Photo Credits: Nic Lehoux JUNE 2018 | 51
The central focus of the library within the Seaholm EcoDistrict, allows. It is nature and the is the atrium with grackles a historically and culturally qualities it offers with breezes, serving as the motif for a giant significant part of downtown sounds, daylight and glimpses cuckoo clock rising as tall as Austin due to its industrial of wildlife and watercourses the maze-like stair ascends. relationship with water. The that make these linkages so The entire library is filled with new developments within the attractive. The library offers a spatial variability and transitions EcoDistrict have shifted their new vision: that buildings in to indoors and outdoors. The relationship to water to one of Austin can and should enhance design lends to experiences of reverence and attraction. the quality of day-to -day life prospect, refuge, mystery and The primary limestone building through integrating nature risk. All of these elements and materials are reflected in at multiple scales, bridging experiences are translations of similarly scaled office and building to place and place to sensations that are typical in civic structures nearby, paying community. the natural settings that we are homage to the character of hardwired to seek out. place. More than any other Kathy Zarsky, Certified The place-based biophilic downtown site, the library feels Biomimicry Specialist & design becomes more apparent integrally linked with pedestrian LEED AP BD+C, is the with jumps in scale. The building and cycling infrastructure. LEED consultant on the opens up to the east to create Boundaries are soft and blurred, Austin Central Library and areas for congregating and allowing for interpretation for Founder and Director of circulation along Shoal Creek. a variety of community uses BiomimicryTX. The vegetation transitions from outdoors. The outdoor spaces maintained to wild, signaling meander and traverse elevation Resources: both habitat and watershed changes that nudge curious Office of Sustainability. Seaholm edges. The creek connects to visitors to explore. This act of EcoDistrict. City of Austin. the largest water body in Austin, discovery quickly connects https://austintexas.gov/page/ Lady Bird Lake, less than 200 visitors to the site, street, seaholm-district. meters away. The surrounding neighborhood and eventually neighborhood is contained community as time and distance 52
Light + Space Photo Credits (above left and right): Nic Lehoux Photo Credits (below): Kathy Zarsky Complexity Exploration + Discovery Prospect & Risk 20 JUNE 2018 | 53 Natural Analogue
BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL / RESEARCH PROFILE Figure 3: Accessibility to a large park by population density in Portland Image Credit: Guoping Huang A Biophilic Cities Index By Dr. Guoping Huang In 2017, 238 cities in North World Cities Research Network to compare and rank cities, but America joined a highly (GaWC) Index developed in the also important instruments to competitive bid to host the 1980s focused on financial and encourage cities to examine online retail giant Amazon’s economic activities in global themselves and find ways to second headquarters. National cities. But when global talents improve operations. Today, with media all turned their spotlight started to move as freely as the growing interest among city on this Amazon HQ2 project, capital, quality of living became managers to promote biophilia ranking participating cities by the new focus of many indices. in cities, a quantitative city index their economic vitality, livability, The popular Mercer’s Quality of focusing on some related aspects affordability, and other factors. Living Index has been heavily could be very useful. This is not new. Since the dawn used by large companies to This new Biophilic City Index is of globalization of the world deploy human resources globally structured to evaluate human- economy, research institutions, since that era. In recent years, nature relationships in cities in a think tanks, and government there has been a growth of hierarchy of three different levels. agencies have developed environment-related indices Similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of hundreds of indices or index published by both private and human social needs in which systems to evaluate cities’ public organizations emphasizing higher level needs are achieved performance in various aspects. the important role of cities in only when foundational needs are What is interesting is how the global sustainability. As a result, first met, the hierarchical structure emphasis of these indices has many cities have set detailed of the Biophilic City Index reflects shifted from urban economy to agendas to become green cities or human beings’ multi-level urban environment over the last eco-cities. interactions with natural systems. three decades. For example, the These indices are not only tools At the bottom, this index well-known Globalization and 54
