Executive Producer: Stephen Kellert
Producer/Director: Bill Finnegan
Production Company: Tamarack Media
Film Length: 60 minutes
More information at www.biophilicdesign.net.
Biophilic Design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. We need nature in a deep and fundamental fashion, but we have often designed our cities and suburbs in ways that both degrade the environment and alienate us from nature. The recent trend in green architecture has decreased the environmental impact of the built environment, but it has accomplished little in the way of reconnecting us to the natural world, the missing piece in the puzzle of sustainable development. Come on a journey from our evolutionary past and the origins of architecture to the world’s most celebrated buildings in a search for the architecture of life. Together, we will encounter buildings that connect people and nature - hospitals where patients heal faster, schools where children’s test scores are higher, offices where workers are more productive, and communities where people know more of their neighbors and families thrive. Biophilic Design points the way toward creating healthy and productive habitats for modern humans.
Producer Bios
Dr. Stephen R. Kellert is the Tweedy Ordway Professor Emeritus of Social Ecology and Senior Research Scholar at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Bio-Logical Capital, a firm that invests in and implements sustainable land uses on large landscapes, as well as he was a founding partner of Environmental Capital Partners, a private equity company investing in the environmental sector. His work focuses on understanding the connection between nature and humanity with a particular interest in environmental conservation and sustainable design and development. His awards include: the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award, Connecticut Outdoor and Environmental Educators Association; the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Service Award, Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; the 2009 George B. Hartzog Award for Environmental Conservation; the 2008 American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Best Book of Year Award in Architecture and Urban Planning for the book Biophilic Design; the 2005 Outstanding Research Award for contributions to theory and science, from the North American Association for Environmental Education; the 1997 National Conservation Achievement Award, from the National Wildlife Federation; the 1990 Distinguished Individual Achievement Award, from the Society for Conservation Biology; the 1985 Best Publication of Year Award, from the International Foundation for Environmental Conservation; and, the 1983 Special Achievement Award, from the National Wildlife Federation. Dr. Kellert is also listed and described in “American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present.” He has served on committees of the National Academy of Sciences, and has been a member of the board of directors of many organizations. He has authored more than 150 publications, including the following books: Endless Spring: the Ties that Bind Nature with Humanity (Yale University Press, in preparation); Companions in Wonder: Reflections on Children and Adults Exploring Nature Together (edited with J. Dunlap, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011); The Coming Transformation: Values to Sustain Natural and Human Communities (edited with Gus Speth, Yale FES, 2010); Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science, and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life (co-editors, J. Heerwagen, M. Mador, John Wiley, 2008), Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection (Island Press 2005); Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development (Island Press, 1997); The Value of Life: Biological Diversity and Human Society (Island Press, 1996); The Biophilia Hypothesis (edited with E.O. Wilson, Island Press, 1993); The Good in Nature and Humanity: Connecting Science, Religion, and Spirituality with the Natural World (edited with T. Farnham, Island Press, 2002); Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Foundations (edited with P. Kahn, Jr., MIT Press, 2002); and Ecology, Economics, Ethics: The Broken Circle (edited with F.H. Bormann, Yale University Press, 1991).
Bill Finnegan is a founding partner of Tamarack Media, a multimedia production company that specializes in telling stories about the relationship between people and nature and harnessing the power of new media to educate and advocate. Through Tamarack, Bill has produced award-winning films for television, film festivals, and the web, including Building Community with Greenspace (episode in the 2006 public television series Natural Heroes), Restoring America’s Serengeti (Best PSA, 2005 International Wildlife Film Festival), and Wetlands & Wonder (Merit Award for Conservation Message, 2009 International Wildlife Film
Bill Finnegan/2011/56 min/Health & Environment
Biophilic Design is an innovative way of designing the places where we live, work, and learn. We need nature in a deep and fundamental fashion, but we have often designed our cities and suburbs in ways that both degrade the environment and alienate us from nature. . . . Biophilic Design points the way toward creating healthy and productive habitats for modern humans.