Building for Life

By S. Kellert. 2005

621 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This is a definitive examination of how the inter-relationship between nature, architecture, and design is essential to human well-being. "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.

Subfields: Archeology, Building and Construction, Urban Studies

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b7b17a57893d959b7d3232dd2a5f70c6d5d02bf7

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Citations in the corpus

A dose of nature: Two three-level meta-analyses of the beneficial effects of exposure to nature on children's self-regulation (2019, background): “Our findings thus support the hypothesis that a natural environment contains beneficial elements for child development (e.g., Kaplan, 1995; Kellert, 2005; Ulrich, 1981; Ulrich et al., 1991) and specifically positively impacts cognitive, affective, and behavioral self-regulation.”
Green facades—a view back and some visions (2008, neutral): “…are a feature of urban environments which can be used in a creative way for sustainable (Hoffman 2000) or biophilic (Kellert and Wilson 1994; Kellert 2005) M. Köhler (*) Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, University of Applied Sciences Neubrandenburg, Postbox…”
Calm active and focused: Children’s responses to an organic outdoor learning environment (2013, methodology): “This would accord with Kellert’s theory that preschool aged children are in the phase of ‘domination’ or ‘mastery over nature’, a necessary stage in the development of biophilia (Kellert 2005).”
Measuring the impact of viewing wildlife: do positive intentions equate to long-term changes in conservation behaviour? (2013, background): “The positive power of negative emotions has also been mentioned by Kellert (2005) who claimed that nature-based experiences develop children’s negativistic values which “. . . helps a child avoid harm and injury; minimize risk and uncertainty; and experience feelings of awe, humility and respect…”
Evidence for prospect-refuge theory: a meta-analysis of the findings of environmental preference research (2016, background): “In the last two decades this expanded variation of prospect-refuge theory has seemingly become accepted in the design disciplines as offering an explanation of basic human responses to the environment, and as a type of guideline for creating ideal spaces (Kellert 2005; Lippmann 2010).”
Nature and its Influence on Children’s Outdoor Play (2011, background): “desire is not adapting to changing environments, but rather atrophying as each generation becomes more separate from nature (Kellert, 2005; Kellert & Wilson, 1993; Plotkin, 2008).”
Employee workplace spirituality and pro-environmental behavior in the hotel industry (2018, background): “A moralistic and spiritual perspective encourages and motivates people to protect and conserve nature (Kellert, 2012).”
Live green, think green: Sustainable school architecture and children’s environmental attitudes and behaviors (2017, background): “…as an effective learning arena for children (Dadvand et al., 2015; Hunter & Sonter, 2010; Wilson, 2012), and has discussed the adverse physical, social, and psychological effect of children's diminishing contact with nature (Kellert, 2005a; Zaradic & Pergams, 2007; Zhang, Goodale, & Chen, 2014).”
Psychological responses to natural patterns in architecture (2019, background): “Naturalistic forms and patterns have long served as a fruitful source of inspiration for architects and builders around the world (Alexander, 2002; Joye, 2007b; Kellert, 2005; Ostwald, 2001; Salingaros, 2007).”
Green spaces and cognitive development in primary schoolchildren (2015, background): “C with nature is thought to play a crucial and irreplaceable role in brain development (1, 2).”
Urgent Biophilia: Human-Nature Interactions and Biological Attractions in Disaster Resilience (2012, background): “Kellert (2005) further describes the wide range of values derived from human biophilic dependence (see Fig.”