design
h e ar i n g h e alth foundation
The Salk Institute, founded by the creator of the polio vaccine, is designed to encourage the fusion of art and science.
In Search of Quiet
The COVID-19 pandemic inspires a fresh look at “biophilic design” that supports quiet contemplation and communing with nature to inspire as well as heal. By David M. Sykes of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more timely than ever. The 2002 meeting led to the founding of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, a division of the American Institute of Architects. ANFA’s international conferences take place annually—at the Salk Institute.
Biophilic Design
Jonas Salk, M.D., famously discovered the vaccine that ended the polio pandemic. Born in New York, one of the world’s noisiest cities, he experienced a creative awakening during a visit to Assisi, the ancient town in the central Italian region of Umbria that has drawn pilgrims for a thousand years, and the home of St. Francis. Assisi’s quietness, solitude, and beauty captivated Salk and prompted a breakthrough in his thinking, leading to his successful polio vaccine. To emulate his Assisi experience, he founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 1966, near San Diego. There, he and architect Louis I. Kahn designed a quiet, timeless, Socratic-style academy facing the Pacific Ocean to encourage scientists and humanists to mingle, escape disciplinary silos, and ponder what Salk called “bio-philosophy” or “biophilia”— the fusion of art and science. Salk died in 1995. In 2002, his foundation convened a meeting of neuroscientists and architects at the National Academy of Sciences’ peaceful retreat in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on the edge of the Atlantic. Leading neuroscientists and architects met for the first of a series of transdisciplinary meetings to explore how buildings can be designed to be “quiet, healthy, healing spaces” that can stimulate, inspire, and even heal residents—an aspiration pursued by the ancient Greeks. After this year 36
hearing health
hhf.org
Salk’s ability to clear his mind thanks to being in a pretty, peaceful setting helped spark the “biophilic design” movement, according to Esther Sternberg, M.D., a neuroscientist, in her book “Healing Spaces.” In this elegant 2009 book, now a classic, Sternberg describes how “healing” and “inspiration” work, the role of the brain, and how quiet surroundings can stimulate recovery from illness and spark creative insight. In addition to citing research on the physical and physiological effects of sound/noise and color/shape, she shares science that underscores the benefits of meditation spaces and why meditation is valued in many societies. The Woods Hole meeting is celebrated as a moment of extraordinary awakening. Sternberg writes: “The remarkable thing is that the fields of neuroscience, immunology, psychology, architecture, and engineering have reached the point where scholars and practitioners are ready to talk to one another and learn from one another. In so doing, they will come closer to answering questions about the effects of place on healing.”
Shared Spaces
Who owns most of the “built environment” where we live and work? Government agencies and corporations. Together, they own and manage huge real estate portfolios: office buildings, condominium towers, hospitals, places of worship, malls, research and development labs, even whole residential neighborhoods. Managers and corporate leaders who are interested can now dive into the book “Healthy Buildings,” by Joseph Allen, D.Sc., and John Macomber, both at Harvard. In this April 2020 book, the authors address a very real concern: How do work environments—whether offices,
