Biophilic Design Strategies for Wellbeing
Biophilic design strategies promote wellness and calm in the built environment by nurturing people’s relationship with nature.
Imagine walking into a hospital that has a large window wall. You sit down, waiting to see the doctor and you look out of the window and see trees swaying gently in the wind. Next to you is a small water feature, and you focus on the soothing sounds of the water. Would you feel calmer than you did when you walked into the building?
Biophilic design can have a profound impact on the people and communities that use a space, which is why we utilize biophilic design strategies in our projects.
What is biophilic design?
Biophilic design is a sustainability strategy that prioritizes creating spaces in the built environment that deepen people’s relationship with nature.
Biophilic design strategies focus on:
- Repeated and sustained engagement with nature
- Human adaptations to the natural world
- Encouraging emotional attachment to setting and places
- Positive relationship between people and nature
- Interconnected, integrated design solutions
How does this work? Biophilic design comes from the theory that humans are genetically predisposed to be attracted to nature. This attraction could mean that humans prefer Savannah-like open spaces, perceive spaces that contain water as relaxing and restorative, seek out colors that are reminiscent of nature, and more.
What are the benefits of biophilic design?
Biophilic design can reduce stress, increase cognitive performance, and even encourage positive and balanced emotions and moods.
Biophilic design strategies allow for moments of connection between people and nature, reducing stress. Environments that include spontaneous opportunities for gentle distractions allows for mental breaks. Access to daylight can also support cognitive performance by encouraging alertness, while green environments increase creativity.
Natural environments can also improve mood. Bright lighting and colors, as well as social spaces that encourage interaction can reduce depression and agitation.
Biophilic design can decrease stress, increase employee productivity, and has an overall positive impact on wellness.
Biophilic design strategies
Biophilic design strategies vary from project to project. The goal is not necessarily to implement the best practices of every strategy, rather to prioritize what makes sense for the project type and budget.
Place-based relationship
Connecting design to the landscape, ecology, and culture(s) of an area can help foster environmental stewardship in the communities that use a space and foster a greater sense of community and connection.
Examples of how to implement this strategy include:
- Integrating a building into the form and structure of the surrounding landscape
- Balancing the cultures and experiences of different groups to create a more inclusive space
- Using cultural materials, beliefs, and ideas in the constructions, products, and form of a built environment
- Contributing the to the vernacular architecture by designing based on local needs, traditions, and the availability of construction materials
Project Highlight: Lukachukai Community School
The Lukachukai Community School is a 44-acre project on the Navajo reservation that includes a K-8 school, student housing, teacher housing, and a volunteer fire station. As a true community within a community, place-based biophilic design strategies were central to the design of the campus.
The project contributes to the local vernacular by using culturally relevant design structures, like the Hogan. The design centered around the four cardinal directions pointing to the mountains sacred to the Diné. Images of the sacred mountains and cultural materiality in the hallways of the school help create a strong sense of place.
Access to natural elements
Incorporating natural elements into a design is probably what most people think of when they consider biophilic design. Providing natural views, sounds, and feelings can help users shift focus, reduce cognitive fatigue and stress, and develop an emotional connection to a place.
Strategies of increasing access to natural elements can include:
- Creating outdoor spaces with seating for connection and contemplation
- Green walls or a trellis wall that allow people to connect with nature over time
- Proximity to water, through a water feature, kinetic water feature, or pool of water
- Leveraging varying intensities of light and shadow that change over time
- Providing subtle changes in air temperature, relative humidity, and air flow that mimic the natural environment
Project Highlight: State of New Mexico Department of Public Safety Forensic Laboratory
Forensic laboratory employees serve a vital role in the criminal justice system, but often work out of outdated, dark, and isolated spaces. We utilized biophilic design strategies in our design of the new State of New Mexico Forensic Laboratory to promote employee wellness.
The design team balanced security and privacy with daylight access, open spaces, and mountain views. A large atrium is paired with smaller gathering spaces to encourage rest and connection. A live lichen wall gives employees access to nature indoors.
Natural analogs
In addition to increasing access to natural elements, designers can “bring nature indoors” by using design elements that mimic nature.
Natural analogs can include:
- Using natural color palettes and tones that are found in the surrounding environment
- Using minimally processed natural materials and elements that reflect the local ecology or geology and help create a distinct sense of place
- Create symbolic references to patterns and arrangements found in nature, for example using the Fibonacci series
- Providing an arrangement of elements that adheres to fractal geometry and spatial hierarchy like those encountered in nature
Project Highlight: Santa Fe Medical Center
The Santa Fe medical center incorporated biophilic design to both retain a strong sense of place and contribute to patient and staff wellness. The design team contributed to the New Mexico design vernacular by using natural materials like stone floors and wood ceilings in the public, non-clinical areas.
Indoor and outdoor gathering spaces create opportunities for rest and connection, with elements like a water feature, a landscape that uses native plants, and walking paths to encourage reflection and wellness.
Natural spaces
Using natural spaces is a biophilic design strategy that seeks to mimic the kinds of spaces and structures that we expect in nature.
Some examples of natural spaces include:
- Providing an unimpeded view over a distance so that the surrounding environment can be surveyed for opportunity and hazard
- Creating small and easily accessible protective environments like alcoves and pods. This strategy is ideally paired with prospective views.
- Designing spaces that provide opportunities for people to gather and connect, increasing creativity and promoting community involvement.
- Creating spaces with partially obscured views adds an element of mystery and encourages exploration in a way that can support stress reduction.
- A design feature identified as a potential threat coupled with a clear and reliable safeguard – for example, glass elevators or floors – can encourage curiosity and encourage problem solving skills.
Incorporating biophilic design strategies in every project and budget
We integrate biophilic design strategies into the very first stages of design conception. Even if sustainability or biophilic design is not identified as a strategy for a particular project, we identify ways to adhere to biophilic principles that match the project goals and budget.
We collaborate with the owner, users, and other design partners to prioritize which biophilic design strategies to focus on. In the concepting stage, we often focus on place-based relationships. Creating a design concept firmly rooted in place makes biophilic design implementation easier, and more effective.
The Dekker Sustainable Design Standards
Biophilic design is a central part of sustainable design. Not all projects can reach high levels of sustainability, but for every project there are design decisions that can be made to improve sustainability.
To that end, at Dekker we have created our Sustainable Design Standards. We hold ourselves to a minimum standard of sustainability for every project, no matter the scope or budget. As part of these standards, we incorporate some easy, best practices in biophilic design strategies for every project.
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