I-19: Beauty and Biophilia – Above Green

IDEAL CONDITIONS + CURRENT LIMITATIONS

The Living Building Challenge envisions designs that elevate our spirits, connect us to nature and all other living systems and inspire us to be better than we currently are. Mandating beauty is, by definition, an impossible task, which is why we require biophilic design as the process to arrive at a beautiful building. In this Petal, the Imperatives are based on the theory that connecting to nature, place, community and climate will create good design, and that the communication of that design process will allow Biophilic and Living Buildings to be replicated. We do not begin to assume that we can judge beauty and project our own aesthetic values on others. But we do want to understand people’s objectives and know that an effort was made to enrich people’s lives with each square meter of construction, on each project.

This intentionality of good design and graceful execution must carry forth into a program for educating the public about the environmental qualities of each Living Building Challenge project. There are no current limitations to this Petal other than embracing our connection to nature and what we as a society choose to value.

The intent of this Imperative is to connect teams and occupants with the benefits of biophilia and incorporate meaningful biophilic design elements into the project. Projects must be designed to include elements that nurture the innate human/nature connection. Each project team must engage in a minimum of one all-day exploration of the biophilic design potential for the project.

The exploration must result in a biophilic framework and plan for the project that outlines strategy and implementation ideas for the following:

• How the project will be transformed by deliberately incorporating nature through Environmental Features, Light and Space, and Natural Shapes and Forms.

• How the project will be transformed by deliberately incorporating nature’s patterns through Natural Patterns and Processes and Evolved Human-Nature Relationships.

• How the project will be uniquely connected to the place, climate, and culture through Place-Based Relationships.

The project must meaningfully integrate public art and contain design features intended solely for human delight and the celebration of culture, spirit, and place appropriate to the project’s function.