about.

NATUREHELPI’VE LOST

your quick fix of biophilia

Hi there!

My name is Amelia Stewart, I am a 21 year

old graphic design student. My personal

experience of university has informed this

project. I grew up in rural Waikato so

moving to busy Wellington city was quite

an adjustment for me.

I have been living in various apartment

buildings for the last three and a half

years. Apartments are generally warmer,

cheaper and safer than living in a house in

Wellington. However apartments are a lot

more confined with no back yard, minimal

natural sunlight and often windows facing

into other apartments. Sure there are parks

and public areas for enjoying nature, but

sometimes that’s just not practical if the

weathers’ miserable or I’m swamped with

university work.

University students in Wellington are the

perfect target audience for this project as

most of them could do with increased

interaction with nature in their daily lives

since they live in such an urban area. The

halls of residence are all apartment blocks

in Wellington so most university students

initially move into apartment buildings here.

As a student myself I spend almost all of

my time working from home, since I have

everything I need there, which includes less

distractions. A lot of people I know work

better from home than at uni, so I wanted to

focus on creating something that students

could use in their home environment.

By designing a portable object this doesn’t

restrict the use of the product to students

homes, it could be transported to use where

ever the student is working. It goes without

saying that students are often very stressed

and poor, so if there is a fun, cheap, easy

and practical way to reduce stress while

improving concentration in students, it is

going to be effective.

The following booklet is an explanation of

my design response to creating a nature fix

for young, university students.

DEFINING BIOPHILIAThe term biophilia describes to human beings

intrinsic love of nature, a concept popularised

by conservation biologist Dr. E. O. Wilson with

the release of his book in 1993; The Biophilia

Hypothesis. Wilson argues that regardless of

an individuals background, financial status or

culture beliefs human beings are all united by

our innate love of nature. This theory revolves

around the concept that biophilia is a product

of human’s biological evolution and therefore

is genetically encoded into each and every

one of us. People often limit nature to things

like flowers or grass, overlooking the fact that

animals and the weather are also key natural

elements in our lives.

The United Nations (2004) estimates that for

the first time in human history the majority of the

world’s population live in urban areas, instead

of rural environments . Urbanisation is projected

to continue to increase, with it estimated that

70% of people will be living in urban areas by

the year 2050.

With the increase in people are living in

apartment buildings in densely populated areas

people’s access to nature has become more

restricted. Therefore our innate love of nature is

becoming lost in today’s modern society.

THE IMPACT OF BIOPHILIAThe Biophilia Hypothesis essentially claims

that human beings are dependant on regular

interaction with nature to sustain a long and

healthy life (Wilson, 1993).

Another researcher, Kaplan, has scientifically

verified that office workers are less stressed if

they have a window view of nature and also

perform tasks better if they have a pot plant in

their office, compared to those workers that do

not (Heerwagen, 2010). Kaplan also argues

that by taking a short nature break a persons

attention span is replenished, therefore enabling

them to refocus easily after taking a break.

Increased interaction with nature, by taking

a nature break, has been proven to reduce

stress, while improving concentration and over

all well- being. The biophilia effect is the term

that refers to the exposure of nature having a

positive influence on the well- being of humans.

Interestingly enough images that depict nature

have been shown to have the same positive

influence on humans that real physical nature

does, even if its not quite the same experience.

In a world that is becoming increasingly

urbanised, retaining our bond with nature has

never been so important. The halls of residents

for university student’s in cities like Wellington

are all apartment buildings. This means that the

majority of students who begin university will

initially move into flats with limited access to

nature. Moving out of home to start university

is a big adjustment for most young people, let

alone the fact that their new home is a large,

densely populated city.

University students live unusual lifestyles;

they have restricted money so they’ll cheaply

decorate their flats with photos or images

from magazines, they’ll pull all nighters to get

assignments done and barely leave the flat

during a hand in or exam week. This project

explores creating a digital and tactile biophilia

effect designed to benefit distracted, stressed

out Wellington students living without easy

access to the movement and delight of nature.

FINDING NATURE IN A BOXThis is an unconventional book, that explores

the concept of creating a digitally produced

biophilia effect, acting as a easy nature break

for busy university students.

