Humans are social beings where change is experienced through interaction when embedded in specific environments. The landscape we inhabit is a key tool to enable a process of interaction and experience toward holistic well-being. The experience of space and place we live in and the use of spatial relationships, the pause points, your mobility around the community, the transitional spaces, refuge areas, and its spatial relationship help in how we interact with the environment we live in and how active our lifestyle is.

The most important thing to think about when buying a home apart from the location is the environment you live in.
Does it meet the needs and challenges of today’s lifestyle?
Does the community promise and encourage an alternative and healthy lifestyle in an era of scrolling and ever-shortening attention spans? Is nature “by design” in the built environment or is it a mere collection of individual functions and amenities distributed outdoors? Does it meet the larger sustainable development goals, including mitigating the urban heat island effect and passive measures for creating water security? The environment is key to holistic living for physical, spiritual, and cultural growth. Most importantly the need to pause and reclaim life!

Philosopher Alan Watts in his speech “Live Fully Now” says we have always been living somewhere where we aren’t and while planning and prediction is a great human attribute we must return to the present moment as much as possible to enjoy the fruits of our actions. There is no use planning for a future, when you get to it and it becomes the present, you won’t be there. You will be living in some other future that hasn’t yet arrived. And so in this way, One is never able to actually inherit and enjoy the fruits of one’s actions. There seems to be a ladder before us, something for which we are reaching all the time.

Live Fully Now

We’ve grown up being judged on our titles, our things, and our abilities to always advance. We’re always seeking notches on our belts, briefly pausing to check them off our lists before continuing on to the next ones. That is if we haven’t already started on them. And so we’re too wrapped up in the notches to ever pay attention to the singular moments in which we exist.

Are we too wrapped up in the digital world of instant gratification which is making it more difficult to prioritize our free time? To focus on what truly fulfills us. How do we push the pause button and allow ourselves to take a step back and enjoy the present moment in life? Social media and many other facets of modern life are slowly destroying our ability to concentrate. We need to reclaim our minds from alternating blankly between screens. More comfortable to swipe between reels than turn our heads to see the beauty of the real world around us. We have fallen for an enormous delusion in believing that we have become experts in multi-tasking while moving between screens and their feeds. In reality, we are only juggling switching back and forth. We seem to have lost our attention span to the tech giants.

it is really the environmental changes that will make the difference.

There is enough happiness, love, and opportunity to go around, no matter when it happens. Our life is not meant to feel like a race, because it isn’t one. The adage goes, life is a journey…but happiness lies in the freedom to Pause, Reclaim, and Rediscover.

How do we get there? How do we get to a state of flow that allows us to reclaim and rediscover life? Everyone has experienced a flow state at some point in life. It’s when we are deeply and effortlessly focused on something of interest and almost lose track of time.  Flow is the deepest form of attention human beings can offer.

Easier said than done because it is not about adjusting our own habits, to switch off from any digital device is not a solution, it is like pushing it back to an individual when it is really the environmental changes that will make the difference.

Individual abstinence is not the solution to bringing about a social change, for instance wearing a mask outdoors isn’t the answer to pollution. It might work for a short period but doesn’t address the systemic issues and is neither sustainable. Let’s take the example of diabetes, over the years it has grown to become endemic not just because of our eating habits. The way we live changed dramatically – our food supply changed, and we built cities that are hard to walk or cycle around, and those changes in our environment led to changes in our bodies. We gained mass, en masse.

It’s the environmental changes that will make the difference. An environment that dawns a new chapter in responsible and holistic living, one that improves our social, cultural, and physical well-being. A neighborhood that is inspired by the principles of biophilic design and rooted in the cultural milieu of the land.

So what is Biophilic Design? the simplest definition is reconnecting humans with nature at home and at work. Biophilic architecture is a strategic approach to tap into and harness nature in the built environment. Beyond reconnecting humans with nature it is about the use of spatial relationships to enhance the well-being of the community.

The dimensions and attributes that define the Biophilic design framework are direct and indirect experiences of nature in the built environment, and strategically making use of the space and place for the well-being of the community.

Direct Experience of nature includes Light flow, air ventilation, water bodies, plants, and natural landscapes

Indirect Experience of nature refers to contact with images and or representations of nature, use of natural materials, colors, simulation of natural light and air, evoking and mimicking nature, natural geometries and shapes, and patterns.

Experience of space and place include spatial relationships to enhance wellbeing, transitional spaces (Porches, Decks, Atriums, Doors, Bridges, Fenestrations…), mobility around the community, wayfinding solutions- easy entry and egress and access to differently-abled. Most importantly an expression of the local cultural and ecological connectivity and identity

physical, spiritual, and cultural wellness.

The principle idea stems from the understanding that humans are social beings embedded in specific environments where change is experienced through interaction. The landscape we inhabit is a key tool to enable a process of interaction and experience toward holistic well-being. The concept of external spaces at Alekhya Rise is hence rooted as a medium of well-being and an improved, healthy as well as educative space to promote physical, spiritual, and cultural wellness.

‘RISE- LIFE’ is the manifestation of freedom. A celebration of those who have dared to reclaim their own time and space to live life to the fullest.

You can’t live at all,
Unless you can live fully
Now.
Rediscover life at Alekhya Rise! Your place in the sun!