Biophilic Design Applications

6/17/2019 Biophilic Design Applications: Psychological and Physiological Health and Well-being | urbanNext

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Biophilic Design Applications: Psychological and Architect’s role

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In 1984 E.O. Wilson (1984) introduced and popularized the Biophilia
Future cities Glob
hypothesis de ning biophilia as “the urge to af liate with other forms of
life” (Kellert & Wilson 1995: 416). Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis suggests See my bookmarks
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that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living
systems. More recently, in the USA, Browning et al. (2014) have proposed Photographic Atlas o
‘14 Patterns of Biophilic Design’ within a framework for linking the human
biological sciences and nature to built environment design offering a Political & Economic
series of tools for enriching design opportunities, and avenues for design
Seoul Biennale 2017
applications as a way to effectively enhance the health and well-being of
individuals and society. While biophilia is the theory, biophilic design as Technological Appro
advocated by Kellert et al. (2008) and Beatley (2010) internationally offers a
sustainable design strategy that seeks to reconnect people with the Urban conditions
‘natural environment’. Overall, from what little research has been
undertaken internationally in the last 10 years, there is a solid
understanding as to the applied application of this theory, its principles
and processes to built environment design and no research about to how to
retro t the existing urban fabric using this approach. This paper reviews
the application of biophilic design in Australia, including the scope of
design, health and wellbeing literature, the ‘14 Patterns of Biophilic Design’
and performative measures now unfolding, brings forward a new Biophilic
Design Pattern, and considers the value the approach offers to built
environment practice as well as to human and non-human occupants.
1 Introduction
Rapid urbanisation is resulting in dense, overpopulated built environments
dominated by buildings and the hard infrastructure that services them. One of
the negative outcomes of urbanisation is the exclusion of living elements – our
nature-informed cultural landscape within the Anthropocene epoch – with the
result that humans are increasingly disconnected from living elements, with
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devastating effects on wellbeing and health,
assumeboth for humans
that you are happyand
withremaining
it.
living environments. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv
OK(2008: 99) highlighted this
https://urbannext.net/biophilic-design-applications/ 1/8
pattern concluding that as a result of city living the ‘nature disconnect’ is See all urbanNext T
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effecting our children and associates journalsfrom ‘nature de
that today’s kids are suffering topics
cit formats
disorder’. Children in cities have little or no access to ‘nature’ and cannot explore
outdoors, resulting in the majority of their formative lives being spent indoors, in
front of a TV or computer, resulting in overweight, sedentary children, physical
Architect’s role B
health issues, and various psychological disorders.
Despite this acknowledged problem, modern building and engineering Concept Concret
accomplishments have fostered the perception that humans do not need ‘nature’
Discipline Ecolog
and living systems, and that humans are ‘above nature’ (echoing
anthropocentrism), resulting in the belief that humans can transcend their
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natural and genetic heritage (Roös, 2016). This dangerous illusion is giving rise to
a global civilisation where the design and construction of the built environment Future cities Glob
encourages technologically driven over-exploitation and the separation of people
from ‘natural’ or living systems as the habitat strategy of the modern world. The Infrastructure La
actual result is an urbanised world of unsustainable energy and resource
Photographic Atlas o
consumption, extensive air and water pollution, widespread climate alteration,
waste generation, unhealthy indoor and outdoor environments, and an Political & Economic
increasingly unhealthy global population (Kellert et al., 2008: vii).
Biophilia supports the proposition that urban environments need to be Seoul Biennale 2017
integrated with ’nature’ for reasons of psychological health as well as
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environmental t:
Over thousands of generations the mind evolved within a ripening culture, Urban conditions
creating itself out of symbols and tools, and genetic advantage accrued from
planned modi cations of the environment. The unique operations of the brain
are the result of natural selection operating through the lter of culture. They
have suspended us between the two antipodal ideas of nature and machine,
forest and city, the natural and artifactual, relentlessly seeking, in the words of
the geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, an equilibrium not of this world (Wilson 1984: 12).
A growing body of scienti c study indicates that humans need daily contact with
nature to be productive and healthy, have evolved as part of nature, and are
interdependent and interconnected to nature and other forms of life (Beatley,
2011). This connection to ’nature’ can be de ned as comprising “…[an] innately
emotional af liation of human beings to other living organisms. Innate means
hereditary and hence part of ultimate human nature” (Kellert & Wilson, 1993).
Taking biophilic design to the city scale, Beatley (2010) has evidenced the validity
of this approach pointing to numerous exemplars and precedents that can
enable the successful implementation of this process, supporting the following
de nition of a Biophilic City: “Biophilic cities are cities of abundant nature in
close proximity to large numbers of urbanites; biophilic cities are biodiverse
assume that you are happy with it.
cities, that value, protect and actively restore this biodiversity; biophilic cities are
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green and growing cities, organic and natural” (Beatley 2010).

