BIOPHILIA CAMP 2022
Biophilic design is drawing attention in the wake of the global pandemic as a path to solutions for healthy people and cities. However, it has been a key aspect of the Living Building Challenge since its inception and continues to serve as an important blueprint for fostering integrative and occupant-focused building design. Biophilic design shakes up the conceptual process by asking new questions, provokes new reflections on the potential of the built environment and invites the project team to explore the advantages of a design aimed at the connection between human being and nature.
For almost twenty years now, strategies and programs dedicated to the construction of environmentally sustainable buildings have been spreading all over the world. But we are still a long way from effectively reducing the negative environmental effects that are generated by our cities (buildings are still responsible for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions). The amount of time we spend inside buildings where we live, work and study has increased a demand for respect for the psychophysical well-being of the occupants, to restore beauty, equity, and balance with Nature to the places we live. In a word: we need buildings designed with respect for biophilia.
Biophilia is the innate love for everything that is alive and natural and is a trait of the human psyche that has been forged in the course of the evolution of our species. Even today, biophilia inspires and conditions our environmental preferences. A biophilic environment is first of all a regenerative environment, where stress is reduced, and one recovers more easily from mental fatigue. Designing and building for measurable well-being in terms of thermal, neurological, light, olfactory and air quality, acoustic, aesthetic and motor perception is possible.
To safeguard our health, building biophilically is now an urgent imperative. To do this, an integrative and multidisciplinary approach is required, which can benefit from the immersive experience in nature, provided by this first Biophilia “camp” organized in Italy. Biophilia 2022 brings together professionals from all over Europe and trainers from different disciplines (biology, psychology, architecture, engineering, organization, and business strategy) in a formative exploration of the various aspects of biophilic design, to create professional figures capable of provoking a change in the built environment design, construction, and management.
This is the philosophy of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and its European partner Living Future Europe (LFE), a non-profit organization that promotes the use of the most advanced and innovative sustainable technologies and design strategies available today. ILFI puts this philosophy into practice through the Living Building Challenge (LBC) program, the most rigorous certification in the world for all-round regenerative buildings, now in version 4.0.
An Agile Journey into Biophilic Design
Why Agile? Biophilia 2022 also provides the opportunity to introduce participants to a still relatively new project management methodology for the sector.
“Agile” was born as a movement in the late 90s and became official in 2001, when a group of 17 “independent thinkers”, experts in software design and development, met and created the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development” which still today remains the main and official reference and source of inspiration for any initiative that intends to qualify as agile. Agile is a philosophy, a “mindset”, within which “frameworks” and working methods are born.
One of these is SCRUM, a methodology that allows you to organize work and projects in contexts characterized by high complexity and instability, often dictated by the need to welcome change, because people’s needs change. For several years, this methodology has been used successfully in areas and contexts other than software development, both for project management and in the organization of processes and workflows.
The participants, divided into working groups, will have the opportunity to gain experience on the basics of this methodology and train themselves to use it by applying it in the projects that will be developed during these days. Also using techniques of visual thinking and creativity management as fundamental elements for the development of novel solutions inspired by nature. The activities will take place both indoors and outdoors, accompanied by trainers and facilitators who will follow the participants in a learning path enhanced by immersion in nature.
Biophilia Camp 2022
- When: 30 September – 3 October 2022 (arrival 29 Sep, departure 3 Oct)
- Where: FeliZitas, St. Felix (South Tyrol, Italy)
- Duration: 3 days
- Places: 15 available
- Information and registration: pre-registration form here
- Language: English
- Concept creation, direction, organization: Living Future Europe
More information at info@living-future.eu
CALL FOR TRAINERS
We want to provide our participants with the best training opportunities. This call is for enthusiastic, motivated, skilled biophilia and biophilic design trainers (senior, junior) to join our team in St. Felix for the camp. Instead of applying a top-down selection, we would like to explore with a bottom-up approach the most optimal options to collaborate with you and come in touch with a vibrant network of biophilic experts in Europe and abroad.
Apply to the call using this form! [Applications are closed, thanks for your interest]
What we are expecting from you:
- Knowledge and expertise in biophilia and biophilic design training, teaching, consulting
- Help in co-creating the final program of the initiative, providing your valuable expertise, knowledge, and brilliant ideas
- Reach the venue for the workshop at your own expenses o/r
What we can offer
- The opportunity to join us in this first immersive workshop of its kind, joining a cohort of enthusiastic nature inspired change makers.
- A full immersion in the woods of Non-Valley, in South Tyrol, Italy’s northernmost province combining Alpine staidness with Italian joie-de-vivre, the Dolomites – a UNESCO World Heritage site – and cultural diversity, between Mediterranean landscape and Alpine peaks, deeply rooted tradition and cosmopolitan curiosity.
- Room and board at the fascinating FeliZitas chalets at the organisation expenses
- Last but not least, a valuable networking opportunity to create enduring relationship advancing a culture of regenerative sustainability across Europe.
Selection process
Living Future Europe will directly manage the evaluation and selection process. We reserve the right to select at least one ‘senior’ trainer and one ‘junior’ trainer to complete the Biophilia Camp 2022 team. In case of equal evaluation, we will give preference in order of precedence of application. Final results of the selection will be communicated by June 30th at the latest.
Deadline to apply: 24 June 2022
Application form: here [Applications are closed, thanks for your interest]
