Serenbe Stories

Hope Rises on Its Current: Defining Biophilia with Liz Calabrese

October 05, 2020 Serenbe / Elizabeth Calabrese Season 4 Episode 1
Serenbe Stories
Hope Rises on Its Current: Defining Biophilia with Liz Calabrese
Show Notes Transcript

As we kick off our season on Biophilia and how together we can build a Biophilic Movement, we first want to define its meaning. Joining us today is Liz Calabrese, an architect and leading educator of biophilic design. She co-authored "The Practice of Biophilic Design" with Dr. Stephen Kellert and has been an integral figure for over 30 years, working closely with many of the key players who popularized the term and concept of "biophilia" and does extensive work on projects seeking the Living Building Challenge and WELL Building Certifications.

In this episode, Liz leads us through the history of the term and shares how its definition and practice has involved both philosophical circles and the building industry. She shares beautiful quotes by those considered to be the founders of the movement, and talks about what the future holds for biophilia.

Other People + Organizations Mentioned

Bill Browning

Terrapin Bright Green 

John Todd 

Steven Peck

The Biophilic Institute

Biophilic Cities

Biophilic Leadership Summit 

Jon Hudson

BrandCulture

Biophilia Poster Exhibition

Dr. Phillip Tabb 

Florence Williams

Jennifer Walsh 

The Biophilia Hypothesis

Roger Ulrich

Judith Heerwagen

Living Building Challenge 

14 Patterns of Biophilic Design

Biophilic Cities

Tim Beatley

 WELL Building Standard 

Amanda Sturgeon 

Dennis Creech

Southface

Kendeda Fund

Ekvn-Yefolecv 

Monica Olsen(1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of ceremony stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture their living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.

Monica Olsen (41s):
All right, now let's get back to Serenbe. Stories. Serenbe is a place where the innate connections humans have with nature and all living things is celebrated through work and play. And we're here to tell the stories of those who have been inspired by this biophilic way of life in our community and across the country. This is serenbe  stories.

Monica Olsen (1m 23s):
As we kick off our season on biophilia and how together we can build a biophilic movement, we first wanted to find its meaning. Joining us today is Liz Calibri. He's an architect and leading educator on biophilic design. She coauthored the practice of biophilic design with Dr. Steven Keller and has been an integral figure in biophilia since 2010. And was one of the earliest teachers of biophilic design at the university of Vermont. She's worked closely with many of the key players who popularized the concept and teaches by Ophelia's role in the living building challenge and well building certifications. In this episode, Liz leads us through the history of the term and shares how its definition and practice has involved both philosophical circles and the building industry.

Monica Olsen (2m 8s):
She shares beautiful quotes by those considered to be the founders of the movement and talks about what the future holds for biophilia.

Monica Olsen (2m 15s):
But first serenbe stories is brought to you by the, in it ceremony. The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside at bucolic ceremony where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserve forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, play on the croquet lawn swings and in-ground trampolines connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on the, in grounds or within the community of ceremony, book your stay today@serenbeinn.com.

Monica Olsen (2m 45s):
All right, I'm want to welcome everybody back today to serenbe  stories today. We're very excited to have Liz Calabrese on the podcast today, and this is our kickoff for our biophilic movement season. And we thought Liz was the perfect person to sort of kick it off and tell us exactly what biophilia is, where it comes from, because she's done a ton of work in the field currently and with some of the biggies who really popularized the topic and the concept. So I want to welcome you Liz and also welcome Steve. 

Liz Calabrese:
Thank you for having me,.

Monica Olsen (3m 28s):
I always ask everybody, how did you come into our world? What is your ceremony story? How did we first meet? 

Liz Calabrese:
Actually, I learned about Serenbe through bill Browning and it, it was an interesting course of events because I first learned about biophilia through bill Browning at a conference at the omega center that he presented about biophilia. And I'd gone with John Todd, who, who was my graduate advisor at the time. And he actually designed your wastewater, your living wastewater system there. 

