Stephen R. Kellert

people and nature in the modern world

Birthright

Judith Heerwagen

Martin Mador

"When nature inspires our architecture-not just how it looks buthow buildings and communities actually function-we will have madegreat strides as a society. Biophilic Design provides us withtremendous insight into the 'why,' then builds us a road map forwhat is sure to be the next great design journey of ourtimes." -Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chairman, U.S. GreenBuilding Council "Having seen firsthand in my company the power of biomimicry tostimulate a wellspring of profitable innovation, I can sayunequivocably that biophilic design is the real deal. Kellert,Heerwagen, and Mador have compiled the wisdom of world-renownedexperts to produce this exquisite book; it is must reading forscientists, philosophers, engineers, architects and designers,and-most especially-businesspeople. Anyone looking for the key to anew type of prosperity that respects the earth should starthere." -Ray C. Anderson, founder and Chair, Interface, Inc. The groundbreaking guide to the emerging practice of biophilicdesign This book offers a paradigm shift in how we design and build ourbuildings and our communities, one that recognizes that thepositive experience of natural systems and processes in ourbuildings and constructed landscapes is critical to human health,performance, and well-being. Biophilic design is about humanity'splace in nature and the natural world's place in human society,where mutuality, respect, and enriching relationships can andshould exist at all levels and should emerge as the norm ratherthan the exception. Written for architects, landscape architects, planners,developers,environmental designers, as well as building owners, BiophilicDesign: The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings toLife is a guide to the theory, science, and practice of biophilicdesign. Twenty-three original and timely essays by world-renownedscientists, designers, and practitioners, including Edward O.Wilson, Howard Frumkin, David Orr, Grant Hildebrand, StephenKieran, Tim Beatley, Jonathan Rose, Janine Benyus, Roger Ulrich,Bert Gregory, Robert Berkebile, William Browning, and VivianLoftness, among others, address: * The basic concepts of biophilia, its expression in the builtenvironment, and how biophilic design connects to human biology,evolution, and development. * The science and benefits of biophilic design on human health,childhood development, healthcare, and more. * The practice of biophilic design-how to implement biophilic designstrategies to create buildings that connect people with nature andprovide comfortable and productive places for people, in which theycan live, work, and study. Biophilic design at any scale-from buildings to cities-begins witha few simple questions: How does the built environment affect thenatural environment? How will nature affect human experience andaspiration? Most of all, how can we achieve sustained andreciprocal benefits between the two? This prescient, groundbreaking book provides the answers.

The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life

Biophilic Design

Timothy J. Farnham

Timothy Farnham

The good in nature and humanity brings together 20 leading thinkers and writers - including Ursula Goodenough, Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Carl Safina, David Petersen, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, and Barry Lopez - to examine the divide between faith and reason, and to seek a means for developing an environmental ethic that will help us confront two of our most imperiling crises: global environmental destruction and an impoverished spirituality. The book explores the ways in which science, spirit, and religion can guide the experience and understanding of our ongoing relationship with the natural world and examines how the integration of science and spirituality can equip us to make wiser choices in using and managing the natural environment. The book also provides compelling stories that offer a narrative understanding of the relations among science, spirit, and nature. Grounded in the premise that neither science nor religion can by itself resolve the prevailing malaise of environmental and moral decline, contributors seek viable approaches to averting environmental catastrophe and, to achieving a more harmonious relationship with the natural world.

