What Is Biophilic Design?

Biophilia (meaning love of nature) focuses on human’s innate attraction to nature and natural processes. It suggests that we all have a genetic connection to the natural world built up through hundreds of thousands of years of living in agrarian settings

It is a term popularized by American biologist Edward O Wilson in the 1980’s, when he observed how increasing rates of urbanisation were leading to a disconnection with the natural world. With high rates of migration to urban settings in the developed world and soaring rates in developing countries – Biophilia is of ever increasing importance to our health and well-being in the built environment.

Biophilic Design uses these ideas as principles to create a human centred approach that when applied improves many of the spaces that we live and work in today, with numerous benefits to our health and well-being

Why is biophilic design relevant today?

The World Health Organisation expects stress related illness, such as mental health disorders and cardio-vascular disease, to be the two largest contributors to disease by 2020. With a diminished connection to nature, the increasing pressure on urban space & the ubiquitous technological presence we have less opportunity to recuperate our mental and physical energy.

Incorporating direct or indirect elements of nature into the built environment have been demonstrated through research to reduce stress, blood pressure levels and heart rates, whilst increasing productivity, creativity and self reported rates of well-being.

Businesses at the vanguard of work place design such as Apple, Google and Amazon are investing heavily in Biophilic Design elements. These principles are shown to improve worker concentration, engagement and cognitive ability but also to attract and retain staff in the “war for talent”.

What are the benefits of biophilic design?

There have been numerous studies over the last 35 years on the benefits to the built environment through improving a connection to nature.

• Office design: productivity can be increased by 8%, rates of well-being up by 13%, increases in creativity, with reduced absenteeism and presenteeism

• Hospitality design: Guests willing to pay 23% more for rooms with views of Biophilic elements

• Education spaces: increased rates of learning 20-25%, improved test results, concentration levels and attendance, reduced impacts of ADHD

• Healthcare spaces: post-operative recovery times decreased by 8.5%, reduced pain medication by 22%

• Retail: the presence of vegetation & landscaping has been found to increase average rental rates on retail spaces with customers indicating they were willing to pay 8-12 % more for goods and services.

• Homes: can become more calming & restorative, with 7-8 % less crime attributed to areas with access to nature and can command an increase of 4-5% in property price.

How do we implement biophilic design?

At Oliver Heath Design we take a quantitative and qualitative approach to define the brief and requirements. We work alongside the client plus financial, HR, FM managers and the spatial users themselves to build a complete picture.

This leads us to better understand the spatial and human opportunities that exist and realise more focused results to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

Our investigations would like lead us to make improvements to:

• optimization and organisation of spaces with a human focus

• thermal comfort levels

• air quality, toxin levels and ventilation

• acoustic comfort

• improved natural and artificial lighting

• internal and external views onto nature

• the use of natural materials textures, patterns and colours

• the incorporation of recuperative spaces

• aesthetic environment with brand recognition

• psychological and physiological effects of the space