Steve Nygren:
That's right

Liz Calabrese:
So it was, it was really neat that that was how I learned about serenbe..
So I had always heard these amazing stories about Serenbe. And so one day as I was driving from Vermont to new Orleans, I stopped by and that's when I met all of you guys. Right.

Monica Olsen:
 And I think it was Steven Peck that called you. Who's going to be on later in the season, is that right?

Liz Calabrese:
 I've done a lot of work with Steven Peck in the green roofs for healthy cities, a lot of workshops and design charrettes. 

Monica Olsen:
And so you showed up at the very tail end of our biophilic leadership summit. I want to say in 2008 and toward the charter school, the Chattahoochee Hills charter school.

Liz Calabrese:
 Yes. And that was amazing.

Monica Olsen(4m 49s):
Yeah. And we're going to have Patrick Mohamad on as well, who is the principal to talk about biophilia and how public education, how important it is for kids. 

Liz Calabrese:
Excellent. 

Monica Olsen:
Well, and then you were just here, you were just here in Sarah and B, you came back to see us. And why were you here recently?

Liz Calabrese:
 Biophilia poster competition. That was amazing. It was a poster competition that John Hudson from brand culture put together along with Serenbe and there were 3,500 poster submissions from countries all over the world. It, it was amazing to see. 

Monica Olsen:
Did you help jury that exhibition? 


Liz CaIabrese:
I did. 

Monica Olsen:
Yes. Tell us a little bit about that.

Monica Olsen (5m 30s):
How did that whole thing come together? It's interesting. 

Liz Calabrese:
The, I mean, are you asking about just the, the way we juried or how the poster competition came to be either one?

Monica Olsen:
 I mean, I just think it's wonderful that you kind of came into the world and, you know, with John, John brought you into that with, I think Phil tab and bill Browning. 

Liz Calabrese:
And because last year when I came through Serenbe, I was at the blue eyed Daisy, and this man was running and he'd running and he was getting breakfast and we started talking and it was John. And he was about to meet with somebody about permaculture of a potential client. And he didn't really know what permaculture was. So I started explaining to him what permaculture was.

Liz Calabrese (6m 11s):
Then we started talking about biophilia and it was, that was kind of, it was just one of those moments where you just meet somebody that, you know, you're supposed to meet because you're supposed to share information. And from that point on, he became really intrigued with biophilia and wanted to get more involved with Serenbe because he was moving there and just rented a place there. And then, you know, he was the one who created this poster competition, which was so successful. And, and then the idea of putting by affiliate out there for people to think about, you know, how they connect to nature and then how to show that graphically. And he explained the, the experience, you know, that the principles behind biophilic design and the experiences of biophilic design.

Liz Calabrese(6m 57s):
So he gave them some information incorporate into their posters, which was, which was just really a wonderful activity. 

Steve Nygren (7m 6s):
So all those encounters, the Sam may moments that happened pretty regular hear out people that you're supposed to meet just suddenly run into you somewhere here.

Monica Olsen (7m 17s):
Well, I think if I recall, we ended up having like a little girl posse with Florence Williams, right. And who else was here that time Walsh Jennifer Walsh. And the four of us ended up having, like, I don't know, lunch or dinner or wine or something. And we were trying to like form a, a girl biophilic babes band or something. I can't remember quite what we were discussing again, trying to figure out how do we popularize the concept, you know, how do we get the word out to people about the importance of the idea by biophelia, but that's a great way to sort of start with what is it?

Liz Calabrese(7m 58s):
Well, it's interesting because when I first learned about it, I didn't actually understand it, how deepest origins were until I did a little more research and was corrected once at a conference. But the term was first used by Eric from in his book, the heart of man. And he was a psychoanalyst. So he wasn't an ecologist. And he was looking at biophilia as the opposite of necrophilia, but more, not, not in a sexual way, but more in a death and destruction way. He was looking at like style and in Hitler and, and a narcissistic destructive personality.

