BIOPHILIC DESIGN

CA 2 – ARC 488
DESIGN & THEORY PRACTICAL
INTRODUCTION
 inborn need for contact with nature
 essential to physical and mental health, productivity and wellbeing (biophilia).
 Satisfying need in the modern built environment = biophilic design.
 Biological need important in our increasingly urban Society.

 sustainable design - reducing environmental damage

from waste & pollution, or excessive use of resources like energy and water.
 Missing? - equally imp need to reconnect with nature in built environment.

 intriguing findings :
• More productive and satisfied manufacturing workers
• People recovering faster from major illnesses and medical surgery
• Children - higher test scores, less absent, showing better attention
• Many world’s most revered and celebrated buildings being filled with shapes
and forms inspired by designs found in nature.
ELEMENTS OF BIOPHILIC DESIGN
ways for biophilic design direct or more subtle and indirect.
strategies can occur singly or in combination for example,
• a building of stone and wood, flooded with daylight
• filled with plants, and decorations that mimic natural forms

different elements - historic & modern buildings & communities.

use of materials from nature – a tree converted to timber

natural materials -functional & beautiful, feeling of connection
forms and patterns of nature into a building.
interiors conveying feeling of spaciousness
motion of natural light, (great cathedrals, modern airports)

feeling of connection to particular places through designs

link people to certain landscapes or cultural traditions.
But, why is this important? How does it
benefit people’s health and productivity?
IMPACTS OF BIOPHILIC DESIGN

positive affects –
enhanced learning, recovery from illness, improved work
performance, and more livable and satisfying neighbourhoods.

healthcare research states it can –

reduce stress, enhance healing, and improve hospital performance.

improving connections to nature in the workplace can –

enhance worker productivity and morale, help recruit and retain talent,
all benefits that translate into any business’ bottom line.

extend beyond individual buildings to entire neighborhoods & cities,

higher quality of life.
often occurs in neighborhoods of old cities & well-designed modern
communities
CONCLUSION
restoring our connection to nature RATHER adopting a new methodology

require a fundamental shift in human consciousness - new ethic of responsibility

not by the desire to save nature, by profound realization of our own self-interest.

The heart of this challenge is a modern world that has forgotten how much our
physical, mental and even spiritual health and wellbeing rely on relation nature.

require a new realization – indoors or outdoors –dependency on

beneficial contact with nature to be healthy, productive and whole.

Moral imperative - long-run, we will sustain only those things, whether buildings
or species, that we are convinced contribute to a better and more fulfilling existence.

understanding at the core of the great ecologist Aldo Leopold’s one-half century ago.
“There must be some force behind
conservation more universal than profit, less
awkward than government, less ephemeral
than sport, something that reaches into all
times and all places, something that brackets
everything from rivers to raindrops, from
whales to hummingbirds, from land-estates to
window-boxes. I can see only one such force:
a respect for the land as an organism, out of
love for and obligation to that great biota.”