Page 6C
OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 26, 2017
BLOOMIN’ BLUES
COMMENTARY
The next step in sustainable design:
Bringing the weather indoors
By KEVIN NUTE
University of Oregon
Photo by Bruce Barnes
Western Pasque-flower, Anemone occidentalis
Pasque-flower is a
favorite of polinators
By BRUCE BARNES
For The East Oregonian
Common Name: Western
Pasque-flower
Scientific
Name:
Anemone occidentalis
Those plants which put
on a great flower show
mostly do so in the spring or
summer to attract pollinators,
and then afterward put their
energy into producing seeds.
A much smaller number
of plants put on a show in
the late summer or fall when
pollinators are not busy
with the other plants. The
Western Pasque-flower is
one of the very few that put
on an impressive show in the
spring and another in the fall.
This plant is rather small
when it flowers in late spring
or summer, producing a
single 5- to 7-lobed white or
pale blue-purple flowers at
the top of each stem.
When in bloom, the plant
is also decorated with finely
cut fern-like leaves. The plant
is seldom seen in bloom,
since it does so right after
the snow melts from around
them at high elevations.
About now, the plant is
putting on its second show,
as shown in the photo. The
seeds, which form a cluster
in the center of the flower,
have fully developed, and
each seed has grown a long,
white plume-like thread up to
2 inches long.
These threads stick out
in all directions and together
form a spherical ball at the
top of each stem. Meanwhile,
the fern-like leaves have
grown larger and the entire
plant is quite striking, with
the white spheres above the
dark green leaves.
The genus name Anemone
is thought to be from the
Greek anemos for wind;
some people call the plant
Wind-flower. Occidentalis
means western. The origin
of pasque flower is from the
French Pasque Floure for
Easter Flower, which came
from the Greek paskha which
is related to the Hebrew
pesakh for Passover.
This plant has been used
by northwest tribes for
several medicinal purposes.
Preparations from the plant
have been used for stomach
problems, for an external
wash to treat rheumatism,
and as an eye wash.
Where to find: I’ve seen
the plant in the Eagle Cap
Wildness, in the area near the
lake basin.
BRIEFLY
Rock climber dies
in Oregon
OREGON CITY
(AP) — A rock climber has
died in Oregon after a large
chunk of rock fell off the
climbing face above him and
crushed him, a fire district
spokesman said Thursday.
The climber, who has
not yet been identified
publicly, was found dead
and dangling from his
climbing ropes around
9:30 a.m. Thursday by a
concerned friend who went
to look for him, said Nate
Hon, a spokesman for the
Clackamas Fire District.
The man left Wednesday
evening for the climb at a
park overlooking a highway
in Oregon City.
It’s unknown when
exactly the accident occurred
but the climber appears to
have died instantly, Hon
said. The rock was about 4
feet by 4 feet by 10 feet.
A building’s primary purpose may
be to keep the weather out, but most do
such an effective job of this that they
also inadvertently deprive us of contact
with two key requirements for our
well-being and effectiveness: nature
and change.
In the 1950s Donald Hebb’s
Arousal Theory established that people
need a degree of changing sensory
stimulation in order to remain fully
attentive. And 30 years later, landmark
research by health care designer Roger
Ulrich showed that hospital patients in
rooms with views of nature had lower
stress and recovered more quickly than
patients whose rooms looked at a wall.
Unfortunately, many buildings —
especially in cities — are not blessed
with green surroundings.
I am part of a group of architects
and psychologists at the University of
Oregon that has been examining ways
to overcome this problem using an
aspect of nature available anywhere:
the weather. Think of rippling sunlight
reflecting from water onto the under-
side of a boat, or the dappled shadows
from foliage swaying in a breeze.
Other examples can be seen at vitalar-
chitecture.org.
When we brought these kinds of
natural movements indoors, we found
that they reduced heart rates and were
less distracting than
similar,
artificially
generated movement.
Early results suggest
that seeing live natural
movement of this kind
in an indoor space may
be more beneficial
than viewing outdoor
nature through a
window, and could not
only help to keep us
calm but also improve
our attention.
These findings are
consistent with the “attention resto-
ration theory proposed by University
of Michigan psychologists Rachel and
Stephen Kaplan. Among other things,
their work suggests that familiar natural
movement patterns of this kind have
the capacity to keep us alert without
being distracting.