Liz Calabrese (8m 39s):
So this is a quote, actually, it's really, I think it's important to hear this. He said, I've been able to distinguish between various kinds of aggression, which directly or indirectly are in service of life. And that malignant form of destructiveness necrophilia, which is a true love of death as to biophilia, which is the love of life, love of life independence and the overcoming of narcissism form a syndrome of growth against the syndrome of decay formed by love of death, incestuous, symbiosis, and malignant narcissism. So when you look at the world today with the destruction of the natural environment and global warming and just all this stuff happening, and you think about narcissism and destruction, it's actually a really profound definition as we go forward using this word biophilia in more of an ecological context.

Steve Nygren (9m 33s):
That's fascinating. And what year was that?

Liz Calabrese (9m 35s):
1964. Wow. So it was 20 years later that EO Wilson brought forth that word again in his book biophilia. And he, he realized that there was something deep inside of him that connected with, with nature. And, and so he's the one who then brought the, the word more into an ecological natural use. And if you don't mind, I'm going to read his quote because I think hearing what the people that use these words, hearing their words is so important rather than hearing my interpretation of what they did.

Monica Olsen:
 I love that. Please do. 

Liz Calabrese:
He said, biophilia is the innate tendency to focus on life and life-like processes from infancy. We concentrate happily on ourselves and other organisms we learned to distinguish life from the inanimate and move toward towards it like moths to a porch light to explore and affiliate with life is a deep and complicated process. And the mental development, to an extent still undervalued in philosophy and religion. Our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit as woven from it, hope rises on its currents and is true. His use of the word, hope it is really amazing. And that was when, when Bill Browning first introduced the idea, the concept of biophilia at the mega Institute at that conference, I was most taken by him referring to it as, as a sense of hope.

Liz Calabrese(11m 9s):
And that's really pretty important in this day and age right now. 

Monica Olsen:
Yeah. We talk about hope quite a bit, and I hadn't heard that sort of part of EO Wilson's that hope horizon rises on it's current. It's really beautiful. I think that, you know, Wilson, you know, the idea that we have this sort of genetic, you know, connection that there's actually an genetic need to be affiliated with nature is really fascinating to me. And then in order for us to really have the personal fulfillment that we need, as well as like evolutionary, like what dependence for survival, you really need nature.

Steve Nygren (11m 52s):
And I just think, and right now we're seeing it, everyone's fleeing to nature. It's where they've, they're finding peace and the fires are actually hurting people no matter where you live in the world of fires, destroying it or affecting people on an emotional level.

Monica Olsen (12m 9s):
Definitely. And it seems like such an obvious thing, you know, when you hear it, but to have never really understood or known of the concept before is sort of fascinating, but then you, you had heard about it from this conference, but you also worked with Steven Keller who was at Yale because he really sort of popularize it as a design principle. 

Liz Calabrese:
Correct. After I learned about it from bill Browning, I bought some of the, I bought the biophilic design books and then reached out to Stephen Kellert and to he and I became close friends and he worked with EO Wilson.

Liz Calabrese (12m 50s):
He approached you Wilson after the book biophilia and together, they edit, edited the book, the biophilia hypothesis, where they brought in many contributing, you know, many contributors, including Roger Aldrich, do Judith heroine, a lot across discipline group who all wrote about biophilia and in our connection to nature. And so that was the first next step in the evolution of the concept. And then Stephen Kellert then took that idea towards the design towards a design approach and started looking at biophilic design.

Liz Calabrese(13m 34s):
And his first book came out in 2005 called building for life, and it introduces the concepts of biophilic design. And then after that, he had a retreat with a lot of the same folks who had contributed to the biophilia hypothesis. And that's when the very important book by, I feel like design came out and where he introduced the biophilic framework, but there again, it was very much an interdisciplinary group of folks. 

Monica Olsen:
And that's what makes it so powerful in his book, the biophilia hypothesis, which he worked on with EO, is that considered more of like a textbook or an educational, I mean, cause again, you know, not having it really in the sort of general, you know, cultural vernacular at all, and obviously we're trying to popularize it even further.

