Phillip Hanson, Saginaw MI 

1^st Place Forest Bathing

Initially Hanson and his children visited the forest to escape domestic confinement without fear of the virus and to expend an unhealthy load of pent-up energy. Before long they noticed improvements in all spheres of Their lives. The forest heals. The Japanese call the act of spending time in the forest for healing purposes, “Shinrin-yoku,” which translates as “forest bath”. We weren’t just walking; we were forest bathing.  He longed to bring the peace felt in the woods into his home which eventually reminded him of the Farnsworth House designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The cold, cerebral, a priori qualities - the mathematical steel and glass construction of the International Style interfaces with the a posteriori sensations of natural life and personal experience.