Our society has never been more reliant

on digital technology. We all depend on

technology for work, socializing and carrying

out daily chores. These digitised devices are

all recent, man made objects that we are very

accustomed to, whereas nature has been

around since the beginning of time and yet it

seems to be disappearing from our daily lives.

It was my communication objective to rekindle

people’s love of nature and consequently

offering escapism from their stressful, modern

everyday lives.

Books have traditionally used as a form of

escapism. People today are now turning to TV

and virtual worlds, such as The Sims, to escape

from their daily lives. As children we were

encouraged to read books, spending hours

fantasising about the world of Harry Potter. By

the time you reach university though, reading

books has become part of a educational chore

and is often overlooked as a form of escapism.

By capturing a stylised version of nature in

a book format this offers the university students

a practical and an easy way to access nature.

If the weather is miserable or they’re having a

melt down at 3 am, the student can turn to this

book, hidden in their desk to give them a stress

relieving biophilia escape. The design of the

book set was purposely kept simple, which is a

contrast to their busy lifestyle.

THE DELIGHT OF NATUREBy using pop up construction the books are

brought to life as it captures the movement of

nature, therefore mimicking the delight and

surprise that nature brings into our lives. This is

a tangible way to interact with a representation

of nature through the tactile use of pop up.

Often it is not enough to just see nature, you

want to touch and interact with it too.

I wanted people to respond to my project

with a smile and I have found that the surprise

of the pop up design achieves this. You never

know what to expect with nature, for instance

that moment when you’re smelling a sweet

rose and out pops a bee. This element of the

unknown has been translated into my design.

Having the pop up pages looking identical

from the outside adds an supplementary layer

of spontaneity to the design. Every time the

student looks at the books they’ll open them in

a different, arbitrary order, therefore subverting

the monotonous quality of a typical book.

Abstracting images of nature in a digitised

form (through the process of scanning imagery

and laser cutting) gives my design a fresh twist

on real nature, which is appropriate for my

mediated target audience. Our modern society

is becoming increasingly over cluttered with

images and therefore people today pay more

attention to new or unusual images than

familiar ones.

This project was originally inspired by the

beauty of real nature, the gorgeous colours and

textures that together create the allure of nature.

I have expressed the intangible essence of

nature through a more expressive graphic style

than photography. The illustration styled and

watercolour textures that portray nature visually

capture a dream- like quality that evokes

remembering personal memories associated

with these elements of nature. The abstract

textures were intended to not be realistic as

this book set is clearly not nature and cannot

replicate real nature. Using photographic

images would have produced an unrealistic

imitation of nature.

SUMMER IN WINTERHelp, I’ve Lost Nature expresses nature in the

seasons of summer and winter. As they are the

two seasons with the most recognisable and

distinctive imagery of nature. The book named

winter in fact holds images of summer nature.

People always feel a desire for what they don’t

have, therefore gazing at an image that evokes

a sunny day at the beach when it’s a freezing

cold winters morning is appealing.

Our society has conditioned us to expect

things instantaneously, for instance immediate

access to information on the internet. This notion

of quick access is reflected in the simplicity of

the design of the books, enabling the student to

effortlessly access biophilia.

By capturing elements of two seasons of

nature in a box this allows students to posses

a selection of biophilia in a practical form. By

keeping Help, I’ve Lost Nature on hand,

students can take a fun, quick and easy nature

break when ever they’re feeling stressed out.

Escaping into a nature break should replenish

students attentional systems which consequently

improves their concentration and overall

academic performance. Help, I’ve Lost Nature

offers the same beneficial effects that actual

nature does. This project further replicates the

movement and delight that nature brings into

our lives. This pop up book set is not intended

to replace nature, but merely provide students

with a quick fix of biophilia for when they find

nature hard to come by.

This pop up book set would be available

for purchasing from quirky gift stores, such as

Iko Iko, as a gift for people going to university.

Heerwagen, J. (2010). Biophilia. Retrieved from http://www.haworth.com/en-us/Knowledge/Workplace-Library/Documents/Biophilia.pdf.

United Nations. (2004). World Population To 2300. New York, NY: United Nations.

Wilson, E., & Kellert, S. (1993). The Biophilia Hypothesis. Washington, DC: Island Press.