Monica Olsen (14m 31s):
How can we spread the word for this term? Like where do you think it's been sitting in a very niche education world or like w where does biophilia sort of live right now or where has it lived sort of from the mid nineties to sort of say five years ago or a few years ago?

Liz Calabrese:
 I, I think it definitely was an academic concept. I think it Steve's hope was to break down the academic silos and to have people working together. And that, that works very much in conjunction with EO Wilson's idea of consilience and, you know, the humanities and sciences coming together to, to help solve problems.

Liz Calabrese (15m 13s):
And, but, but it is interesting about the time Steve Keller passed away, all of a sudden biophilia was in the living building challenge. It was in the well building standard. So the whole idea just took off about the time he exited this earth, which is interesting. Right.

Monica Olsen:
 And how did you meet Steven Keller?


Liz Calabrese:
 I just reached out to him as a master student. I was at the university of Vermont and John Todd was my graduate advisor. It was a mentoring ear, a masters, and, and I reached out to him as a student and he became my mentor and we were great friends until he passed away in 2016.

Monica Olsen (15m 55s):
Right. And you authored a coauthored, a book with him or, you know, that I know is available for anybody to read online? 

Liz Calabrese:
Well, when he came out in, in 2008 with the original biophilic framework, I, it had 72 attributes. It was extremely comprehensive, but it was almost too much. I mean, as an architect, I, I was trying to like, remember all the attributes and the, the experiences and, and it was a lot. And then Bill Browning actually was the first one to create a more simplified by no like framework. And that was the 14 patterns of biophilic design. And he also wrote the economics of biophilia and those are available open source online by bright green.

Liz Calabrese (16m 41s):
And then I think at that point, Steve was trying to simplify his framework and, and the, the two frameworks are actually very similar. It just depends on how you think Bill's is a little more research oriented. And I'd say Steve's biophilic was a little more ecologically based and ethically based. So one of the things that, that the simplified framework that Steve and I worked on together, it has principles of biophilic design. And that's really important because it acts as kind of a compass to what Steve felt were the intentions behind biophilic design.

Liz Calabrese (17m 22s):
So it doesn't just kind of go wild and become something that he never intended it to be. 

Monica Olsen:
And so give us some of the, you know, for the listeners who probably aren't an interiors, aren't designers, aren't architects, what are some of the, you know, obviously we can understand wanting to go to a national park or being, you know, struck by an incredible view at Yosemite. And those are all sort of part of if you will, the biophilic hypothesis, but let's talk about design for a minute. What are some of the things that you and Steven sort of pull down from the 72 attributes? Like what would you say in a building that would be a biophilic attribute?

Liz Calabrese (18m 3s):
Well attributes. If we look at the principles, know one of the principles is that biofield building design if used appropriately fosters a repeated and sustained engagement with nature, and that can be done, you know, directly or indirectly or through space in place. You know, the, the volumes of, of space views to the outdoors, the ability to open a door and have fresh air move through a building. And that's something postcode, you know, with COVID people are realizing that when you have hermetically sealed buildings and poor air exchange systems, your polluting your air, the ability just to open up a window is so important yet it's something we've kind of forgotten about because we have these super energy efficient buildings that can move mechanically, but by affiliate kind of brings you back to basics in a sense, yeah, we have an act, an academy school here.

Monica Olsen (19m 1s):
That's I think like, like little three-year-olds to like eighth grade, and they're all open the doors and they're out on the street now, you know, and the ability for them to, you know, kind of spill out from their classrooms into, you know, whatever the woods, the street, the park is, you know, invaluable at this point. Right. 

Liz Calabrese:
Well, so I think that the concept of biophilia and biophilic design has become now so profound since COVID in terms of the need for children to have outdoor classrooms, elderly, to have access to outdoors, air exchange, sunlight, actual sunlight, and not just being under artificial light all the time.

Liz Calabrese(19m 47s):
So I see a big shift about to happen.

