Biophilic Design
When creating a space we typically consider its usage and how much space is needed for that purpose. This straight-line thinking ignores the importance of how people feel in the space.
Biophilic design focuses on incorporating nature into the living space to improve how we feel. These design elements are scientifically tested guidelines for how humans can feel better connected to nature.
These design patterns improve stress levels, heart rate, sleep quality, and brain function. A consistent connection to nature provides rest opportunities that can expedite healing and promote mental restoration. While the designation 'biophilic' is recent, the patterns they have categorized are not. You can go back ages and see evidence of nature overlapping with the living spaces. The Hanging Garden of Babylon is one such early example. What they didn’t know back then is how this was lengthening their life by improving their physiological and psychological health.
Adding more living systems and building a stronger indoor-outdoor connection is proven to reduce stress, increase cognitive performance, and boost emotions and mood. The health benefits can have amazing long term effects. It’s often these mood and emotion boosts that create a thriving community. If you’re in an urban area you know how easy it is to go in and out of your house without thinking twice about the environment outside your home. Incorporating these design patterns into your living space by using natural materials, textures, or colors will create that connection to nature.
“From infancy, we concentrate happily on ourselves and other organisms. We learn to distinguish life from the inanimate and move toward it like moths to a porch light….To explore and affiliate with life is a deep and complicated process in mental development. To an extent still undervalued in philosophy and religion, our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hope rises on its currents.” - E.O. Wilson
The patterns of biophilic design reach us on a visceral level. We have a few favorites we will look at more closely, but you can find a well-organized overview here. The driving force in these designs is connection and health.
Thorncrown Chapel Eureka Springs, Arkansas