As an architect, I have a keen interest in the built environment; how it works, or doesn’t work, how it affects our lives, how our lives affect it. I attended a forum recently which included speakers from a range of backgrounds and perspectives, and which – jointly - looked at the built environment in a more holistic way than perhaps is standard fare at this point in time.

It could be said that the presenters were preaching to the converted; held by the Adelaide Sustainable Building Network, the attendees were of a particular bent, but I was inspired by the message on offer and encouraged by the work being done by individuals and organisations and the thinking that extends to the well-being of the community at large.

In the spirit of continuing the conversation around our constructed world, and the efforts being made to elevate it to a place that considers more than the monetary outcome, this is a run down of some of the concepts and thinking that were discussed at the forum.

Things like permaculture, biophilia, and cultural anthropology. Things like the economics of happiness and healthy environments for humans. Things like the Living Building Challenge.

All have a loosely common goal; to maintain our habitat, to improve it, and to make it healthier and with less impact on the planet. It’s about people centred thinking, people centred design, people centred places that foster wellness.

For example, permaculture and urban agriculture. Permaculture is based on regenerative design principles; that is, care for the earth, care for the people and a fair share for everyone. It works with natural ecosystems. It is about rotating our crops. It’s about using sustainable energies and resources.

Our current food systems are largely controlled by a Big 10 of food and beverage companies and based, for efficiency, on high input monocultural agriculture. High inputs such as chemicals and industrial machinery. The problem with efficiency is in its narrow terms of reference.

I would say that monocultural agriculture is the opposite of permaculture.

If food security depends on food diversity, we would be better served to advocate for and support the smaller food producers which will ultimately provide more diversity in the marketplace.

This leads us to biophilic design and biophilic cities. Biophilia is the love of life, of living things. A biophilic city fosters an increase in biodiversity. It is where you will see urban farming and vertical gardens. More natural spaces in an urban context will decrease energy intensity through a reduced heat island effect. Including natural spaces in our buildings will lead to improved health and well being. Natural daylight, natural ventilation, less chemicals in the built structure and surfaces, connectedness to the outside through the day, so that we can see whether it’s raining or whether the sun is shining will make us happier. So we can see what season it is. And happier people are more productive and take fewer sick days off work. It is a win-win.

Buildings can also be designed to encourage changes in behaviour. A run of beautiful stairs, situated prominently will draw people to use them. We know that a sedentary lifestyle is bad for our health. Those of us that work in offices are squarely in that space.

A more active lifestyle fosters wellness. And wellness might be the new sustainability. There is a plethora of products and places offering us wellness. I suggest we might need less and not more. Products that is. Not wellness.

I suggest also that we aim for something better than sustainability. I will quote Stephen Choi, one of the presenters at the forum, and Director of the Living Futures Institute of Australia, who noted that if he was asked how his girlfriend and his relationship was tracking, and he responded that it was sustainable, it would be okay but kind of boring. Uninspiring. For our cities and our buildings, let’s aim for amazing and beautiful; full of light and fresh air and connectedness.

Let’s aim for living buildings. There is a development planned for suburban Melbourne which aims to be "World's Most Sustainable Shopping Centre". Think supermarket, cinema, child care, cafes, restaurants; the usual goings on of a suburban shopping centre, but then picture it with windows. And opening windows at that. Picture it with a rooftop that provides more than 5000m2 for food growing; picture it with plants throughout. A cascade of plants following the well-placed stairs from floor to floor. This shopping centre will generate more energy than it consumes and it will manage all its own water and have net positive waste with a whole life cycle, as in construction, operation and end of life, materials strategy. I once heard Carey Lyons, a well-known architect from Melbourne, comment that shopping centres are the new church, the new community gathering spaces. So picture this place as a community centre.

To paraphrase Stephen Choi again, a building can be a vehicle for lots of other things – it could be like a trojan horse – it looks like a building, but as a community gathering space, there may be magic in the connections we make inside the space.

The connections will make us happy. And happy will make us well.

Living Buildings

The built environment and us. 2017