Monica Olsen:
 One of the things I feel like bill had had mentioned in his design, which I think Steven had also, you and Steven had put together is this idea of when you're in a room, the vantage point, you know, why does everybody like the nook in the corner at the restaurant, right? The booth in the corner. It's because you're sort of protected with this vantage point out and this refuge. And I thought something like that, will you talk a little bit about that? I was fascinated by like, why, why does everybody, why is that the most popular place to be in the restaurant? 

Liz Calabrese:
You know, well, we respond to space the way we evolutionary evolutionarily responded to space, where, where do we feel safe? Where do we feel protected? Or when does flight or fight, kick in and to have a good vantage point and be protected, which is the term is prospect and refuge. You know, when you feel that safety, you can be more at ease. If, for instance, let's say you're working at your office and people approach you from your back all the time. It's actually really hard to focus on your work and pay attention to what you're doing, because you're always instinctively. You need to know what's approaching behind you. It could be a lion, a person, a friend, or a foe. And, and th th in biophilic design, it's not that nature is always good, no matter what, at any intensity it's that we still respond to nature the way we did as we evolved as a species.

Liz Calabrese(21m 28s):
So sometimes nature is scary and other times it's comforting. And it's kind of knowing as a designer, what that means for what type, you know, what culture or socioeconomic background of folks, 

Monica Olsen:
wWat other things do you find, you know, in your work are clients asking for? And this doesn't have to be, you know, due to the COVID right now, but just, are you, have you found over the years that you've been able to bring clients along into more of a biophilic design in their buildings? 

Liz Calabrese:
Yes. For years I did. And I still do. I'm second homes up in Vermont. And often when people are building their Vermont home, what they're actually wanting is very biophilic. I don't use the term biophilic design with them, but they want natural materials. They want, you know, great views. They want to feel snuggly warm in the winter. They want fire with stone surrounds. So if you look at the patterns of typically what people want, and actually, if you look at your own patterns of what you crave in space is often very biophilic. And so then the idea is how do you take that and actually offer biophilic design to people that actually need it the most?

Monica Olsen(22m 50s):
I know a big study that I, I think I remember Steve telling me about, I don't know, it's probably a little bit dated now, but hospitals. Absolutely. We elaborate on that. I know Stevie, you, you've done a lot of study on assisted living and retirement and hospitals. You know, the Netherlands and Europe has done an incredible job. I don't know Steve, if you want to touch on that for a second,

Steve Nygren (23m 13s):
I just thought it was fascinating because you know, so much in the medical journal is so absolute science-based, but they have actually included this, all this research on how nature really affects people. And it's changed the design of hospitals today, as you see it and, and various procedures or art in the hospital rooms itself. I think I scraped words is this very narrow science-based group that maybe doesn't look at a lot of these things. It's actually totally embraced

Liz Calabrese(23m 49s):
Liz. I don't know if you, you are specifically working in any kind of, of those, but I, I, I believe that there was, there's very deep data on just having a view of green space in a hospital room will extend, you know, rapidly increased somebody's outcomes. Right. Right. And that was Roger all Rich's work actually back in 19, 1984, where they just people recovering from gallbladder surgery, a very common surgery. And one room looked out over a tree with leaves and the other one looked out a window at a brown brick wall. And they found that the people that looked out at the tree complained last, took less pain medication and stayed a shorter period in the hospital.

Liz Calabrese (24m 36s):
That was kind of this groundbreaking research that a lot has been built on since then 

Monica Olsen:
did Stephen's work. Cause it sounds like Steven and bill were maybe kind of going at, at this about the same time or one in informing the other, or were they both informed by EO Wilson? Or how did that, do you know how that all came together? 

Liz Calabrese:
Yeah, I, I think bill and bill wrote a chapter in the biophilic design book. He was actually very instrumental in that book. So I, I think they were, they were quite hand in hand at that point.