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2 Biophilia and biophilic design Active Public Spaces
2.1 Biophilia
Biophilia is “the inherent human inclination to af liate with nature” (Kellert &
Calabrese 2015: 3). Wilson (1984) popularised this term (that originated with Concept Concret
Fromm) in exploring “the need for nature” premise as a hereditary human
behavioural trait. The relationship between aesthetics and human comfort has Discipline Ecolog
been debated for millennia. It has been treated with guidelines, commentaries,
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codes and prescriptions that link one or another part of human wellbeing to
visual and/or other stimuli. Exploration and elucidation of the connection Future cities Glob
between aesthetics and nature reaches back to the ancient Greeks and mysteries
of sacred geometry and the divine proportion. The concept of biophilia extends Infrastructure La
this philosophical enquiry about nature and aesthetics scaffolding scienti c
support for its validity.
2.2 The practice of biophilic design Political & Economic

While biophilia is the theory, biophilic design as advocated by Kellert et al. (2008)
Seoul Biennale 2017
and Beatley (2010) internationally involves a process that offers a sustainable
design strategy that incorporates reconnecting people with the natural
Technological Appro
environment. Beatley has evidenced the validity of this approach in Biophilic
Cities (2010) for pointing to numerous exemplars and precedents that can enable Urban conditions
the successful implementation of this process. He has advocated putting the
biophilia hypothesis into practice at an urban scale, proposing the essential
elements of a biophilic city and tabling examples and stories about cities that
have successfully integrated biophilic elements. In Green Urbanism Down Under
(2008) Beatley and Newman, sought to answer ‘what can Americans learn from
Australians about “greening” city life?’; reviewing the current state of built
environment ‘sustainability practice’ in Australia and what lessons that USA
residents could learn from the best Australian programs and initiative.
On health and wellbeing, Ryan et al. (2014) has validated relevance of biophilic
design to humans whereby research in the neurosciences, endocrinology and
other elds have scienti cally validated the positive psychophysiological and
cognitive bene ts afforded by biophilia in design interventions. In the built
environment sector, Söderlund and Newman (2015) have proposed a new set of
design principles and practices where nature needs to play a bigger part called
’biophilic architecture’ asserting that humans have an innate connection with
nature that can assist to make buildings and cities more effective human abodes.
Söderlund (2015)tohas
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ensure concluded thatthe
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best experience onemerging asIfayou
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movement, and Downton, Jones and Zeunert you
(2016) are happy
have soughtwith it.
to apply
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biophilic design patterns as design and performance parameters in the new

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urbanNext associates
underground railway system in Melbourne. journals topics formats
New research supports the measurable, positive impacts of biophilic design on
human health, strengthening the empirical evidence for the human-nature
connection and raising its priority level within both design research and design Architect’s role B
practice. However, little guidance for implementation exists. The theory and
educational programs appropriate to advancing the process that ’joins the dots’ Concept Concret
between sustainable design and biophilia have only just begun to evolve.
Discipline Ecolog
Kellert and Calabrese (2015) have identi ed fundamental conditions for the
effective practice of biophilic design, comprising: Empowering society
1. Biophilic design requires repeated and sustained engagement with nature;
Future cities Glob
2. Biophilic design focuses on human adaptations to the natural world that over
evolutionary time have advanced people’s health, tness and wellbeing; Infrastructure La
3. Biophilic design encourages an emotional attachment to particular settings
and places;
4. Biophilic design promotes positive interactions between people and nature Political & Economic
that encourage an expanded sense of relationship and responsibility for the
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human and natural communities; and,
5. Biophilic design encourages mutual reinforcing, interconnected, and Technological Appro

integrated architectural solutions.
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The role of biophilic design can be discerned historically by analysing examples
of built form and landscape design that demonstrate biophilic sensibilities or
eliciting biophilia- informed responses. The early protagonists of biophilic design
made extensive use of historic examples to illustrate their various contentions
about the ways in which human artefacts, as well nature itself, could create a
positive sense of connection with ‘nature’ and the natural processes (Wilson
1984). Yet biophilia remains a relatively new, if rapidly growing, eld of study. The
literature indicates that by nurturing connections between people and their
environment, biophilia might function as an educational tool for helping to build
ecologically viable urban environments. Kellert (et al., 2008: 14) proposes that
combining “the biophilic desire to harmonize with nature” together with the
design of the built environment results in “some degree of deliberate
refashioning of nature to satisfy human needs, but in ways that celebrate the
integrity and utility of the natural world”. Accordingly, biophilic design has the
potential to enrich nature and humanity.
3 Hypothesis, 14toPatterns
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ensure that Pattern Performance
give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will
assume that and
Since the publication of the Biophilia Hypothesis you are happy with
a ‘Typology ofit.Biophilia
OKNewman and others, there
Values’ (Kellert & Wilson 1993), as noted by Söderlund,
have been a number of attempts to summarise elements, attributes and patterns

