B iophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity

to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and
place conditions. Used at both the building and city-scale, it is argued that this idea has health,
environmental, and economic benefits for building occupants and urban environments, with few
drawbacks. Although its name was coined in recent history, indicators of biophilic design have been seen
in architecture from as far back as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The word “Biophilia” was first introduced by a psychoanalyst

named Erich Fromm who stated that biophilia is the “passionate love
of life and of all that is alive…whether in a person, a plant, an idea,
or a social group” and he called biophilia a biologically normal
instinct.
Considered as one of the pioneers of biophilic design, Stephen
Kellert has created a framework where nature in the built
environment is used in a way that satisfies human needs, his
principles are meant to celebrate and show respect for nature and
provide an enriching urban environment that is multisensory.

Our species’ inherent inclination to respond to natural forces and stimuli is illustrated by the results of a
classic Swedish study conducted by the psychologist Arne Öhman 1986. In this research, the subjects
were subliminally exposed to pictures of snakes, spiders, frayed electric wires, and handguns. All the
study participants aversively responded to the subconsciously revealed images of snakes and spiders yet
remained largely indifferent to the handguns and exposed electric wires. The results of this research
both illustrate and suggest caution regarding the significance of our inherent inclinations to respond to
nature in the modern world. The findings reveal the continuing influence of our evolved responses to
nature, but also indicate that some of these reactions may have become “vestigial” – once adaptive in
the distant human past, but irrelevant in today’s built and increasingly urban world, and likely to atrophy
over time.

From a home perspective, people are more likely to spend more on

houses that have views of nature; buyers are willing to spend 7%
more on homes with excellent landscaping, 58% more on properties
that look at water, and 127% more on those that are waterfront.

People possess an inherent inclination to

fear snakes, even today the most
common phobia found among humans.
The Practice of Biophilic Design

T he challenge of biophilic design is to

address these deficiencies of
contemporary building and landscape
practice by establishing a new framework for
the satisfying experience of nature in the built
people’s health, fitness, and wellbeing. The
successful application of biophilic design
necessitates consistently adhering to certain
basic principles. These principles represent
fundamental conditions for the effective
environment. Biophilic design seeks to create practice of biophilic design. They include:
good habitat for people as a biological organism
in the modern built environment that advances

1. Biophilic design requires repeated and sustained engagement with nature.

2. Biophilic design focuses on human adaptations to the natural world that over evolutionary time
have advanced people’s health, fitness, and wellbeing.
3. Biophilic design encourages an emotional attachment to particular settings and places.

4. Biophilic design promotes positive interactions between people and nature that encourage an
expanded sense of relationship and responsibility for the human and natural communities.

5. Biophilic design encourages mutual reinforcing, interconnected, and integrated architectural

solutions.
The Application of Biophilic Design

Biophilic design further seeks to sustain the productivity, functioning and resilience of natural systems
over time. Alteration of natural systems inevitably occurs as a result of major building construction and
development. Moreover, all biological organisms transform the natural environment in the process of
inhabiting it. The question is not whether ecological change occurs, but rather will the net result over
time be a more productive and resilient natural environment as measured by such indicators as levels of
biological diversity, biomass, nutrient cycling, hydrologic regulation, decomposition, pollination, and
other essential ecosystem services. The application of biophilic design can alter the environmental
conditions of a building or landscape in the short term, but over the long run, it should support an
ecologically robust and sustainable natural community.

The successful application of biophilic design should also result in a wide spectrum of physical, mental
and behavioral benefits. Physical outcomes include enhanced physical fitness, lower blood pressure,
increased comfort and satisfaction, fewer illness symptoms, and improved health. Mental benefits range
from increased satisfaction and motivation, less stress and anxiety, to improved problem solving and
creativity. Positive behavioral change includes better coping and mastery skills, enhanced attention and
concentration, improved social interaction, and less hostility and aggression.

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The integration of the biophilic elements of water, vegetation, organic shapes and forms, information richness,
prospect and refuge, the patina of time, and organized complexity all contribute to this scene’s powerful sense of
place.
kinds of experiences of nature represent the inspired by shapes and forms occurring in
basic categories of our biophilic design nature, or environmental processes that have
framework. These include the direct experience been important in human evolution such as
of nature, the indirect experience of nature, and aging and the passage of time, information
the experience of space and place. The direct richness, natural geometries, and others. Finally,
experience of nature refers to actual contact the experience of space and place refers to
with environmental features in the built spatial features characteristic of the natural
environment including natural light, air, plants, environment that have advanced human health
animals, water, landscapes, and others that will and wellbeing. Examples include prospect and
be described. The indirect experience of nature refuge, organized complexity, mobility and way
refers to contact with the representation or finding, and more. Within these three
image of nature, the transformation of nature categories of experience, 24 attributes of
from its original condition, or exposure to biophilic design have been identified. A simple
particular patterns and processes characteristic listing of these biophilic design experiences and
of the natural world. These include pictures and attributes is noted on the following page,
artwork, natural materials such as wood although each attribute is described in the
furnishings and woolen fabrics, ornamentation pages that follow.