Liz Calabrese (25m 19s):
And then I think bill, you know, took his concepts and, and I think he was working closely with Judith fairway and at that time, and, and that was where bill started creating the 14 patterns. You know, I don't, I would have to look to see if Tim had written a chapter in the biophilic design book. I would have to check. 

Monica Olsen:
And for listeners to Bailey who is also we're interviewing for the podcast, he really has been working on biophilic cities. And how do you make a resilient biophilic city? And it has a whole network, or I shouldn't say he, biophilic cities is now a whole network around the world.

Monica Olsen (26m 6s):
And so we'll dig in with him further, but it is interesting to touch on. Right. So there's sort of this larger concept. The design has really been popularized, whether that's a view or natural materials, or even, you know, you read a lot about like green walls, right. Everybody's really into plants bringing plants into their homes. You know, I mean, I guess even having an animal, right. The affinity to connect with animals. I mean, I don't know how many people, you know, millions of people have dogs and cats and that's skyrocketed during the pandemic as well. Right. But in a sense that is right. That's right.

Liz Calabrese (26m 46s):
This part of the connection too, between us and that, which is living and it's very healing to, you know, people that actually help rescue animals. And, you know, they're, they're, they're prisoners actually that, that work with rescue animals and restore the Plains, the sagebrush for, for grouse out in Oregon. And those are, they find that those actions actually really help people heal themselves because they're healing something else that's alive. 

Monica Olsen:
No, I think that's really incredible.

Monica Olsen (27m 26s):
And you know, then again, you just, you know, we talk a ton about walking in nature and just how beneficial that is and the placemaking of a place, right? Whether that's a thought police place bench, and you now have a view or you put sidewalks into, or you have ability to go to a Trailhead, you know, why are the national parks so beloved? Why are homes with water views, you know, more expensive or better landscaping? 

Liz Calabrese:
Right. I would, I would say, well, in porches, I mean, like at Serenbe where you have all of the front porches, that's facilitating community, people are stopping and that's part of isolate design as well.

Liz Calabrese (28m 9s):
It's fostering a connection between people in nature, but also with between people and each other. So then they become better stewards for nature and for each other, 

Monica Olsen:
where do you see, you know, cause we talk a lot about, and we don't really talk about it with the general public, but I think we probably should. And I say, we, I mean, Sarah, maybe, you know, we sort of talk about biophilic principles that are the basis of, you know, the serum B model of building, if you will. Right. Talk a little bit about how it's had an effect in building, you know, with the different certifications or challenges, whether that's living, building or, well, tell us a little bit about where those came from or how involved you've been in, in the benefits.

Liz Calabrese(28m 57s):
Well, I'm, I'm actually, I'm involved with the well building standard. I've been a well faculty member and, and it's interesting because there's two, there's two biophilic features in the well building standard. And one of them is, you know, green space in the building and around the building. And, but it's so interesting because by affiliate is really woven throughout the entire well building standard in terms of eating natural foods, you know, getting exercise daylight. So, and it's a bit the same way with the living building certification as well is that it's a piece of a pedal, but when you really look at it, biophilia is the heart and soul of the flower.

Liz Calabrese (29m 49s):
So it's interesting. Cause I'll give talks about that kind of explaining how in both situation is really woven deeply. 

Monica Olsen:
Well in define for us, you started mentioning pedals. That's tell a little bit about how the well certification works because when you mentioned pedals yeah.

Liz Calabrese:
 The pedals is actually for the, the living building challenge and they have pedals and gosh, I don't have all that information, right. Yeah. 

Monica Olsen:
I think, I think, I think the idea is that for the living building challenge, at least, which is out of the Northeast is, you know, you achieve certain levels of the challenge by each pedal defines a different part of the challenge, right?

Monica Olsen (30m 37s):
There are different principles that are are put in and we should probably get, I know Amanda sturgeon isn't there anymore, but she would be a wonderful interview actually to talk about the living building challenge. Cause she really brought that to life over the years out of, I believe Washington, right? 

