An inventory of biophilia design attributes within Child Life play spaces
21
B I O P H I L I A *Brenner * Duke * Jeff Gordon * Levine * N.C. * New Hanover * Presbyterian Hemby * Vidant
-
Upload
beth-mcgee -
Category
Documents
-
view
215 -
download
2
description
Thesis defense
Transcript of An inventory of biophilia design attributes within Child Life play spaces
B I O P H I L I A
*Brenner * Duke * Jeff Gordon * Levine * N.C. * New Hanover * Presbyterian Hemby * Vidant
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This is my presentation of “An inventory of biophilia design attributes within Child Life play spaces.”
Biophilia- What is it?
The human need to relate with life
B I O P H I L I A
Presenter
Presentation Notes
To begin, what is biophilia? The definition of biophilia originally proposed by E.O. Wilson is that it is “the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes” (E. Wilson, 1984, p. 1). This definition was expanded upon by Stephen Kellert and colleagues (Kellert, 2008) to encompass learning, experience, and sociocultural support that affect the relationships between people and natural environments. The biophilic response is often present unconsciously in our cognition, emotions, art, ethics, and in the built environment. As we are more sequestered inside the interior environment, it has reduced the direct human-nature interaction. Louv (2008) believes nature interaction is necessary to foster a biophilic realization early in childhood that assures healthy lifelong development and separation from it in any stage of development can lead to a nature-deficit disorder, which are negative physical, emotional, and psychological symptoms from a separation from nature. Unfortunately, hospitalization further precludes or prevents interaction with nature. Since the Child Life play room is one of the rooms pediatric patients spend the most time in outside of their own patient rooms, the play room provides a unique environment for researching both Child Life and biophilic interactions.
Operationalizing- The process
B I O P H I L I A
Analysis
Site Visits
IRB
Matrix & Surveys
Questions
Case Studies
Conclusions
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Beginning with these questions in mind, the primary purpose of this study was to inventory the variety of biophilic design attributes present in Child Life play spaces in North Carolina healthcare settings. To operationalize this concept of quantifying Biophilia so as to make it measurable and to understand it better, I used Kellert’s design elements and attributes to categorize the variety of biophilia present. This process was explored by obtaining IRB approval at our University and each hospital and it was often deemed exempt due to it being non-human subject research. After completion of the approval process, the site visits to eight out of ten Child Life inpatient hospital play rooms in the state offered 24 spaces to research. This was followed with the development of a matrix listing Kellert’s design attributes relevant to interior child life play rooms for targeting the primary research purpose of inventorying the attributes present. The secondary purpose of the research was to determine the perceptions of the design of the play spaces by the experts of those spaces, the Child Life Specialists, and was facilitated through an online survey. Both the matrix and survey methods were then used to inform case studies of each location. The analysis led to some interesting results and surprises. The conclusions that followed prompts additional opportunities for future research and new questions.
Photography
B I O P H I L I A
exploration of the sites
North Carolina Children’s Hospital play atrium
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The process of inventorying the sites began with the site visits. Each site was visited once, usually with the Supervisors as the escort, and used photography to document each play room. Photography was used in order to be able to complete the matrix inventory away from the site with the same information available to those assisting with the reliability testing. This helped established the matrix instrument’s reliability.
Hospitals- North Carolina Children’s Hospital
B I O P H I L I A
Play Atrium
Teen Activity Room
Teen Game Room
Recreational Therapy
Music Therapy Room
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Photos of each of the hospital sites visited will follow and are in the order used for the analysis, which was the order they were visited. The first site was the University of North Carolina Children’s hospital and their five play rooms. The first room, the play atrium was one of the largest room surveyed and had a great deal of nature representations used. It scored the second highest on the matrix (more details on that to come). The teen space consists of a game room and lounge room. A recreational therapy room has another infant/toddler area. They also have the only dedicated music therapy room which was very small.
Hospitals- New Hanover Regional Hospital
B I O P H I L I A Play Room
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The next site was also a large space and had an aquarium, sand castle, and teen play area. It scored the highest and has access to the outdoor garden and play area.
Hospitals- Presbyterian Hemby
B I O P H I L I A Play Room Teen Room
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Presbyterian Hemby has a main play room with a meadow theme. It also has a teen room, which was covered in boxes from a donation. The teen room daylighting comes in from windows and a skylight and is diffused through the red sparkle glass into the main play room.
Hospitals- Brenner Children’s
B I O P H I L I A
6th floor
Teen room
8th floor
9th floor
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Brenner has four play rooms divided among the floors and serves different populations. The 6th floor has a hidden TV /play nook (not shown) and the 8th floor is two rooms in one, with a unique leaf pattern etched into the surrounding glass. The teen room has a large nature mural that the Specialist ordered for the room and the 9th floor was also recently renovated directed by one of the Specialists and is lime and blue with a bamboo patterning.
