The Value of Biophilic Design

The neuroscience research makes it very, very clear that being in a biophilicly designed space elevates our wellbeing.

Need proof of the value of indoor biophilicly designed spaces?  Here’s a representative sample of research project findings:

• People feel very comfortable in biophilicly designed spaces (Kellert, 2012). So comfortable that the odds increase dramatically that they get along well with other people and their brains work to their full potential, for example.
• Joye (2007) reports, in general, that biophilic design has a positive effect on human emotional and cognitive functioning; Determan Akers, Albright, Browning, Martin-Dunlop, Archibald, and Caruolo (2019) identified the same effects in children in biophilicly designed classrooms. HyunLee (2019) determined that people staying in a biophilicly designed hotel were in better moods than people staying in other places.
• The amount of stress we’re experiencing is likely at lower, manageable levels in biophilicly designed spaces (Wijesooriya and Brambilla, 2021), which can have desirable effects on our health as well as our minds. Wijesooriya and Brambilla also found that biophilic design improves our mood, cognitive performance, and creativity.
• Being in a biophilicly designed space decreases blood pressure while improving memory performance (Yin, Zhu, MacNaughton, Allen, and Spengler, 2018).
• After we’ve been stressed, we recover faster in biophilicly designed spaces (Yin, Yuan, Arfaei, Catalano, Allen, and Spengler, 2020).
• Circadian lighting systems can improve overall health as they help maintain sleep-wake cycles (Africa, Heerwagen, Loftness, and Balagtas, 2019). Other elements of biophilic design from use of natural materials to quietly hearing nature sounds to designing in alignment with local conditions have also been specifically tied to better physical and mental health and performance.
• In summary, “Biophilic design can reduce stress, enhance creativity and clarity of thought, improve our well-being and expedite healing” (Browning, Ryan, and Clancy, 2014). Psychological and physiological measures agree:  biophilic design has a very, very positive effect on our wellbeing—and we like being in biophilicly designed spaces.

Julia Africa, Judith Heerwagen, Vivian Loftness, and Catherine Balagtas. 2019. “Biophilic Design and Climate Change: Performance Parameters for Health.” Frontiers in Built Environment, https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2019.00028

William Browning, Catherine Ryan, and Joseph Clancy.  2014. “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design:  Improving Health and Well-Being in the Built Environment.” Terrapin Bright Green, LLC:  New York, http://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/14-patterns/

Jim Determan, Mary Anne Akers, Tom Albright, Bill Browning, Catherine Martin-Dunlop, Paul Archibald, and Valerie Caruolo.  2019. “The Impact of Biophilic Learning Spaces on Student Success.” https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/The-Impac…

Seung HyunLee.  2019. “Effects of Biophilic Design on Consumer Responses in the Lodging Industry.”  Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 83, pp. 141-150, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.05.006

Yannick Joye. 2007. “Architectural Lessons From Environmental Psychology: The Case of Biophilic Architecture.” Review of General Psychology, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 305-328.

Stephen Kellert.  2012.  Birthright:  People and Nature in the Modern World. Yale University Press:  New Haven, CT.

Niranjika Wijesooriya and Arianna Brambilla.  2021. “Bridging Biophilic Design and Environmentally Sustainable Design:  A Critical Review.”  Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 283, 124591.

Jie Yin, Jing Yuan, Nastaran Arfaei, Paul Catalano, Joseph Allen, and John Spengler.  2020. “Effects of Biophilic Indoor Environment on Stress and Anxiety Recovery:  A Between-Subjects Experiment in Virtual Reality.”  Environment International, vol. 136, 105427, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105427

Jie Yin, Shihao Zhu, Piers MacNaughton, Joseph Allen, and John Spengler. 2018. “Physiological and Cognitive Performance of Exposure to Biophilic Indoor Environment.”  Building and Environment, vol. 132, pp. 255-262, doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.01.006.

This article was originally published in The Journal of Biophilic Design, issue 1 printed version and ebook version.