Liz Calabrese:
Yeah. Seattle

 Steve Nygren(30m 55s):
In Atlanta who people are very surprised, I think has a leading number of buildings that have qualified.

Monica Olsen (31m 1s):
Oh wow. Well, and tell us it was a living building challenge is the convener building. Yes. We talked about that with Dennis Creech a little bit in our second season, it's an incredible building on the Georgia tech campus.

Steve Nygren (31m 16s):
That's right. It's one of the best examples. I believe that exists today on all the various principles. Not only reach net zero, but it's a contributor. Hmm.

Monica Olsen (31m 29s):
Talk a little bit deeper about well and how that certification works. And was that sort of something that sort of grew out of the lead in the green building world? 

Liz Calabrese:
Well, it's a brother sister program to lead and, and there's like about a hundred features and there are some absolute they're prerequisites that you have to meet. And, but it does deal with, you know, mobility in the workplace, you know, promote, sit, stand desks and then promotes using stairs instead of elevators like eating healthy food, having views to nature, Proper daylight without having glare because you can bring too much light into a building and make it where people actually can't work, having control over the comfort in your space.

Liz Calabrese (32m 21s):
You know, if people are too hot or too cold, they actually can't function well at work. But when you feel like you have the ability to crack a window to either cool off or to warm up, all of a sudden you feel empowered, but that kind of goes to there again, how we evolved as a species. If you are, if you feel in control, then, then you're a happier, healthier person rather than feeling victimized by your environment. And so it's, it's, it's a great, it's brought a lot of things to the forefront because what happened with, with energy efficiency sometimes is that was about doing with less.

Liz Calabrese(33m 4s):
And, and sometimes, you know, the lighting was not comfortable lighting, but it was energy efficient. So I think sometimes it was hard for people to want to make a, an environment, less comfortable for them to save on energy. Where as idea of biophilic design is that it's instead of a low impact design, it's a positive impact design. That's a great differentiator. 

Monica Olsen:
So what sort of, I mean, I know obviously bill is doing incredible work out there. You're out there doing incredible stuff that I want to talk about in a minute, but who else is out there? I know we're going to talk to Tim Beatley like popularizing the concept or is anybody really taking the mantle I guess is the question?

Liz Calabrese (33m 51s):
I mean, it seems that there's a lot of folks talking about biophilic design. A lot of the industry in terms of the green walls, green roofs are embracing it. You know, sometimes it turns to a more technological solution and sometimes that's appropriate and sometimes that's not appropriate if you're in a subway that has no views to the outside, no opportunity to create courtyards full of wildlife and birds and fountains. Then, then maybe you do have to bring technology down there so that people feel a sense of liveliness images of nature or sounds of nature to just kind of settle people down a bit.

Liz Calabrese (34m 37s):
But, but it's all very specific. It's all specific to the place, but in terms of just listing folks, you know, I, I right off the bat, I, you know, a lot of firms are embracing biophilic design at this point though. Yeah. And again, there's no need to, nobody has to take the mantle. I mean, I think with the biophilic Institute and the biophilic summit that obviously has been put on hold, you know, the idea was to how do we bring all these people together? You know, because we find, I mean, I think all of us do in any industry group, it could be, you know, breast cancer research or, you know, information on multiple sclerosis, everybody's working in silos.

Monica Olsen (35m 20s):
And so how do we bring all of the leaders together to share their work and sort of further amplify the importance of it? And so we're hoping to get back to, you know, in 2021, but tell me a little bit about what you're doing today. Cause I know you're now, did you sell the house in Vermont? You're halfway in new Orleans. What's going on? You're a little bit between Vermont and new Orleans. 

Liz Calabrese:
I've got a house in Burlington, Vermont, and I have a house now in new Orleans. So it gives me going past Serenbe a lot, which is great. I love that. I love that, but yeah, I'm actually, I'm I just started a project for the Hawaii correctional facility and it's a sustainability master plan and I'm there by biphillia expert.