Hospitals- Vidant Medical Center
B I O P H I L I A
Teen Room Play Room
NICU Room Rehabilitation Room
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Vidant Medical Center has a main play room with the teen room opening into it. The NICU is a sibling prep room. The rehabilitation room was the lowest scoring space and serves as a therapy and play room.
Hospitals- Levine Children’s Hospital
B I O P H I L I A
8th floor Play Room 9th floor Play Room
10th floor Play Room 11th floor Play Room
Teen Room
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Levine has four play rooms that are in the identical location on four floors and has very similar design features customized by the use of color and furniture placement. The teen room is a small space comparatively and slated for renovations.
Hospitals- Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital
B I O P H I L I A Teen Internet Cafe Play Room
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The final hospital was Jeff Gordon’s Children’s Hospital and offers a teen internet café with wrap around lounge space, game area, and the computer/ foosball space. The main play room has tree patterned glass facing the hall and is very purple.
Instrument #1- Matrix
B I O P H I L I A
Example: One part of the individual matrix for Presbyterian Hemby
Element categories • Environmental Features • Natural Shapes and
Forms • Natural Patterns and
Processes. • Light and Space • Place-Based
Relationships • Human-Nature
Relationships
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The development of the instrument for the first question of the study was the matrix, which regarded the current presence of biophilia and started with looking at Kellert’s seventy-two attributes. Those attributes applicable to this study were fifty-four, with two of them combined to make a total score of 52. Those attributes that were not included was due to that fact that they were either duplicates because of the interior application, not applicable to children’s play spaces, or were not able to be identified while using photography for documentation. The resulting matrix was formatted into Kellert’s six categories that he labeled as elements (as shown) and their sub-categories labeled as attributes (see complete example handout and see above example format). The matrix was used to create a numerical score for each space with higher numbers indicating greater variety of biophilia presence.
Instrument #2- Surveys
B I O P H I L I A
Questions were: How effective is the space in its support of child life? Please briefly explain your reply. What aspect of the space best supports child life? Please briefly explain your reply. Are there aspects of the space that impede child life? Please briefly explain your reply. If you could change anything about the space, what would it be and why?
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The second instrument used was the survey of the Child Life Specialists and the survey questions were designed to answer the second research question regarding the perceptions they had of their play spaces. This was approved through the IRB process and the questions developed to elicit open-ended responses that were not conditional of the respondents knowledge of biophilia terminology but allowed the ability to assess the overall reflections they had for their spaces. These surveys were sent by email with a link to the Qualtrics online site to each Child Life Supervisor.
Last instrument = Case Studies
Part of the analysis of New Hanover Medical Center that aided the case study.
B I O P H I L I A
Survey response Q#1 It is a beautiful space with an aquarium, open space and a sand castle for younger children, my office with musical instruments(to be used when supervised), and a teen space. The environment, lighting and design are wonderful, the teen side needs more resources and different furniture to make it more appealing to the older children. We also could use a sink. We do have hand sanitizer dispensers but a sink would be more effective for art work.
Matrix
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Each play space was analyzed using the matrix findings with regard to the overall score and the individual scores. This information was then processed according to the average scores for all the play rooms in the study to establish any trends in the total or sub-scores compared to the other play rooms. This was then assessed with the survey responses showing the effectiveness, needs, and preferences for the space, as seen by the Specialists, in comparison to the matrix scores to inform the development of the case studies.
Interpretation of findings- matrix
The beginning and end of
the analysis chart for all spaces
and attributes
B I O P H I L I A
Presenter
Presentation Notes
So, for the findings of each instrument we will start with the matrix scores that were all combined into a single chart (see final example). The average total score was 21.5 out of 52 possible points for all the play rooms, which was a score of 41%. Each play space was also sub-divided according to the biophilic elements and then all of these scores were averaged. The final step was taking these sub-score averages and averaging them among each other in order to identify any bias among the varying number of attributes present among each element category, as they all varied. This resulted in a score of 3.67 as the average number of attributes present among the six element categories. It assisted with indicating trends in the highest and lowest element scoring categories and used in the case studies.
Interpretation of findings- matrix
37
18 20
22
16
39
30
21
16 19
15
19 17
20 21 19
14
24 25 27
25
15
19 18
Biophilia Matrix Score
N.C. Child Life Play Room Matrix Scores N.C. Child Life Play Rooms
B I O P H I L I A
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The overall scores were used to assess trends in the amount of variance among each play room from the averages. This information was used to make this graphical representation. The score range was 25, with the highest two scores having more diverse nature themes and the largest spaces.
