ON THE ROOF WITH... ON THE ROOF WITH... BIOPHILIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPER AND VISIONARY STEVE NYGREN - ROGER SCHICKEDANTZ INTERVIEW BY STEVEN W. PECK, GRP, HONORARY ASLA Images courtesy of S. Peck Photo courtesy WM+P Steve and his team have been working to implement biophilic design principles at the community development scale 30 minutes south of Atlanta for almost twenty years and the results are impressive. Serenbe is a development modeled after traditional European villages, and as a result it uses far less land than traditional development projects. The conserved land is then preserved for forests, farming and pasture land. I attended the Biophilic Summit this Spring at Serenbe to find out from Steve how biophilic design is being realized in this model of a sustainable and healthy community. STEVEN PECK (LEFT), AND STEVE NYGREN, FOUNDER SERENBE LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / SUMMER 2019 / 6 Steven Peck (SP): Hi Steve. This place is beautiful and relaxing. Thank you. Much of the talk about biophilic design has centered around buildings, but you have been promoting Serenbe as a biophilic community. Why are you doing that and does anyone know what you are talking about - does it help sell the community? SN: That's a great question. Most examples have been buildings however the biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans have an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Most people don't know the term biophilia, yet when you give them the definition it becomes abundantly clear they do understand the LIVINGARCHITECTUREMONITOR.COMhttp://www.LIVINGARCHITECTUREMONITOR.COM