Fertile ground.
Time, space and creative collaboration are the nutrients needed for innovation that improves our everyday.
POSSIBILITIES
An open platform for research, Pollinate was launched by Hoare Lea to harness collective intelligence and promote outside-the-box thinking on tangible, future-shaping solutions. From research proposals aligned with the theme of human nature, the seven final projects selected are now being brought to life – the results to be shared towards the end of the year.
Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.
Theodore Levitt
Human-centric workplaces
(Jonathan Rush, Kathryn Woolley, Imogen Christodoulou, Philip Pointer, James Buck, Scott Kluger, Jeremy Butt & Magnus Leask)
What: “A report benchmarking a more human-centric approach to defining spaces, with a theoretical set of targets for the services we provide, leading to a better designed workplace.” Why: “Most industry certification schemes focus on wellbeing as opposed to a more holistic view on what is human-centric. They do not often cover the more behavioural/psychological influences that are important for a human-centric space. By moving away from ‘wellbeing’ and focusing on the fully rounded outcomes of ‘human centric-design’, we hope we can create a yardstick for successfully designing buildings.”
Anthropogenic noise & terrestrial animals
(Adam Scott)
What: “When are the behavioural and health effects experienced by terrestrial animals, due to human-generated noise impacts, considered unacceptable? The differences between animals’ cognition and physical auditory systems make defining numeric criteria challenging.” Why: “To provoke further collaboration with ecologists, develop understanding of where noise effects are likely to occur, and incentivise academic research where gaps in our understanding remain.”
Metaverse wellbeing space
(Anna Velarde & James Buck)
What: “We know connection with nature can reduce anxiety levels so we’re offering a way for people to experience nature when they can’t get outside. We want to take people on a journey to a calming virtual space; a 3D digital environment developed as an immersive experience with a strong connection to sensory elements and light.” Why: “To positively impact visitor mood and wellbeing while demonstrating our firm’s creative side.”
Wildlife-friendly buildings
(Ardalan Saboorivaziri, Mark Chapman & Roger Macklin)
What: “Guidance to help engineers engage with clients on biodiversity. A tool allowing them to advise ‘off the shelf’ ways of making buildings more biodiversity-friendly. We’ll look at how we might estimate the value of physical capital (biodiversity net gain offset costs, productivity gains due to the presence of a biodiverse environment, direct impacts on equipment performance).” Why: “Ecological habitats are not valuable in isolation, so how they relate to other habitats is important e.g. a flat roof provides great nesting opportunities for some species, but is useless if there is no surrounding foraging habitat.”
Embodied carbon material performance
(David Linville-Boud, Kael Gillam, Jonathan Rush, Neha Sharma, John Pirouet, Chris Brooker)
What: “In-house databases for life cycle carbon emissions (created by analysing materials and usage data) in lighting equipment, acoustic materials, and refrigerant systems.” Why: “To streamline design processes and give better understanding of the impact of systems we employ.”
Climate-based lighting design
(Scott Kluger, Chris Fox, Juan Ferrari & Ruth Kelly Waskett)
What: “Using our London office as a case study, we’ll explore how lighting energy can be reduced in two ways: harnessing available daylight in the space, and reducing the energy consumption of the artificial lighting system. Climate-based daylight analysis will inform upgrades that allow artificial lighting to be dimmed when there is sufficient daylight.” Why: “To challenge conventional office lighting guidance on what is required in today’s workplaces.”
The legal design revolution
(Marco Mendola)
What: “Transformation of the way we communicate with legal documents. Legal design is an interdisciplinary approach applying human-centred design to prevent or solve legal problems, prioritising the point of view of ‘users’ of the law to make the system more human-centred and effective. Empathise. Define. Ideate. Prototype. Test.” Why: “Our North Star guides us to be more human-centric. We need to build positive relationships to improve connections with colleagues, clients, and the environment we are living in.”