Liz Calabrese (36m 9s):
So w what's really, what's really neat about that is the idea of biophilia and wellbeing as being part of a master plan. And that being one of the goals is, is reducing recidivism, having, you know, folks that can really come out of a correctional facility and be happier and healthier and function is the goal and not go back to prison. So, so that's really an exciting groundbreaking project. And, and then another project is working with an indigenous community in central Alabama, they're creating an eco village for their community and they are it's the Muskogee tribe and their language is going extinct, but they can't keep their language alive without keeping the way they live alive.

Liz Calabrese(37m 14s):
So going back to the earth, embracing the ancestral land and way of living is the way to keep their, their, their community happier, healthier, and that language alive. So it's, it's fascinating work that that's all, both are pulled into connecting with nature.

Monica Olsen:
 Now, I think it's super important, the work that you're doing. And obviously we want to tell people the story, is there somewhere that they can reach out to you if they want you to do work with them? Sure. Find you Liz, 


Liz Calabrese:
I I'm online. You can.

Liz Calabrese (37m 57s):
I, I, my company's calibrates architects and is liz@calibratesarchitects.com, but you can usually find me or through the biophilic design monograph. That's that's open source online.

Monica Olsen:
 Yeah. Well, and we'll definitely put that up on the website, but as we're sort of closing out, I would love to hear from you, you know, with everything that's happening from a ecological perspective, you know, around the world, obviously we're in the midst of these wildfires, we just had a huge, you know, we've had all these storms that are coming up from the Gulf coast. What sort of your thought, I mean, I love the idea.

Monica Olsen (38m 38s):
If everybody could bring on a biophilia director of biophilia or, you know, and like you said, really integrated into the master plan of all the work that they're doing. Like how do we get more people to do that? Do we, are we, do we have hope? 

Liz Calabrese:
I think so, but it really comes down to working hand in hand with nature instead of working against it. Because as we can tell nature will win, fight nature. So if we embrace it and love it and work with it and know the power of it, I can't say that we won't be, you know, have catastrophes or storms, but, but we can work more, more, more eloquently and mindfully with nature and, and work with the water, know not against it.

Monica Olsen (39m 25s):
Right. Well, I thank you so much for spending time with us. Is there anything else you want to add before we go? Any final words of wisdom from EO or Steven Keller?

Liz Calabrese:
 Let me, let me close with a quote from Steve Keller because I hadn't given one of his quotes and he says, biophilic design is not about greening our buildings or simply increasing their aesthetic appeal through inserting trees and shrubs, much more. It's about humanity's place in nature and the natural world's place in human society. And I think that's, that's lovely

Steve Nygren (40m 2s):
Liz the quotes  you've chosen for these people really puts a beautiful foundation. I've heard a different way today. Thank you very much for doing that.

Liz Calabrese(40m 11s):
 Oh, you're welcome. This my collector. 

Monica Olsen:
Well, Liz, we look forward to seeing you back at Serenbe and we know that we'll find you on your, on your drives. 

Liz Calabrese:
Yeah. And if anybody wants to know these books and whatnot, just reach out to me or I can give you guys. 

Monica Olsen:
We'd love a list and we'll put a link them out for everybody. We'd love to our, our goal is really just to amplify all the goodness and bring people into the hope. 

Liz Calabrese:
Sounds great. 

Steve Nygren:
Thank you so much. 

Monica Olsen:
Thank you so much, Liz. Two rubrics in building a city, you can solve a sprawl mentality or you can preserve land while boosting economic development.

Monica Olsen(40m 52s):
Sammy builds and designs to be both beautiful and environmentally sustainable. If you're a city planner, developer, Landa, and are a policy maker, there are common sense solutions you can take to build a biophilic center community attend placemaking conference this fall to learn more details. And Nygren placemaking.com. That's N Y G R E N P L A C E M AK I N G.

Monica Olsen (41m 27s):
Thank you. We're listening to Sam. New stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and visit our website to learn more about upcoming guests, episodes and everything by Ophelia at serenbestories.com .