Healthy Materials Virtual Summit

(HM07) Symbiosis: An Outcomes-Based Approach to Sustainability Using Biology

Thursday, October 20, 2022

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Location: Virtual Session

Earn 1 Credit(s)

While every healthcare provider is wondering about how technology will shape the future of care, they are only focusing on digital technologies. Biology, chemistry, and symbiosis are also powerful technologies we can deploy to produce the healthiest buildings for our clients. With over 3.8 billion years of research and development, Nature has already figured out the solutions to all of the problems facing humanity. Nature found a way to produce oxygen, sequester carbon, and develop complex structural forms for free without emissions or waste. Imagine a building that can boost immune response, lower blood pressure, or speed medication efficacy. By tapping into biology, we can trigger these specific outcomes through the Architecture. In this brand new talk for 2022, we’ll explore a new approach to achieving high performance healthcare facilities using a symbiotic mindset. We’ll explore the six categories of symbiosis: Systems, Senses, Signals, Cycles, Biomes, and Genomes, to uncover new approaches to boost patient recovery times, boost immune response, and lower pain medication needs. While we all have been working with general sustainability in our projects, what if we fast-forwarded sustainability to where it is headed? As we move from the Digital Age to the Biological Age, the line between the natural and the manmade will start to disappear. In this talk, we'll explore how to embrace biology as the ultimate technology to develop a new approach to healthcare design that triggers specific physiological responses in patients using human systems, human senses, circadian rhythm, neurotransmitters, and microbiomes to transform how we provide care. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – ts eliot
Learning Objectives:
Discover a new approach to sustainability by designing toward boosting specific outcomes for patients, staff, and students
Develop a “symbiotic” approach by selecting materials and design strategies that trigger our human physiology to elicit specific health benefits and outcomes
Gain specific strategies to track, measure, and implement a biology-based approach to health and wellness
Create bold strategies for Clients and Designers to collaborate in identifying the key metrics and outcomes for your projects

Presenter(s)

Eric Corey Freed, RA, LEED Fellow, EcoDistricts AP

Principal, Director of Sustainability
CannonDesign