Speaking
In Search of Sanctuary
Helena lectures nationally and internationally at universities, conferences & corporate events on Biophilic Design, Biophilic Urbanism, and the direct connection between
Architecture, Health & Biodiversity.
Helena considers Architecture a Health Care Profession
and has made the creation of spaces, which foster cognitive legibility, cognitive ease and positive emotional engagement with place her primary area of exploration. She views human attachment to and caring for place as essential for sustainability, as well as for physiological well-being.
“In Search of Sanctuary”
Innate Human Place Preferences in Support of Dynamic Homeostasis
Is Architecture a health-care profession? Recent research suggests that it is.
Helena’s multi-sensory lectures explore our innate human spatial preferences, their evolutionary origins, purpose and relevance for designers in meeting today’s environmental and health challenges. They build on the science-informed elements and patterns of biophilic design, where designing for cognitive ease and quantifiable physiological well-being reveals itself as the most viable path towards sustainability and personal resilience, towards stress-reduction and immune system support. Lectures explore the place elements & patterns of ‘everyday vacation places’ that engage the parasympathetic nervous system’s rest & relaxation response, support enhanced memory recall, optimal academic performance, and well-being as defined by current cognitive neuroscience.
Participants will explore the evolutionary imperative of dynamic homeostasis and the neuroscience of emotions: how do we reliably and predictably design spaces and places people will love? What are the building blocks, spatial sequences and patterns of designing for human emotional well-being, sense of safety, belonging, adventure, creativity and joy? How do we design places, that touch us deeply, reduce stress, inspire positive memories, and creatively address the phenomenon of time? How do we design buildings that are ecopositve community members, cool cities naturally and sequester carbon?
We will take the concept of resilience into biophilic urbanism, the re-imagining of cities as bio-diverse habitat. We will explore the building blocks for biophilic green and blue infrastructure and their measurable physiological benefits for community building, school performance, crime prevention, and equity.
Participants will engage in guided biophilic interventions, and as a ‘take-away’ will have a sense of biophilic methodology, as well as the experience of a profound paradigm shift in their own design approach.
As part of the 2020 Holzraum System speaker series, Helena discusses foundational aspects of the Science & Methodology of Biophilic Design with a special focus on our ancient connection to Wood:
Biophilic Urbanism ~ Local Non-Profit Organization
Helena is the president and founder of BioPhilly.
Helena established BioPhilly in 2015 as a local non-profit daughter organization to the international Biophilic Cities Network, where she is
a Steering Committee Member.
It is BioPhilly's mission to promote the important link between human health and the meaningful daily experience of wild and bio-diverse nature in the city. We engage with our fellow citizens towards an urban habitat tapestry from the Delaware to the Schuylkill River. Our team offers design consultation in local Biophilic Urban Acupuncture Interventions and holds an annual Spring conference, where city government planners, designers, medical professionals and academics join to discuss Philadephia-specific topics and Biophilic Urbanist solutions. Our well-attended conferences are sponsored by Thomas Jefferson University, where Helena serves as adjunct faculty in the College of Architecture & the Built Environment (CABE).
Want to get involved in BioPhilly? Please contact us at info@biophilly.org
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For more information about the Biophlic Cities Network please visit www.biophiliccities.org
