Episode Details

 Tying in with Issue 6, our Blue Mind edition of The Journal of Biophilic Design we speak with Nick Hounsfield, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer at The Wave in Bristol. The Wave is an inland Surfing destination.

After working in the healthcare sector and realizing that not only one of the key aspects for people was that they were lonely but that they also were missing a connection to nature, Nick wanted to create something at scale that would have a positive impact. He also wanted to reach out to people who didn’t have access to a private healthcare system.

“How can we democratise this? How can we make it more accessible for more people?” Nick explains how he went on to create The Wave. He had a very clear purpose and mandate, wanting to appeal to everyone, be accessible in all seasons and ensuring he addressed barriers to accessing to green and blue space. “We have to break down those barriers through design, through great landscaping, a good business model, and also make sure that we're not destroying the planet and local ecology either.”

Roll forward 10 years, and they’ve managed to build it and deliver exactly what they wanted to deliver blue and green spaces for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

So what is The Wave? If you could imagine a huge slice of the ocean or imagine a really amazing Cove down by the beach. It's like taking that cake slice of the ocean and lifting it up and dropping it right in the middle of the field. There are absolutely perfect surfing waves, and lighter ones just as you get at the beach, and then you've got really nice whitewater waves on the inside for people who just want to splash and play around or bodyboard. The water is Caribbean in colour so also looks perfect. People come just to walk the pier which stretches out across the waves to enjoy the sound of the waves.

Nick and his team have created a beautiful space where people can connect with water as observers or enjoy an immersive and active connection. Being close to the city of Bristol, partnerships were an important part of the vision. Working with groups who do not have access to green and blue space and who have mental and physical health issues, they bring them to the wave. By growing the adaptive surf community they have made sure that the whole space was designed so it is truly accessible. And with surfing now part of the Olympics we might see that surfing will also be part of the Paralympics. “We've now got the most amazing training facility for these athletes, and have genuine medal contenders in our midst so hopefully that whole sport will grow which is good.”

“That's the key thing, really, it's about that partnership because we will never profess to know everything about the challenges and issues that different sectors of society have. So, it's about partnering up with people who do really know what's going on, and we're just providing a facility. We break down the barriers together.”

Why is that nature connection important?

“It's everything.” Nick goes on to describe how we felt that nature was taken away from us during Lockdown, and even now “there are young families stuck in high-rise apartments with no access to green or space blue space at all, they walk along a concrete road to get to school and it's a concrete playground, there's no green space there. And that is their life. That just doesn'