Connecting Science, Religion, and Spirituality with the Natural World

The Good in Nature and Humanity

Scientists, theologians, and the spiritually inclined, as well as all those concerned with humanity's increasingly widespread environmental impact, are beginning to recognize that our ongoing abuse of the earth diminishes our moral as well as our material condition. Many people are coming to believe that strengthening the bonds among spirituality, science, and the natural world offers an important key to addressing the pervasive environmental problems we face. The Good in Nature and Humanity brings together 20 leading thinkers and writers -- including Ursula Goodenough, Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Carl Safina, David Petersen, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, and Barry Lopez -- to examine the divide between faith and reason, and to seek a means for developing an environmental ethic that will help us confront two of our most imperiling crises: global environmental destruction and an impoverished spirituality. The book explores the ways in which science, spirit, and religion can guide the experience and understanding of our ongoing relationship with the natural world and examines how the integration of science and spirituality can equip us to make wiser choices in using and managing the natural environment. The book also provides compelling stories that offer a narrative understanding of the relations among science, spirit, and nature. Grounded in the premise that neither science nor religion can by itself resolve the prevailing malaise of environmental and moral decline, contributors seek viable approaches to averting environmental catastrophe and, more positively, to achieving a more harmonious relationship with the natural world. By bridging the gap between the rational and the religious through the concern of each for understanding the human relation to creation, The Good in Nature and Humanity offers an important means for pursuing the quest for a more secure and meaningful world.

Kinship to Mastery is a fascinating and accessible exploration of the notion of biophilia -- the idea that humans, having evolved with the rest of creation, possess a biologically based attraction to nature and exhibit an innate affinity for life and lifelike processes. Stephen R. Kellert sets forth the idea that people exhibit different expressions of biophilia in different contexts, and demonstrates how our quality of life in the largest sense is dependent upon the richness of our connections with nature. While the natural world provides us with material necessities -- food, clothing, medicine, clean air, pure water -- it just as importantly plays a key role in other aspects of our lives, including intellectual capacity, emotional bonding, aesthetic attraction, creativity, imagination, and even the recognition of a just and purposeful existence. As Kellert explains, each expression of biophilia shows how our physical, material, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual well-being is to a great extent dependent on our relationships with the natural world that surrounds us. Kinship to Mastery is a thought-provoking examination of a concept that, while not widely known, has a significant and direct effect on the lives of people everywhere. Because the full expression of biophilia is integral to our overall health, our ongoing destruction of the environment could have far more serious consequences than many people think. In a readable and compelling style, Kellert describes and explains the concept of biophilia, and demonstrates to a general audience the wide-ranging implications of environmental degradation. Kinship to Mastery continues the exploration of biophilia begun with Edward O. Wilson's landmark book Biophilia (Harvard University Press, 1984) and followed by The Biophilia Hypothesis (Island Press, 1993), co-edited by Wilson and Kellert, which brought together some of the most creative scientists of our time to explore Wilson's theory in depth.

Biophilia In Human Evolution And Development

Kinship to Mastery

A gorgeously illustrated, accessible book that provides a holistic summary of the key elements for good biophilic design

The Practice of Biophilic Design

Nature by Design

Debate on the threat to humanity posed by the massive and widespread loss of biological diversity has largely emphasized economic and ecological consequences. In The Value of Life, a leading social scientist adds a critical new dimension. Stephen R. Kellert explores the actual and perceived importance of biological diversity for humankind's physical, emotional, intellectual, and even spiritual well-being. Kellert identifies ten basic values, which he describes as biologically based, inherent human tendencies that are greatly influenced and moderated by culture, learning, and experience. Throughout, Kellert argues that the preservation of biodiversity is fundamentally linked to human well-being as he illustrates the importance of biological diversity to the human sociocultural and psychological condition. His discussion provides the reader with a deeper understanding of how humans depend on a vast matrix of affiliations with other living things to achieve lives rich in meaning and value.

Biological Diversity And Human Society

The Value of Life

F. Herbert Bormann

Stephan R... Kellert

Professor F Herbert Bormann

In this book a distinguished group of environmental experts argues that in order to solve global environmental problems, we must view them in a broad interdisciplinary perspective that recognizes the relations, the interconnected circle, among ecology, economics, and ethics. Currently the circle is broken, they say, because environmental policy is decided on short-term estimations of material return that take little account of the economic or moral burdens that will be borne by future generations if we deplete our resources now.

