Recently, I visited Portland, Oregon for the first time. It turned out to be a great visit to understand how people value and appreciate nature there. It also made me rethink how I should approach and apply my “human-friendly” designs.
As you may be aware of, Portland is traditionally known as the heart of forest harvesting with its surrounding mountains and rich nature. Once you start walking around town, you’ll soon notice how wood has played a large role in their interior scenes. Even in a hotel elevator where a super durable material tends to be specified due to expected heavy traffic, wood was installed for the floor and a portion of the walls. Certainly, not every city has such a luxury to utilize wood in a variety of ways but wooden materials noticeably convert a space into a comfortable one. This also keeps Portland as unique and attractive.
Positive impacts are observed and measured in psychological, physiological and cognitive performance when utilizing biophilia design which is achievable in varying design strategies according to Kellert and Colabrese. However, it is often misunderstood that it is all about introducing vegetation or some form of nature to an environment. Especially when Google, Etsy, Informatica, Mosaic, and many other companies show their beautiful office interior designs today with plants, indoor gardens and green walls, it is understandable that’s what many people believe biophilia is. Kellert and Calabrese, though, state there are three ways that human can appreciate the benefits from biophilia, 1) the direct experience of nature, 2) the indirect experience of nature, and 3) the experience of space and place. Vegetation belongs in the first type, the direct experience of nature.
Wood materials used in an interior scene which go through minimal processing fall into the second category of the indirect experience of nature. Are more of those materials to improve human wellness? One research by Tsunetsugu et al. shows its psychological and physiological effects at different ratios of the material usage. They set up three actual living size rooms, one standard room finished with all synthetic materials, one room with 45% wood finish out of the entire surface including floor, walls, and ceiling, and finally one with 90% wood. The 45% wood room showed increases in pulse rate and scored the highest comfort and restful levels while other rooms scored low levels. Notably, the 90% room caused subjects to experience significantly low cerebral activities.
Even though the experiment needs to be validated further for varying conditions, we can learn from it that a moderate ratio of wooden materials is more ideal for our wellness than those at an extreme ratio. It may also suggest that a high percentage of natural materials may be effective for a space where you relax such as spas or and saunas. It is also interesting to see how different materials have different impacts on our performance and wellness, though such studies are limited as of today. Nevertheless, Portland is definitely a city where you can “feel” and live within biophilia with your body and soul.