Beyond green building
Over the last two decades archi-
tects and engineers have developed
approaches to building design that
greatly reduce the impact of buildings
on the natural environment and their
human occupants.
But these movements focus
primarily on new buildings, which
benefit only a relatively small number
of people compared to the many who
could be helped by making existing
structures more habitable.
Moreover, most people — including
many of those responsible for ordering
the construction and remodeling of
buildings — are not aware of these
advances. Many key features of green
buildings, such as energy and water
conservation, for example, are not
immediately noticeable, and as a result,
these simple but important practices
are significantly underused.
Several leading commentators on
sustainable design, including Judith
Heerwagen and the late Stephen
Kellert, have suggested that in order
to have any meaningful impact on
the daunting environmental problems
we now face, green buildings can no
longer simply “do no harm.” Rather,
Kevin Nute, CC BY-NC-ND
Dancing sunlight patterns reflected onto an interior ceiling from a
wind-disturbed external water surface.
they argue that buildings need to
actively demonstrate ways of living
in harmony with nature. Our work
suggests that bringing the movements
of sunlight, wind and rain indoors
could make passive energy-saving
features in buildings more obvious to
the people who order and occupy them,
and so greatly increase their usage.
Bringing the weather indoors
Light shelves, for
example, are devices
that are commonly
retrofitted to the
windows of existing
buildings to reflect
daylight deeper into
an interior. Former
University of Oregon
master’s
degree
student Aaron Weiss
and I have shown that
when a shallow layer
of water is added to
the top of a light shelf
and is disturbed by the wind, the shelf
reflects moving sunlight patterns onto
the ceiling inside.
In controlled experiments using
a windowless room, with a fan and
powerful light to represent the wind
and sun, we found that this kind of
wind-animated light not only lowered
occupants’ heart rates but was also
less distracting than similar, artificially
generated moving patterns. Impor-
tantly, adding wind movement did not
reduce the amount of light the shelves
transmitted. However, it did make the
shelves much more visible to people
using the space.
We found the same was true of
a range of other key passive ener-
gy-saving techniques, including solar
heating, shading and natural ventila-
tion. Adding sun, wind or rain-gener-
ated movement did not reduce their
environmental performance, and in
many cases it revealed their operation
to those using the building.
The calming effects of natural indoor
animation could be particularly helpful
in stressful locations, such as hospitals
and doctors’ offices — especially in
places where people experience the
additional stress of waiting. Aquariums
are often used in medical waiting
rooms, for example, because they have
been found to have a calming effect on
patients. The stress reduction can be
even greater, however, when indoor
movement comes from uncontrolled
nature such as the weather.
But how can we invite the move-
Unfortunately
many buildings
— especially
in cities — are
not blessed
with green
surroundings.
ments of the elements indoors without
undermining a building’s first task
— sheltering us from the weather?
There are three simple ways. We can
enclose weather-generated movement
in glass courtyards; use sunlight to
project movement from outdoors onto
interior surfaces; or project it onto the
outside of translucent materials, such
as obscured glass.
No real substitute for live nature
There are many kinds of recorded
natural phenomena available today. We
can watch videos of gently rolling ocean
waves, or fall asleep to the recorded
sounds of falling rain. There are even
sophisticated software programs that
can generate these effects digitally. So
why go to the trouble of redesigning
buildings to bring these effects indoors?
To answer this question, former
University of Oregon graduate student
Jeffrey Stattler and I projected a digital
tree shadow onto the wall of a window-
less room and tested whether there was
any difference in people’s responses
depending on whether the electronic
tree moved with live changes in
the wind outside, or according to a
computer program.
Most people could not tell whether
the tree movements were generated by
the wind or by computer. But when
they believed the movement was
wind-generated, their assessments of
its beneficial effects were significantly
higher in all categories.
In other words, indoor sensory
change is likely to have a much greater
beneficial effect on us when we think
it is natural and live. So unless we are
prepared to mislead people, there is no
real substitute for using the real thing.
According to the Environmental
Protection Agency, most people in the
United States now spend more than 90
percent of their lives inside buildings.
Features that make us more relaxed
and productive in those indoor envi-
ronments, then, could have significant
positive effects on a great many lives.
Lighting, heating and cooling those
buildings accounts for almost 40
percent of U.S. energy consumption.
The same natural indoor animation
effects could also help to reduce that
figure by increasing public awareness
of passive energy-saving in buildings.