examines the quality of natural setting, the Biophilic City Resources: services that provide basic living Index is not designed to rank Globalization and World Cities environments, such as clean cities directly. However, some Research Network. http://www.lboro. water and air, and vegetation components in the Index, such ac.uk/gawc/index.html. abundance. At the second as accessibility, could be used to Huang, Guoping (2017). Indexing the level, it examines if existing draw comparisons across different Human-Nature Relationship in Cities. natural components are part of cities. Most importantly, this Upland Journal of Urban Planning, a sustainable ecosystem that Index will help cities examine Landscape & Environmental co-exists with the city. Here, the their planning practices and find Design 2(2): 25-35. http://dx.doi. spatial composition and structure ways to improve the human- org/10.6092/2531-9906/5255. of natural components, such nature relationship, helping cities Quality of Living City Rankings. as core size and connectivity become more biophilic. Mercer. https://mobilityexchange. are studied using theories and For more details about the Index, mercer.com/Insights/quality-of- methods from landscape ecology. please read the full research living-rankings. Finally, at the top level, the index article Indexing the Human- examines the accessibility and Nature Relationship in Cities. Dr. Guoping Huang is an Assistant service areas of natural spaces Professor and Master of Urban as indicators of human-nature and Environmental Planning interactions. Program Director at the School of Because each city is located Architecture, University of Virginia in its unique environmental Amazon Spheres Photo Credit: JD Brown BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 55
BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL/ PIONEER INTERVIEW Photo Credit (all): Paul Bogard Interview with Paul Bogard on The Ground Beneath Us By JD Brown 56
Paul Bogard, author and associate professor of Tim Beatley: So, this was wonderful to see in English at James Madison University has pub- print. It’s really remarkable, but also quite a bit lished a new book entitled The Ground Beneath different from the last book where you looked Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilder- above you. Now you’re looking below. How does ness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are. The End of Night lead to this book and is there a Tim Beatley and JD Brown had an opportunity to common connection between looking above and sit down with Paul to discuss his new book and looking below? his continuing quest to understand and explain for Paul Bogard: There is definitely a connection. In others why we need to hold fast to deep physical both books, I’m really interested in the benefits of and spiritual connections with the natural world. our connection with the natural world and the costs of our separation from the natural world. In The End Every time I talk with Paul Bogard, I come of Night, I’m basically talking about that in terms of away inspired to try harder to keep my senses being separated from the darkness of the night sky open to the world around me and to deepen by artificial light. And in this book I’m talking about it my relationship with the natural world and the in terms of being literally separated from the natural cleansing, enlivening feeling that results. ground by pavement. As well as being separated Paul’s prior book The End of Night reintroduced from the ground by our mindset, our thinking that me to the nighttime sky. Without conscious we are separated from the ground by spending most realization, the lack of visibility of the night sky of our time inside. Both of those literal separations had become merely a fact of life. The End of have consequences. I was equally interested in Night asks whether it has to be that way and what how that literal separation symbolizes our more we are losing when we can no longer experience metaphorical separation from the ground. Other the nighttime sky. These questions kindled a grounds that give us our food, our water, our energy, strong desire in me to search for those dark skies and even our spirit. and to appreciate them with the appropriate awe I think both books are very similar in terms of the when I find them. It has given me a new added themes and the messages that I’m concerned dimension to my vision of the world at night. about. So many of the problems that we’re With The Ground Beneath Us, Paul is creating dealing with in cities, but also in society in that same connection with the solid living ground general, come from this lack of connection with under me. It makes me question how much the natural world and a mindset that we think we connection I have with the contours of the real can exist, and that we do exist, as a separate earth. As with the night sky, I am seeking to entity from nature. I’m fascinated by that and connect with the ground under my feet and to obviously troubled by that and trying to, through cherish the moments when I can make a bond my stories, comment on it. with the living foundation of my local environment. JD Brown: At the beginning of the book, you Piece by piece Paul is connecting me to the earth start with the cities and urbanized areas where in an authentic physical and human way. As Paul there is a particular disconnect. There is a indicates at the close of The Ground Beneath physical disconnect but also a lack of equal Us: “I believe that intimacy can be learned and access. You talk about that in the context of practiced. That we have a history that need not Mexico City and use the phrase “biological define us. That we have the opportunity – and poverty,” which is a really powerful phrase. maybe more important, the instinct – to cultivate our connections with the life around us.” BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 57 Here are some excerpts from our recent conversation with Paul about his new book The Ground Beneath Us.