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of biophilic design in a tabulated form (Söderlundjournals
& Newman 2015: 953).topics formats
Inherently oriented to practice, this concern in effect seeks to provide a ’toolkit’
for biophilic design.
Concept Concret
Discipline Ecolog
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Future cities Glob
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Table 1: Browning ET AL (2014) 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design Political & Economic
More recently, in the USA, Browning et al. (2014) have proposed ‘14 Patterns of Seoul Biennale 2017
Biophilic Design’ (Table I) within a framework for relating the human biological
science and nature to the design of the built environment offering tools for Technological Appro
understanding design opportunities, and avenues for design applications as a
way to effectively enhance health and well-being for individuals and society. Urban conditions
These Patterns offer, in effect, series of tools for understanding design
opportunities, and avenues for design applications that may enhance individual
and societal health and well-being.
Despite recent academic and senior practitioner research on biophilic design,

there is a media, public and built environment practitioner misapprehension that
biophilic design is solely about introducing vegetation (eg. green roofs, green
walls, water sensitive urban design) to the built environment in contrast to
eliciting biophilia responses as part of the overall experience of the built
environment. This experience includes elements that are not plants, as the 14
Patterns listed in Table I demonstrates, whereby some biophilia effects can be
achieved with no physical tangible link to ‘nature’ or living systems at all
(Downton et al., 2016). Indirect experiences of ‘nature’ or living systems, including
purely artistic representations of nature and illusions of nature can generate
biophilic psycho-physiological responses. Biophilic effects are measurable in un-
natural environments like hospital rooms, when people are exposed to images or
illusions of nature such as arti cial sky. Such illusory, or virtual, systems are part
of the suite of biophilic design tools, valuable for environments – such as rooms
buried deep inside large buildings – that cannot easily accommodate real
OK
biological systems (Downton 2016).
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Table 2 : Downton, Jones & Zeunert (2016) creating Healthy Places

An example of the nexus between biophilic design research and praxis includes
Downton et al.’s (2016) research into the application of biophilic design patterns
as design and performance parameters for a new underground railway system Concept Concret
that has realized a conclusion that an addition of another ‘Pattern’ to address
virtual biophilic effects is required (see Table II). Their conclusion is that Discipline Ecolog
subterranean environments of railway stations can include places where ‘virtual’
biophilia (generated by virtual experience) can make a positive contribution to
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psychological health and well-being. Thus, where Pattern 1 identi es a ‘Visual

Future cities Glob
Connection with Nature’ that recognizes the tangible visual connectivity “to
elements of nature, living systems and natural processes”, Downton et al. (2016) Infrastructure La
have concluded that there is a need for a Pattern 15 that identi es a ‘Virtual
Connection with Nature’ that recognizes arti cial or surrogate visual Photographic Atlas o
connectivity “to a simulacrum of natural elements, living systems and natural
Political & Economic
processes”.
Pattern 15 (Table II) recognises similar, albeit weaker effects to Pattern 1 that are Seoul Biennale 2017
generated by virtual connections with nature viewed through mediated means
or evoked by simulacrums of nature, living systems and natural processes. Technological Appro
Examples include arti cial skies, animatronics and portrayal of nature via virtual
Urban conditions
reality. Key human physiological and psychological evidence to valid a Pattern 15
is in terms of: stress reduction that lowers blood pressure and heart rate (Brown,
Barton & Gladwell, 2013; van den Berg, Hartig, & Staats, 2007; Tsunetsugu &
Miyazaki, 2005); cognitive performance improvements through mental
engagement/ attentiveness (Biederman & Vessel, 2006); and emotional, mood
and preferences that positively impacts upon human attitudes and overall
happiness (Barton & Pretty, 2010).
4 Summary and Conclusion

Biophilic design is a rapidly evolving discipline and is set to become a vital part
of making the kind of modern, livable Ecocity that Melbourne aspires to be.
However, designers must be wary to mediate the media and lay-person
presumption that biophilic design is solely about introducing vegetation (eg.
green roofs, green walls, water sensitive urban design) to the built environment
to the detriment of both the approach and the applied design capacity of eliciting
biophilia responses as part of the overall experience of the built environment.
Welarger
The use cookies to ensure
strategy that
is that we givedesign,
biophilic you the using
best experience on ouretwebsite.
the Browning If you
al. (2014) 14 continue to use this site we will
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Patterns of Biophilic Design, with an additional youPattern,
15th are happy with ait.pragmatic
offers
OK and built environment
applied performative criteria upon which place-making
projects can be informed and measured in creating healthy places (Downton et