The Broken Circle

Ecology, Economics, Ethics

Sustainable design has made great strides in recent years; unfortunately, it still falls short of fully integrating nature into our built environment. Through a groundbreaking new paradigm of "restorative environmental design," award-winning author Stephen R. Kellert proposes a new architectural model of sustainability. In Building For Life, Kellert examines the fundamental interconnectedness of people and nature, and how the loss of this connection results in a diminished quality of life. This thoughtful new work illustrates how architects and designers can use simple methods to address our innate needs for contact with nature. Through the use of natural lighting, ventilation, and materials, as well as more unexpected methodologies-the use of metaphor, perspective, enticement, and symbol-architects can greatly enhance our daily lives. These design techniques foster intellectual development, relaxation, and physical and emotional well-being. In the works of architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen, Cesar Pelli, Norman Foster, and Michael Hopkins, Kellert sees the success of these strategies and presents models for moving forward. Ultimately, Kellert views our fractured relationship with nature as a design problem rather than an unavoidable aspect of modern life, and he proposes many practical and creative solutions for cultivating a more rewarding experience of nature in our built environment.

Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection

Building for Life

Activities of the American Public Relating to Animals

Julie Dunlap

Rachel Carson's classic 1956 essay "Help Your Child to Wonder" urged adults to help children experience the "sense of wonder" that comes only from a relationship with nature. It's clear we haven't succeeded in following her advice: eight-year-olds surveyed in the United Kingdom could identify more Pokémon characters than common wildlife species; and Richard Louv's recent best-selling book Last Child in the Woods identifies a "nature deficit disorder" in children around the world. But today a growing number of environmentally minded parents, teachers, and other adults are seeking to restore nature to its rightful place in children's lives. This anthology gathers personal essays recounting adventures great and small with children in the natural world. The authors--writing as parents, teachers, mentors, and former children--describe experiences that range from bird watching to an encounter with an apple butter-loving grizzly bear. Rick Bass captures fireflies with his children and reflects on fatherhood; Michael Branch observes wryly that both gardening and parenting are "disciplines of sustainability"; Lauret Savoy wonders how African American children can connect to the the land after generations of estrangement; and Sandra Steingraber has "the big talk" with her children, not about sex but about global warming. By turns lyrical, comic, and earnest, these writings guide us to closer connections with nature and with the children in our lives, for the good of the planet and our own spiritual and physical well-being.

Children and Adults Exploring Nature Together

Companions in Wonder

Peter H. Kahn

Multidisciplinary research on the significance of children's relationship with the natural world.

Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations

Children and Nature

Human health and well-being are inextricably linked to nature; our connection to the natural world is part of our biological inheritance. In this engaging book, a pioneer in the field of biophilia—the study of human beings' inherent affinity for nature—sets forth the first full account of nature's powerful influence on the quality of our lives. Stephen Kellert asserts that our capacities to think, feel, communicate, create, and find meaning in life all depend upon our relationship to nature. And yet our increasing disconnection and alienation from the natural world reflect how seriously we have undervalued its important role in our lives. Weaving scientific findings together with personal experiences and perspectives, Kellert explores specific human tendencies—including affection, aversion, intellect, control, aesthetics, exploitation, spirituality, and communication—to discover how they are influenced by our relationship with nature. He observes that a beneficial relationship with the natural world is an instinctual inclination, but must be earned. He discusses how we can restore the balance in our relationship by means of changes in childhood development, education, conservation, building design, ethics, and everyday life. Kellert's moving book provides exactly what is needed now: a fresh understanding of how much our essential humanity relies on being a part of the natural world.

People and Nature in the Modern World

Edward O. Wilson

This book brings together the views of some of the most creative scientists of our time, each attempting to amplify and refine the concept of biophilia. Contributors to this volume include Jared Diamond, Aaron Katcher, Richard Nelson and others.

Stephen R. Kellert

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