Designer's Choice: Biophilic Design

    Have you ever noticed that being inside a building with lots of natural light, windows, and vegetation has increased your mood and productivity? We can thank biophilic design for this. So what is biophilic design and why is it so important? It is described as "a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment". It allows us to bring the natural, outside world into our man-made interior spaces. 

    Other than the fact that incorporating natural things into interior design is aesthetically pleasing, there are other benefits to this as well. Some benefits include:

• reduced stress levels
• increased productivity
• increased mood and well-being
• mental restoration 

    So why does biophilic design have all of these benefits? The answer is simple. People are inside all day, working on computers and sitting in office cubicles. It is easy for them to get disconnected from nature. Most people work all day, and by the time they are going home, it is almost dark out and they do not have time to spend any of their day outside. Sitting in an office with fluorescent lighting all day can cause headaches and discourage productivity. This is why it is important to at least have an office plant or small window in your workspace. 

    The options for implementing the outdoors into your interior spaces are endless. It can be as simple as picking up a new plant at your nearest home improvement store and giving it a name, or as complex as tearing out part of a wall to put in a new window (that is, if you own the building). Personally, adding plants is a favorite of mine and you can never have too many plants(as long as you are good at taking care of them)! 

    Biophilic design is a great way to increase productivity in offices as well as in residential homes. Without it, interior spaces would be filled with artificial lighting and people who work in offices would have headaches all day. It adds a little bit of the outdoors into our interior spaces and makes spending all day on a computer a little bit more enjoyable! 

Citations 

Brought to you by Marvin. (2019, April 12). A window to better living: Four projects that embody patterns of biophilic design. Architect. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/a-window-to-better-living-four-projects-that-embody-patterns-of-biophilic-design.

Biophilic Design Overview. International Living Future Institute. (2020, September 14). Retrieved November 24, 2021, from https://living-future.org/biophilic-design-overview/.