Paul Bogard: That comes from a report that I parks and lakes all over. The difference that it found where the author was talking about people makes in terms of quality of life is important. I in cities living in areas of biological poverty with don’t know how many people consciously think a particular effect on children. Where people are about it, but to me that experience seems so growing up with no exposure to wild land and invaluable. I tried to take my shoes off and walk have no idea about the biological richness that wherever I went in the book. the world usually offers. So many people grow up Tim Beatley: It takes a little change of attitude in urban areas and do not have access to a world too. We take off our shoes as we go into houses beyond what they see. They don’t know that but then we put them on as we go out the door. there could be something else. It’s a mental choice. Tim Beatley: Were there stories from cities Paul Bogard: Central park is a place that I that you discovered in your studies that you find can think of right off the bat, where you see that particularly inspiring in terms of thinking about people have their shoes off and are surrounded the future? I recall us having some discussions by the skyscrapers. That’s a pretty neat about “depaving” initiatives where hard surfaces juxtaposition. are taken up and a connection to the soil is restored. Paul Bogard: There is an organization in Tim Beatley: I wonder if that’s another one of our Portland, Oregon, called Depave. What I found biophilic indicators of a good city. Somewhere you is that yes we can depave, we can pull up can take your shoes off. pavement to reveal what’s underneath. But Making the connection back to the first book, have when you pave over ground, you kill the life in we made any progress on the night sky front? The the ground. The process is expensive and you book did resonate with a huge audience. have to bring in soil to replenish what was lost. I suppose it could be done, but it just didn’t seem Paul Bogard: There’s a lot more awareness of possible on more than a limited scale. It seems the issue. There are a lot more places that are like it’s so much easier to protect what you have wanting to take action. I regularly get emails from and not lose it, than it is to try to bring back what people who are reading the book or from high you have lost. school students who are studying light pollution. Some of the people who’ve been active on this Tim Beatley: Are there models of cities or issue for twenty-five or thirty years tell me that places where you can still walk, maybe even take when they first started talking about it, people your shoes off, and have a physical connection to had never heard those two words together: light soil and what’s beneath us? and pollution. And now I’ll ask an audience: how many of you have heard of light pollution? And Paul Bogard: Yeah, I think there are. I could the majority of the hands go up. have written a lot more about the immense value of city parks. I live in Minneapolis, which has a Tim Beatley: A little bit different than what park system that’s been ranked year after year you’re talking about in terms of connecting to as the number one park system in the country. soil, but there is a whole kind of world in cities Our house is right on one of the parkways and underneath our feet. From a city planning point of so I can walk out my front door, walk across a view, I wonder what we can make of that. Is there twelve foot single lane paved parkway onto a potential for us to be using spaces underneath grassy median. It’s just that easy and there are the ground? 58
Alaska Tundra BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 59
London’s Urban Archaeology Photo Credit: Paul Bogard 60
This question of subterranean spaces came up Paul Bogard: I think so. I really am struck by the in the context of Singapore because they have value of soil. It’s so important that we understand a limited amount of space and are a growing how important it is and not pave it over and vertical city. There is an interest in figuring out maintain an opportunity for people to access the how to do things in a subterranean way. Also soil. I’m thinking of little kids being able to dig in in other, northern cities like Toronto that have the dirt. Kids love digging and in general people undergrounds and even parts of northern Virginia like digging too. They like that sense of exploration. in metro stations with entire shopping areas. So can we maintain a place that where they can do Subterranean options provide a kind of spatial that? planning, an efficient use of urban space that Tim Beatley: Diggable spaces. Diggable parks. might be promising. Paul Bogard: Exactly. JD Brown: At the end of the book, you highlight Paul Bogard: I don’t think we’re paying much a quote and a single word from Thoreau: “daily.” attention to what’s under our feet and that’s true This is a word that appears in Tim’s concept of in cities as well. There probably is a potential the nature pyramid. At Biophilic Cities, we talk there that is unrealized. about the need to provide opportunities for daily In the first part of the book, I describe my interactions with nature. In The Ground Beneath experience in London, where they are digging a Us, you talk about re-establishing that connection trench for underground rail. The project designers through practice and experience. How do we told me that in