In addition to its practical benefits
for people and the environment,
weather-generated indoor animation
also shows us that, while separating us
from its extremes, buildings can also
reconnect us with nature.
Celeb ambassadors help national parks mark 101st birthday
By BETH J. HARPAZ
Associated Press
How do you top a centennial?
The National Park Service marks
its 101st birthday Friday amid a
“Parks 101” campaign enlisting
celebrities as ambassadors for the
park system’s hidden gems.
Parks 101 ambassadors have
included cast members from the
cable show “Queen Sugar” touring
Chalmette Battlefield in Louisiana,
and Olympic gymnast Dominique
Dawes at the Frederick Douglass
National Historic Site and other
spots in Washington, D.C. Gram-
my-nominated singer-songwriter
Keri Hilson visits the Chatta-
hoochee River National Recreation
Area in Georgia later this month.
The campaign kicked off in
April with Jordan Fisher, who’s
in the Broadway hit “Hamilton,”
touring Alexander Hamilton’s New
York City home.
“Being a National Park Service
ambassador is an honor,” said
Fisher, who’s also known for TV
roles in “Grease: Live,” “Liv and
Maddie” and “The Secret Life of
the American Teenager.” He raved
about his visit to Hamilton Grange:
“It’s beautiful. You can literally
walk the halls of what Alexander
Hamilton built ... as a sanctuary for
his family.”
Ryan Hallett/National Park Foundation via AP
This June 15 photo shows gymnast and Olympic gold medalist
Dominique Dawes visiting the Frederick Douglass house in Wash-
ington, D.C., as an ambassador for the National Park Service. The
National Park Service is marking its 101st birthday amid a “Parks
101” campaign enlisting celebrities, actors, athletes and others to
help publicize sites that get less visitation than the big parks like
Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.
Highlighting local treasures
The National Park Service
hosted a record 331 million recre-
ation visits in 2016. But half of
those were in just 26 of the system’s
superstar destinations like the
Smoky Mountains, Grand Canyon,
the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite
and Yellowstone.
This year’s effort highlights
lesser known treasures that even
locals might not know about. Fisher
recently filmed a 360 video for Parks
101 at California’s Channel Islands
National Park. Though Fisher calls
Los Angeles home, he hadn’t heard
about the islands before.
“My eyes were opened to an
incredible experience,” Fisher said
in a phone interview. “You can see
for miles. We hiked. There’s tons
to do. You can kayak around the
island, go into coves and caves or
have a diving experience.” Fisher
even saw whales and dolphins on
the boat from Santa Barbara to the
islands.
Something for everyone
Parks 101 activities and digital
content will offer introductions to
topics like kayaking 101, battle-
fields 101 and shipwrecks 101. But
the campaign also seeks to show the
breadth of programming offered at
national parks — everything from
art to yoga.
Do you hate bugs and mud?
That’s OK, too, because another
message of Parks 101 is that
visiting national parks doesn’t
need to involve hiking, camping or
road trips. In fact many of the 417
national park sites have nothing
to do with the great outdoors, for
example, a house dedicated to the
history of America’s first ladies in
Canton, Ohio, and a nuclear missile
site in South Dakota.
And nature isn’t the only way
to find peace and quiet in the park
system: “You can enjoy solitude
walking through a historic home,”
said Alanna Sobel, spokeswoman
for the National Park Foundation,
which raises money to fund critical
projects like the restoration of trails
and historic structures.
Parks 101 also emphasizes
how easy it is to reach many park
sites. Hamilton Grange is just 20
minutes from midtown Manhattan
by subway, Fisher said.
The home of Thaddeus
Kosciuszko, a Polish engineer who
helped win the American Revo-
lution, is walking distance from
the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.
The Pullman National Monument,
which tells the story of a town built
for Pullman railroad car company
workers, is about 15 miles from
downtown Chicago.
Visitor numbers
Visitation is already trending
upward at lesser-known park sites.
While attendance overall in the
national park system was up 7
percent in 2016 over 2015, it was
up 10 percent at destinations that
traditionally see fewer visitors,
according to NPS spokeswoman
Beth Stern.
And the centennial was just one
reason for last year’s record visita-
tion. Relatively good weather, low
gas prices and robust international
tourism helped, too. Park numbers
for 2017 will likely get a bump
from eclipse watchers.
The centennial also spurred
donations, more than doubling
National Park Foundation contribu-
tions from $73.5 million in 2015 to
over $150 million in 2016.