Biophilia, Buildings, and Beings
At its core, Biophilic design is a concept that embraces humans’ instinctive desire to connect with nature. It reflects nature and its elements, incorporating natural materials, natural finishes, and nature-inspired shapes from seashells, flowers, wings, and so on. This type of style is commonly employed within architecture and interior design. In these spaces, we often see indoor waterfalls and other water features, green ceilings with hanging plants, and large glass windows that allow for natural light to fill our rooms.
Biophilic works have become increasingly popular due to COVID-19, which has caused individuals to stay indoors for increased periods of time and experience the outdoors less often.
Biophilic design is an aesthetic choice, but also one that is favorable to the environment. The design’s incorporation of plants in urban environments reduces carbon emissions, increases natural biodiversity, and improves air quality.
This architectural style benefits the well-being of those it surrounds, too. Nature’s biopsychological ability to mitigate stress is likely an evolutionary adaptation. For early humans, vegetation was a critical source of food, so the presence of greenery indicated that they no longer had to worry as much about food scarcity.
As a result, interaction with vegetative elements is said to improve creativity, relaxation, and sleep quality. A study conducted in 1984 by Professor of Architecture at Texas A&M University, Roger Ulrich, found that patients who viewed green nature were able to recover much faster than those who looked at a brick wall instead. For us, nature has healing effects.
As Biophilic design progresses, more research has been conducted on the types of greenery that people prefer. A significant concept in the field is the “Savanna Hypothesis”, which claims that we have retained our evolutionary preference for savannas. These biomes were the habitats of our early ancestors and are where humans evolved to what we are like today. Savannas offered early humans plenty of biomass for consumption; they also had easy access to low-lying vegetation for food, ameliorating humans’ survival prospects.
A study conducted by Virginia Lohr and Caroline Pearson-Mims in 2006 discovered that individuals find the shape of trees that flourish in the savanna biome more appealing than the shapes that characterize trees from other biomes. Another study by Balling and Falk in 2010 found that eight-year-old children prefer savannas over other types of biomes. These hypotheses could revolutionize the specific types of greenery that our designs include in the future, as we may turn to savanna-inspired elements in the years to come.
In the meantime, the world of Biophilic design offers insight into the ways we can improve our workspaces during the pandemic. It’s healthy to care for more plants in our offices, to open our windows, and to go for a walk outdoors once in a while. Embracing greenery is ultimately not just an aesthetic choice, but also one essential for self-care.
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