Commercial Architecture April 2018 - 5

EDITOR'S

notebook

Experiencing Biophilia And Hygge

ntil this month, my all-time favorite

was the latest glass and that we would be amaz-

design term was biophilia. Now I'm

ingly comfortable in our offices while enjoying

adding hygge to my two-item list in

ample daylight throughout the workday.

the 1A position. What a great partnership those

You guessed right; the company was sold a

two terms/concepts form: connect people with

bill of goods. We were so miserable those first

nature and create spaces that deliver a sense of

few months that management was forced to

safety, comfort, and togetherness. (Learn more

spend a fortune on miles of custom blinds to

about hygge, including how to pronounce it, on

reduce solar gain. When we weren't being baked,

p. 6 in this issue's "The Architects.")

we invariably had to don sweaters because the

Today, the desire and need to connect with

"advanced" HVAC system only offered one

nature and occupy spaces that have excellent in-

temperature and one fan speed. The tempera-

door air quality, lighting, acoustics, and physical

ture was "cold" and the fan speed was "high."

comforts is made possible by the tremendous ad-

Physical comforts? Those were the steel desks

vances in building technology, resulting from

and filing cabinets and "ergonomic" chairs of the

years of concentrated sustainable product and

day, i.e., military functional.

design development. Window, door, and skylight

Basically, we had biophilia but couldn't expe-

technology and design have become so cutting

rience it without misery and didn't have anything

edge that we can specify them with confidence.

remotely approaching the comfort of hygge. The

My first exposure to connecting the working

other two facets of hygge-togetherness and safe-

environment with nature came when I was em-

ty? Our staff was a bunch of science-oriented

ployed by a now-defunct publishing company.

loner editors, so togetherness wasn't high on our

We were working in a conventional office build-

priority list, and the overkill access-control

ing that reflected the minimal-cost construction

system kept us more than safe from any rabid an-

practices of the day. Those practices included pa-

imal that might be lurking in the surrounding

per-thin windows that leaked everything. While

woods.

everyone wanted a windowed office, those of us

Today, owners of new and renovated buildings

who didn't have one weren't exactly disappointed

would have to be incredibly frugal (cheap) and

because we didn't suffer the seasonal temperature

the designer rather sloppy for occupants to suffer

extremes the windows did little to mitigate.

that kind of experience. It's exciting to see so

The company then built a new, all-glass struc-

many buildings being constructed, consciously

ture that provided each editor with an office with

or unconsciously, with biophilia and hygge con-

floor-to-ceiling windows. While that was excit-

cepts at their core. The natural conclusion is to

ing, we were editors of an international publica-

say that the occupants are the beneficiaries, but

tion for research scientists and were even more

benefits accrue to the owner, too, when operating

skeptical than your everyday editor. Our "stud-

costs go down and productivity goes up, and to

ies" suggested the glass would not perform as ad-

the environment, which receives a greatly re-

vertised. Nevertheless, we were assured that this

duced hit from our structures. CA

Biophilia and hygge concepts combine to make this retail design inviting and comfortable for workers and customers. Learn more about
hygge on p. 6.

Gary L. Parr
Editorial Director

commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

APRIL 2018

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

http://www.commercialarchitecturemagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture April 2018