Biophilic Life 

“…Sometimes, I find it very stupid when I fill my lungs with oxygen and breathe. We could do much better. We could be flying or be a frequency in the air….”

These lines are from a British science fiction-dystopic TV series, Years & Years when two teenage girls are chatting about their desire to transfer their brain to computer and become Trans-Humans to be immortal. The film was shot in 2019 and Covid-19 was not in our life yet. Therefore, to be able breathe by filling the lungs with oxygen might have seemed rather “stupid”.

Today, there is the news of new diseases resulting from the excessive use of mobile phones and social media such as photolurking (spending hours by glancing at other people’s photos), cyberchondria (over-anxiety about one’s health by using internet search for medical information), nomophobia (the fear and anxiety caused by not having a mobile connection), paraesthesia & pain in the hands as a result of nerve entrapment. On the other hand, the news of Mark Zuckerberg who increased his property to 1,300 hectares in Hawaii by purchasing additional 600 hectares land with a sea view. What is changed?

 Butterfly Effect in the Chaos Theory of the mathematician Edward Lorenz basically states that: a small change on the initial conditions of a system can result in large differences in a later state. So, far too many changes are occurring by the effect of an un-flattering bat in China region recently…

Biophilic Hospital

The new lifestyle is spreading by word of mouth, inspired from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon which is said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon, near present–day Hillah, Babil province in Iraq. The Hanging Gardens were built by the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (who ruled between 605 and 562 BC) for his depressed Median wife Queen Amytis, who was homesick of the green hills and valleys of her homeland. The gardens were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens in the shape of a pyramid. The building itself was not seen because of the terraces containing a wide variety of trees, shrubs and vines, which looked like they were hanging in the air. The boats were floating in the cannels that was formed by the water carried from the Danube River… 

Biophilic life aims to restore the lost connection of mankind with the nature. A natural living space is built for the humans as a form of biological organism in the eco-system.  Indoor and outdoor colourful plants, self-sufficient buildings constructed by the sustainable materials, refreshing weather, natural lighting, provinces lost in greenery…

Singapour after a fast urbanisation, came to the edge of losing its natural resources such as water and later, became a pioneer at transforming into a biophilic life. 

Singapur Khoo Teck Puat Hospital is the first to win the Yale University Prof. Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award in 2017. The blocks are designed for air transfer and reach of sun light for each Hospital building. There are spaces like small forests or lakes enabling birds and butterflies to fly with inside and outside greenery, reaching to the patients’ beds. Greenery used in the vertical and horizontal architecture equals to almost four times of the land that the buildings stand on…Total 700 different plants grow in the Hospital. There is a farm at the roof garden, where 100 different fruit trees, 50 different vegetables and 50 kinds of medical herbs grow. The organic food cooked and served in the Hospital is provided from this roof farm.

The researches show that, the spaces that reduce carbon dioxide have a positive effect on the memory and the happiness. The high amount of green areas increases the staff satisfaction and therefore productivity. The time spent at open spaces reduces stress; and increases the mental focus and concentration. In a research in 2008, it shows that the patients with reach of plants have less blood pressure, pain, anxiety and fatigue complaints. In another research in 1984, the patients with a view of nature recover more rapidly. Premature born babies grow faster if they have a reach of natural sunlight…

Change: Sometimes for the bad, sometimes for the good… 

References:

International Living Future Institute: www.living-future.org

Effects of Flowering and Foliage Plants in Hospital Rooms on Patients Recovering from Abdominal Surgery Seong-Hyun Park1 and Richard H. Mattson, 2008

View through a window may influence recovery from sergery, R.S.Ulrich, 1984, National Library of Medicine