London there has been human maintain a daily practice and experience with settlement for almost as long as any place on nature in urban areas? earth. But they said that if you go thirty feet down Paul Bogard: I love that quote from Thoreau. all evidence of human activity disappears. As I’m interested in the fact that while he is out in one guy said, “the party’s over,” we’re not there. wilderness and having a completely different I think that’s representative of what we’re talking experience, it still relates to the urban world now. about here, that our consciousness and our literal He’s saying how amazing it is that we have this presence just doesn’t go down very far beneath opportunity daily to be shown this world. the ground. Tim Beatley: “Daily to be shown matter, to come Again, in London, they found a woman’s skeleton in contact with it.” Beautiful. So the last chapter lying beneath the ground, holding her favorite is home. Let’s circle back to what that means? plate on her chest. She’s been there for 300 Is it your home? Home in a broader way? Our years and it’s right under a subway stop where collective home? millions of people have walked over the ground. It’s representative of just how completely oblivious we are about what lies beneath us. Tim Beatley: What do we do about that? We need more parks and we need to maintain that connection to soil. But is there a more holistic way that we ought to be educating about nature or the environment that includes more than the birds and trees at ground level and above? Do we need something new? BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 61
Paul Bogard: Yes. All of those, all of the above. I wrote about it in In The End of Night and every In the chapter, I do go back to Minneapolis and time I read that section people wanted to hear talk about that. I talk about burying my dog, more. It really resonates with people who’ve which is a starting point for the story. Before that lived somewhere and are seeing it change. I had I talk about the idea of sacred ground as ground been thinking about that for a year and then we that puts us in touch with or makes us aware got pregnant and it had new meaning for me. I’m of the connections that keep us alive, whether struck by that longing for the solace that we used they’re human connections or connections with to feel in a place. I’m really fascinated by the nature. The most important place for us to go anticipation of having a child and how I negotiate is home. The most important place for us to the joy and the sorrow at the same time. understand the sacred is our home. Wherever Tim Beatley: It’s hard. But I guess I focus on the we call home is where we need to make these positive. I have a daughter who’s now a senior in connections. The misconception for people living high school, which is astounding to me, but she’s in cities is that as long as there’s wilderness out into photography. She likes taking photographs west, we can do whatever we want to here in of the sky. About a month ago, we went up to cities. I want to say: here’s the most important the upper Shenandoah National Park in the place. Wherever here is, whatever you do here, it dead of night. And it’s actually not a bad dark is the most important place. sky moment. You get a little bit outside the city Tim Beatley: I did want to ask you about what and you see the Milky Way. She took wonderful you’re writing now and what’s your next project? photographs. So there is a positive, a wondrous Where do you go from the sky and underneath aspect to having children when you are able to your feet? Is there a middle ground somewhere? share together things like that. Paul Bogard: I am really hoping to write a story Paul Bogard: A big piece for me is saying about trying to balance my excitement about that this feeling of solastalgia is important. That becoming a father for the first time with my fear, sadness or anxiety about this is totally natural sadness, and anxiety about what’s happening and it’s in many ways a good thing. It’s the same to my beloved world. I’m really interested in the thing with talking about darkness in The End of human mind and spirit right now. So maybe if Night. Darkness is good and is a normal part of we looked up, we looked down, now we would being alive. Feeling sad about what’s happening be looking in. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and is the start of the question. What can we do, what counselors are starting to sound the alarm about do we do? There’s a notion in America that we the impact of environmental change in general, are supposed to be happy all the time and that and climate change specifically, on our minds if we allow ourselves to be sad that’s all we will and spirits in terms of depression and anxiety. feel. We’re capable of so much more than that. You have people talking about acute trauma from storms and a sort of a chronic trauma from just seeing change around you every day. I think I say it in The End of Night, but you could be sad all the time if you wanted to. And nobody wants to live that way. So how do you stay engaged and not be sad all the time? I want to write about the emotion “solastalgia,” a term from an Australian writer, meaning to miss the place where you still live because it’s changing even if you haven’t gone anywhere. 62
View of New York skyline Underground railway excavation in London BIOPHILIC CITIES JOURNAL | JUNE 2018 | 63
xx
Search
