Nature-In Presentation at the Osaka World Expo 2025, Japan

BLOGPOST: CARMEN GARCIA SANCHEZ / DATE 22.06.2024

Dr. Carmen García Sánchez presenting her research project in the EU pavilion, Osaka World Expo 2025 © EU

Dr. Carmen García Sánchez talking about  the health and well-being benefits of living in daily contact with nature for people, in the EU pavilion, Osaka World Expo 2025 © EU

Dr. Carmen García Sánchez and Dr. Ryo Murata discussing the audience's participation in the EU pavilion, Osaka World Expo 2025 © EU

Dr. Carmen García Sánchez and Dr. Ryo Murata with the Delegation of the European Union to Japan, including Deputy Commissioner General Concha Fernandez de la Puente and Science and Technology Advisor Tom Kuczynski © EU

In collaboration with Dr. Murata, I presented my EC-funded Nature-In research project, via the seminar  "NATURE CONNECTEDNESS: How Can Home Design Improve our Health and Well-Being? 自然とのつながり: 住宅デザインは私たちの健康と幸福をどのように向上させるか ¨ It particularly resonates with the Osaka Expo 2025 theme: “Designing Future Society for Our Lives” and the subthemes: “Saving Lives”, “Empowering Live” and “Connecting Lives”

We spend up to 93% of our time indoors and around 11 hours a day on technology. The benefits of daily exposure to nature for human health and well-being are many. However, our built environment and lifestyles disconnect us from Nature and deprive us of these benefits.

Architectural spatial design can improve our health and well-being by enhancing our experience of connection with Nature. Through an artistic immersion and open discussion, we explored how some traditional and contemporary buildings in Japan offer exemplary sensory experiences of Nature connectedness, sometimes without visual contact with the natural world. These are profound lessons for our time that can easily be applied in domestic spaces.

The aim was threefold: to enrich participants´ vision of Japanese architecture, to stimulate interest in scientific perspectives on nature-connecting architecture and its benefits, and to give some tips on how to improve health and well-being through home design.

私たちは1日のうち最大93％を室内で過ごし、約11時間をテクノロジーに費やしています。日常的に自然に触れることは、人間の健康と幸福に多くの恩恵をもたらします。しかし、私たちの建築環境やライフスタイルは、私たちを自然から切り離し、これらの恩恵を奪っています。

建築空間デザインは、自然とのつながりの体験を高めることで、私たちの健康と幸福を向上させることができます。芸術の世界に浸り、オープンなディスカッションをすることで、日本の伝統的建築物や現代建築物が、時には自然界と視覚的に接触することなく、自然とのつながりを体感できる模範的な感覚をいかに提供しているかを探求します。これらは、現代における深い教訓であり、家庭空間にも容易に応用できるものです。

その目的は3つ：参加者の日本建築に対するビジョンを豊かにすること、自然とつながる建築とそのメリットに関する科学的視点への関心を刺激すること、そして住宅デザインを通して健康と幸福を向上させるためのヒントを提供することです。

The EU pavilion was packed to capacity, and the international audience participated actively. The seminars took place in English and Japanese and went through the following sections:

01 Introduction 導入

Questions 質問

02 Benefits of Living in Contact with Nature for Human Beings

自然と触れ合って生きることの人間にとっての恩恵

03 Biophilic Design

バイオフィリックデザイン

04 Connecting our home to nature - some tips

家と自然をつなぐ - いくつかのヒント

05 Walk talk

ウォークトーク

I am grateful to:

The European Research Executive Agency (REA) and the European External Action Service (EEAS) for the support to make the seminars true.

The EU delegation team at the Osaka Expo including Deputy Commissioner General Concha Fernandez de la Puente, Tom Kuczynski, Gijs Berends and the New European Bauhaus team.

Dr. Ryo Murata from the Institute of Science Tokyo (former Tokyo Institute of Technology).

The audience at the EU Pavilion, particularly those who travelled from Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka exclusively to be there, for their interest and kind compliments.

It has received funding from the European

 Union’s H2020 research and innovation

 programme under the MSCA grant

agreement 896651. The present action

reflects only the author’s view and it does

not engage in any way the views of the

European Commission