variety of nearby kind of design element sorely livability, and the desire to walk attractions. The health, energy needed with a population craving carries into the circulation design and nature connection through more ways to work and recreate within the building. Trails that bike infrastructure is the second in comfortable, nature inspired meander along riparian edges and biophilic solution. outdoor settings. Buildings with stairs that twist and turn in midair Once settled in, it doesn’t take integrated vegetation, if scaled indoors are powerful design visitors long to discover the across contiguous transects, can accomplices. Walking becomes library’s green roof on the sixth turn cities into life-supporting the favored choice when feelings floor, which is the third systems. of discovery, curiosity, risk and play are evoked. Photo Credits: Kathy Zarsky (left), Nic Lehoux (right) JUNE 2018 | 47

The 198,000sf library, pursuing LEED Views and Platinum certification, is considered Vistas the best daylit library in the country. + Over 61% of the outdoor site area is dedicated open space, and the Abundance of site captures stormwater runoff and Natural Light condensation to reduce potable water by 100% for the project’s irrigation Inside-Ou needs and sewage conveyance. The Space building conserves over 87% potable water for internal use. The design has resulted in an energy cost savings of 33% with 10% on-site renewable energy. Integration of Culture & Ecology Habitats & Ecosystems 48

utside Information es Richness + Curiosity & Enticement Natural Materials + Patina of Time Photo Credit: Kathy Zarsky BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 49

Natural Light, Filtered Light, Light and Shadow Natural Materials- mesquite flooring. Photo Credit: Kathy Zarsky Photo credit: Theresa Cascio What may not be readily their ecological community. materials like limestone and apparent to infrequent visitors Biophilia can also inspire mesquite, and it offers a is the way in which the reciprocity, the fifth drawdown variety of views and vistas in library is creating community. concept that looks to human all directions from every level. Metaphorically, it draws a behavior to play a mutualistic The quality of the extensive diverse group of individuals role. The library site has left daylighting is undeniable. The and groups and creates ample space to restore a once perimeter window seating goes opportunities for intersection thriving, functional ecological fast because the natural light and interaction. Quite literally, corridor in the heart of the city and views are so calming and however, it is reintroducing a that we can enjoy as amenity, restorative. The use of color, community of trees that together but the opportunity for the spatial gradients and volume will moderate the extremes of city is to encourage robust have maximized the degree heat and cold, erosion, water extensions of similar natural to which daylight is employed quality, evaporation and more. corridors that link with other throughout the building. There’s The ecosystem services of life-supporting systems in three truly not a bad seat in the trees is hidden yet well studied, dimensions. These biologically house. and this represents the fourth diverse and connected nature biophilic drawdown for cities. networks support more effective Bat Tower. Photo Credit: Albert Chao While these beneficial tree ecosystem services and also community traits often get taken create more ways for people for granted, the qualities that to connect to, learn from and trees bring to the environments nurture as symbiotic partners. we inhabit are understood from early childhood. We enjoy their Scales of Biophilic shady protection, the habitat Design they offer, the sound of wind The design of the library as a through their leaves, and the building is widely reported, but seasonal changes they display. lesser known is the influence that the library’s designs play There are many lessons and across scales of block, street, experiences to be gleaned from neighborhood and community. these statuesque wonders, The building prominently not least of which is that every incorporates natural, local tree is a valuable member of 50