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al. 2016) for humans and living systems alike. journals topics formats
References
Concept Concret
J. Barton, and J. Pretty, What Is the Best Dose of Nature and Green Exercise for
Improving Mental Health, Environmental Science & Technology, 44, 3947–3955, (2010), Discipline Ecolog
10.1021/es903183r.
T. Beatley, Biophilic Cities, Island Press, Washington DC, (2010). Empowering society
T. Beatley, and P. Newman, Green Urbanism Down Under, Island Press, Washington DC,
(2008). Future cities Glob
I. Biederman, and E. Vessel, Perceptual Pleasure & the Brain, American Scientist, 94, no.
1, 249–255, (2006). Infrastructure La
D.K. Brown, J.L. Barton, and V.F. Gladwell, Viewing Nature Scenes Positively Affects
Recovery of Autonomic Function Following Acute-Mental Stress, Environmental Photographic Atlas o
Science & Technology, 47, 5562–5569, (2013), 10.1021/es305019p.
W.D. Browning, C.O. Ryan, and J.O. Clancy, 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design, Terrapin Political & Economic
Bright Green, LLC, New York, (2014).
Downton, Ceci N’est Pas le Ciel: Biophilia Design, and Illusions of Authenticity, in Seoul Biennale 2017
http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2016/05/15/ceci-nest-pas-le-ciel-biophilia-design-
and-illusions-of-authenticity/, accessed 15 June 2016, (2016a). Technological Appro
P. Downton, D.S. Jones, and J. Zeunert, Creating Healthy Places, Melbourne Metro,
Docklands, Melbourne, (2016). Urban conditions
S. Kellert, and E. Calabrese, The Practice of Biophilic Design. www.biophilic-design.com,
(2015).
S. Kellert, J.H. Heerwagen, and M.L. Mador (eds), Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science &
Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, (2008).
S. Kellert, and E.O. Wilson, The Biophilia Hypothesis, Island Press, Washington, (1993).
R. Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-De cit Disorder,
Algonquin Books, New York, (2008).
P.B. Roös, Regenerative-Adaptive Design for Coastal Settlements: A Pattern Language
Approach to Future Resilience. (unpublished PhD Thesis), School of Architecture & Built
Environment, Geelong: Deakin University, (2016).
C.O. Ryan, W.D. Browning, J.O. Clancy, S.L. Andrews, and N.B. Kallianpurkar, Biophilic
Design Patterns, Archnet, 8, no. 2, 62–76, (2014).
J. Söderlund, and P. Newman, Biophilic architecture: a review of the rationale and
outcomes, AIMS Environmental Science, 2, no. 4, 950–969, (2015),
10.3934/environsci.2015.4.950.
Y. Tsunetsugu, and Y. Miyazaki, Measurement of Absolute Hemoglobin Concentrations
of Prefrontal Region by Near-Infrared Time-Resolved Spectroscopy, Journal of
Physiological Anthropology and Applied Human Science, 24, no. 4, 469–72, (2005),
10.2114/jpa.24.469.
A.E. van den Berg, T. Hartig, and H. Staats, Preference for Nature in Urbanized Societies,
Journal of Social Issues, 63, no. 1, 79–96, (2007), 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00497.x.
E.O. Wilson, Biophilia, Harvard University Press, Harvard,OK
USA, (1984).
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6/17/2019 Biophilic Design Applications: Psychological and Physiological Health and Well-being | urbanNext

Active Public Spaces

Biophilic Design Applications: Psychological and Architect’s role

2 Biophilia and biophilic design Active Public Spaces

2.2 The practice of biophilic design Political & Economic

biophilic design patterns as design and performance parameters in the new

5. Biophilic design encourages mutual reinforcing, interconnected, and Technological Appro

have been a number of attempts to summarise elements, attributes and patterns

Future cities Glob

Table 1: Browning ET AL (2014) 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design Political & Economic

Despite recent academic and senior practitioner research on biophilic design,

Table 2 : Downton, Jones & Zeunert (2016) creating Healthy Places

psychological health and well-being. Thus, where Pattern 1 identi es a ‘Visual

4 Summary and Conclusion

projects can be informed and measured in creating healthy places (Downton et

Active Public Spaces

Active Public Spaces

Tags: Architecture&nature Biological structures Cities Comfort Concept Concret

Future cities Glob

Political & Economic

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