Ten Tips to Help You Take Advantage of the Healing Powers of Living Architecture and Nature

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Introduction

It is hard to maintain one’s health given all of the demands which face us each day. Stationary bikes, purchased with the best of intentions, often begin to quickly gather dust. Gym memberships soar in January and February then fall off rapidly as the New Year progresses and people cancel. Yet time spent in ‘nature’, is time very well spent. And it is often at little or no cost. A significant body of research has proven that spending only 20 minutes a day outside, in an urban park, on a beach or by a lake, or even visiting a green roof contributes to our physical and mental well-being. Exposure to green space lowers stress levels, reduces cortisol levels and blood pressure as well as a host of other positive health impacts. (1)

It is hypothesized that the health and well-being benefits of regular access to greenspace are the result of a number of factors. These include greater physical activity associated with being in green space; more social activity; more exposure to sunlight; greater exposure to microbial organisms which support our immune systems; and improvements in air quality and reductions in noise pollution. Whatever the cause and effect of how ‘nature’ can improve your health, you don’t have to travel to a national park to experience ‘nature’ on a regular basis. Most people live close to a local or regional park, a green corridor, or they may, if they are fortunate, have a backyard garden or a balcony garden. Green spaces, even small ones, can help us improve our health. The lockdowns during Covid demonstrated that access to all kinds of green space is an essential human need, as people flocked in great numbers to parks and other green spaces for relief from being inside.

Green Roof Parks

In many densely populated cities, more and more recreational green spaces are being designed on the roofs of buildings. A few of my favorite living architecture projects include Chicago’s Millennium Park which opened in 2004 and attracts millions of visitors annually. Millennium Park is more than 24 acres in size and located right beside lake Michigan. The Park has a beautiful fountain that children can play in, a theater, the Cloud Gate sculpture and the lovely Lurie Garden, designed by world famous Piet Oudolf, a landscape architect and designer.

*Systems integration on the Salesforce Transbay Terminal building and a five acre rooftop park with an undulating path around it. Photo: Except.eco.*

Then there is San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal, which features an undulating roof park situated over a multi-modal transit hub. Branded as the Salesforce Transit Center Park, it opened in 2018 and is over five acres in size. The building architects were Pelli Clarke and Partners. The roof park features a variety of ecosystem-focused gardens designed by Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architects and Paul Kephart of Rana Creek. The space features both active and passive uses, including a 1,000-person amphitheater, cafes, a children’s playground, as well as quiet areas for reading, picnicking or simply taking a break. The park presents a wide variety of ecologies, from oak trees to a wetland marsh. Transbay is home to 600 trees and 16,000 plants arranged in 13 different botanical feature areas.

Interior Greening

Taking a break in ‘nature’ can also involve visiting interior building environments. Last year I was fortunate to visit Singapore as part of a project we are doing with NParks. Upon arriving I was amazed to find free access to a butterfly garden, complete with a waterfall - before clearing customs! At the Changi Airport, there is a marvelous building called the Jewel, which connects the terminals together and provides visitors with a rich sensory experience. The Jewel is truly an awesome building. Designed by Moshe Safdie Architects, its centerpiece is an enormous waterfall feature that falls some 90 feet from the glass roof above and then disappears, unseen, into a large cauldron-like hole with sloping sides at the main floor level. You can stand in the fall’s cooling mist but you can’t see the bottom where the water goes. The waterfall is surrounded on all sides by five stories of tropical plants situated on terraces that recede as you move upwards. The main entrances to the Jewel are covered with green walls. There are even small waterfalls cascading down the sides of the greenery and visitors are invited to take short ‘hikes’ up pathways past the many tropical plants and beautiful orchids to quiet sitting areas. It's an outstanding design that attracts people to come to the airport and have dinner in one of the adjacent restaurants overlooking the fountain, or to shop in one of the dozens of retail outlets. Imagine if you can – going to the airport for fun, rather than to travel. That is what the Jewel has done for the Changi Airport – created another impressive destination.

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Left: The largest indoor waterfall in the world at the Jewel in Singapore’s Changi Airport is the main feature of an outstanding example of indoor green space, with five stories of plants surrounding the centerpiece. The Jewel has turned the airport into a destination for non-travelers. Photo: J. McLean

Right: Five stories of tropical plants, with waterfalls, walkways and quiet sitting areas make the Jewel in Singapore a sought-out destination that helps to restore health and well-being. Photo: S. Peck

Tips on How Best To Spend Time In Nature

We can enjoy restorative time in living architecture, or engineered ‘nature’ in and on buildings, as well as in addition to nature found in traditional parks on land and by water. The types of places we spend our time are important to our health, and they must be safe and accessible. What is also important, is how we spend our time in green spaces, be they natural or engineered. How we spend our time in green space is an important and less well understood determinant of the health benefits we receive. Here are some tips designed to help you take advantage of the restorative powers of nature near you. Some of these suggestions may not apply to your circumstances, but all of them have some potential to provide people with a more rewarding and healthy experience.

While visiting green spaces, slow down and engage all of your senses – stop and smell the flowers, listen to the birds, and even touch the earth with our bare feet if you can. Being fully present will help you gain greater health benefits from your time in nature. Photo: S. Peck

1. Commit the Time. Commit to spending time in a natural area, for at least 120 minutes a week. Work it into your daily travel schedule if possible. This can be 100 minutes in one session, followed by 20 minutes in another, but no matter how you parse it, shoot for at least 120 minutes per week. It sounds easy – but it can be challenging. Research shows that the older you are, the more likely you are to spend time in green spaces, with boomers and generation Xers spending the most time in nature, and generation Z, which have been raised in the digital age, spending the least amount of time. If you spend more than 120 minutes in nature per week, the beneficial effects begin to diminish. (2) In other words, after 120 minutes there are diminishing returns of the health benefits you will receive.