Interpretation of findings- case studies
B I O P H I L I A
Biophilic presence
• Spaciousness and daylight most common desires
• Natural Patterns and Processes- highest presence
• Place-Based Relationship and Human-Nature Relationships- tied for lowest presence
• Multiple attributes in an item New Hanover Medical Center signage
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The findings of the case studies included: The top desires were for day lighting and spaciousness. These were the most common desires and also influenced the perceived effectiveness of the play spaces. Natural Patterns and Processes was found consistently in every facility. The individual highest ranking attributes of all of the elements were color (present everywhere) and bounded spaces (all of the play rooms were distinct and separate entities). The next highest was egg, oval, and tubular forms, found commonly in the tubular steel in the chairs and tables, and the next highest was natural materials, which was present in all but two rooms and found most often in the use of natural wood (wood-looking laminate could not be included). These features are common in many interiors and yet we may not stop to think why we so often chosen to incorporate them into the interior environment. It could be that part of this reason is that the biophilic features touch our innate desire for contact with nature and its representations. Variances in below average levels occurred in the element categories of Place-Based Relationships and Human-Nature Relationship. This may be because it is easier to design a play room by including representations of animals and plants or other similar representational images than use attributes from these elements. It is as easy or may not as quickly come to the designer’s minds the need for a connection to the culture or ecology in a geographical context or the benefit that merging certain biophilic attributes within a space has to offer. Individual attributes out of all the elements that ranked lowest include change and metamorphosis, which was not found in any of the spaces in the combined form of both change and metamorphosis. Also neither warm light nor fire were in any spaces. The lack of warm colored lighting was a surprise to the researcher that could have satisfied the warm light attribute. An interesting finding was that many design features supplied multiple attributes to the space, like a modular storage unit could have wood, curvalinear lines, color, and biomorphic features.
Interpretation of findings- case studies
B I O P H I L I A
16 14
18 15 15
17 19 19
22 24 24 25 25
27
37
16 18 19 19 19 20 20 21 21 21
24 27
30
39
#17 #11 #22 #9 #5 #13 #24 #2 #12 #10 #16 #16 #23 #14 #3 #15 #8 #14 #4 #18 #18 #18 #19 #21 #20 #20 #7 #1 #6Play Room #: ordered from low to high scores
Survey Child Life Play Room Effectiveness Not Effective Score Neutral Score Effective Score Very Effective Score
Presenter
Presentation Notes
After the analysis of the case studies was complete, the effectiveness of the play spaces was related to the scores of the matrix and used the play room order visited as the numbering system to organize additional analysis. This chart is organized from low to high matrix scores. This graphic shows a slight change in perception toward an effective play room in higher scores compared to lower scores. This goes to support additional research regarding biophilia’s influence on humans that use spaces with higher variety within them.
Addition to the body of knowledge
B I O P H I L I A
Additions: Case studies with photographic inventory Matrix instrument • Biophilic features added desired features • Link between nature and the
effectiveness of the spaces • Case studies represent unique database
of information • Additional research needed
New Hanover Medical Center signage
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The information represented in each of the case studies adds to the body of knowledge regarding the design and biophilia present in these spaces, as well as photographic examples of each space and the responses of the Specialists. Combined they form a new analysis that begins to assess the nature and Child Life needs for these spaces. In regards to the research questions, the biophilic elements and attributes were able to be found in the interior of Child Life play spaces. The perceptions of the Child Life Specialists regarding the interior design specifically expressed some desires for biophilic features. The case studies provided new information that showed that natural items were desired and influenced the spaces effectiveness. This research aids in supporting additional research regarding both Child Life and biophilia that includes: 1) highlighting the importance of specialized play space design, 2) the need for inclusion and more research of biophilic design features in play spaces, and 3) the wider application of the biophilic design attributes and the use of the biophilic design matrix for other applications. There is still a need for wider application and exploration of the attributes, matrix, and case study data. Also, the current use of a credit/ no-credit matrix rating did not show the amount or quality of the item being identified. This weighting or qualifying of the features present may be further identified in future research. Thus the job of the designer is to use biophilia to help guide the design process and aid in creating spaces that connect us with life. It is the human combination of design and nature that ultimately speaks to the success of our spaces, so the addition of the knowledge from the case studies and the use of the matrix tool are designed to assist with that goal. There is much more work to do, but this research provides a starting point for additional work in both biophilia and play room design. Thank you.
Credits Sources: Kellert, S. (2005). Building for life : designing and understanding the human-nature connection. Washington DC: Island Press. Images: Biophilia image: http://jellyfishinthesea.wordpress.com/, http://archive.blisstree.com/live/clothing-for-tiny-tree-huggers/, http://training.schneiderchildrenshospital.org/peds_html_fixed/peds/pregnant/anatomy.htm Process image: http://www.wondergroup.com/about-us “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” –– Sir Winston Churchill, May 10, 1941.