2. Slow down and breathe deeply. Driving through a national park, or even riding your bike with sunglasses and headphones with your favorite playlist on, is not the best approach. My advice is to slow down, run if you have to, but walking is better. What you perceive and don’t perceive is largely related to how fast you go. Exercising in a natural area provides you with more benefits than exercising indoors. But if you are biking or running, be sure to slow down and stop in a quiet place at the end of your workout.

3. Tune in. Your sight and hearing, and therefore your experience of your environment is impaired if you are wearing headphones and dark sunglasses. Try to see and hear what is happening around you clearly. Tune into your surroundings.

4. Stop and sit, or even lie down in a safe place for five or ten minutes. Stopping allows you to focus more of your attention on your surroundings and be fully present. It’s amazing what you will perceive if you take the time to stop. When was the last time you watched the clouds drift by? Try to listen for the different sounds of the birds around you. How many different bird sounds can you identify? Most types of bird song are great for helping to relieve stress and help us relax – while some are stressful, like that of the Great Blue Heron. There is a great free app that will help identify bird songs called Merlin. (3) I highly recommend it. If you have binoculars, try to see and identify the birds around you. Did you know the number of bird watchers has soared since Covid?

*Gentle water features can help block out noise pollution and provide urban dwellers with much needed stress relief. Photo: S. Peck.*

5. Seek out water. Not all places to stop or walk are created equal. If you have access to a fountain, a pond, a stream or even a waterfall these are ideal places to visit. The sound of rushing water is very good for us. The sight of waves crashing on the beach is super relaxing.

6. Seek out a view. Places to rest, or walk that have ‘prospect’, which is the ability to see into the distance, are also excellent places to be. Even better if you can find shelter, combined with the prospect as a place to slow down and be present. One of my favorite places is to be sitting under a tarp or porch by a lake watching the rainfall. It’s mesmerizing.

*Sitting for a while will open your senses to new experiences of your surroundings. Finding a safe place where you can have a better view is ideal. Photo: S. Peck*

7. Try to find a place free of the noise of the city, such as sirens and traffic. Many studies have demonstrated that noise pollution in cities undermines our health and well-being, contributing to a number of problems such as high blood pressure, stress, fatigue, sleep deprivation and more. The European Environmental Agency reports that noise pollution is second only to air pollution as the most harmful environmental exposure to human health. (4) Finding a green space that is free of noise pollution, will give you a break from that source of stress. Sometimes when I am walking in an urban forest, I will walk until I can no longer hear the sounds of traffic. Waterfalls in parks, like the famous Paley Park in midtown New York, can also mask the sounds of the city, providing us with a break from noise pollution. (5)

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8. Avoid Distractions. Try to be fully present when you are in nature. Don’t surf the net or answer emails on your phone while visiting nature. Instead, make an effort to take in the sights and scents of the different plants. i.e., stop and smell the roses … and the milkweed, the tansies, and the clovers. Spending time in places with a variety of plants accentuates our experience and grips our attention. If you wish to use your phone, consider identifying plants you don’t know with a great camera-based app called Picture This, which can instantly inform you about a plant.

9. Tap into natural cycles. In nature, there is an amazing unfolding of life, as plants interact with insects, birds, and mammals and their surroundings. Look for new or unfamiliar life forms as you move through your greenspace. Have orb spiders begun to spin their circular webs, have the goldenrods begun to bloom, are there migratory birds present on their journey north or south, have the leaves of trees started to turn color? Last fall I noticed a number of bumblebees clinging to flowers – unmoving. Then I learned that bumblebees, nearing the end of their life in the fall, will often grasp onto flowers to sleep and die, still clinging to them. Taking note of the changes unfolding in your greenspace will help connect you to the cycles of the natural world and enhance your appreciation of the dance of life around us.

10. Touch the earth. “Earthing” refers to having direct skin contact with the surface of the Earth, whether it’s through your bare feet, your hands or other parts of your body. The theory, which requires more research, is that when we physically connect with the ground, its electrical energy rebalances our own. This may be one of the reasons that gardening is so healthy. Proponents of earthing believe that the rise in chronic illnesses can be attributed, in part, to our footwear, which separates us from the earth, often with rubber soles. I am not sure if living architecture will confer health benefits this way but it is worth a try.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy your time in whatever green space is available to you and that you are able to have a richer experience of those places. Try to leave precious public green spaces a little better than how you found them, for example, by removing a few pieces of trash if you find it. I guarantee it will make you feel better. Taking this ethic to the next level, could involve becoming involved in stewardship programs which may involve such activities as clean ups, invasive plant removal, and the planting of native species.

More than ever, we need to connect to the natural areas around us, discover this amazing world and enjoy its healing powers – especially Zoomers - many of whom have been captured by the many offerings of the digital universe. Nurturing these connections is also essential to marshaling the political will to protect and restore natural areas, and to develop more living architecture as a strategy for more sustainable communities, both of which remain critical to our long-term health and well-being.

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Steven W. Peck, GRP, GRIMP, Honorary ASLA is the founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the Editor of The Living Architecture Monitor magazine. He is an amateur naturalist and frequent visitor to greenspaces in his community.

Ten Tips to Help You Take Advantage of the Healing Powers of Living Architecture and Nature

Introduction

Green Roof Parks

Interior Greening

Tips on How Best To Spend Time In Nature

Conclusion

A Review of The Science of Biophilia, Biophilic Design and Human Health Impacts