Designing healthy buildings like a good ancestor: TEDx Talk 14.01.24

Matt Aspiotis Morley - Designing healthy buildings like a good ancestor - TEDx - 14.01.24

What connects evolution history with the healthy building movement?

Evolutionary history helps explain our innate connection to music & dance, need for social bonding, penchant for salty or sweet foods, empathy with certain four legged animals, and plenty more besides

That kind of zoomed out, deep time perspective can also provide a surprising amount of guidance on how to build better buildings today for the generations to follow

those responsible for our built environment can in other words make targeted design decisions influenced by evolutionary psychology and anthropology to ensure cross generational karma.

essentially this is how I feed my hero complex - helping residential real estate developers, hotels and offices create places and spaces that are healthy for people and planet

In addition to urgent de-carbonization for planetary health, right now that means answering specific human health concerns as well, such as 

 - non-toxic building materials 

- enhanced indoor air quality 

- maintaining a connection to nature indoors

-designing interiors for physical activity and mental wellbeing

Evolutionary timeline

No matter where we are on the evolutionary timeline - in any society, be it tribal or post industrial, some of us are drawn to child rearing, others to trading goods and services, caring for the sick, preparing food or passing on wisdom. 

While some (like me) feel a gravitational pull towards the physical structures we inherit, build, and ultimately leave behind. 

And So, now that i have you gathered around this large format campfire, let me tell you our  story…

Green building materials in new and existing buildings

We begin with the materials that go into building construction and interiors because If we get that bit wrong, those elements alone can be responsible for habitat loss, resource depletion and environmental damage even before the first foundation is laid 

To prevent that, we want less fossil-fuel based plastics in our flooring, more sustainable timber, and more locally sourced, recycled and biobased materials.

Building materials that impact human health

At the same time, on the human side, we are still playing wack-a-mole with a plethora of ‘chemicals of concern’ that quietly crept into our man-made building materials after the 19th century’s chemical revolution. 

Think of asbestos, formaldehyde, Lead, more recently still flame retardants, antimicrobials, and chemical off-gasses known as Volatile Organic Compounds.

Indoor air quality in building operations

The issue is low-grade piping, insulation, furniture, flooring, finishes, paints and adhesives that previous generations inadvertently buried in our buildings leaving behind a toxic inheritance

If allowed to accumulate indoors these substances can variously cause hormone disruption, cancer, respiratory problems, & Cognitive disfunction. The stakes are high basically. 

How do we avoid making similar mistakes in our new buildings and refurbishments?

Great-great grandparent test

As a first pass when looking at a fit-out materials list, i use the great-great-grandparent test - would they have recognized a given material? 

If not, i need to push the manufacturer for what’s called a Product Declaration showing exactly what’s in it, essentially like a material ingredient list, so we have some visibility on the possible health risks to people or planet

Life Cycle Analysis of materials

From there, going a level deeper, we can deploy a life cycle analysis to check how a material was extracted, what went into the manufacturing process, how it degrades or breaks down over time while in use, as well as what options exist for its reuse at the end of its life

Precautionary Principle

Thirdly, the precautionary principle - if in real doubt about a specific material, the responsible thing to do is leave it out, especially when dealing with a large volume order, for example the choice of flooring in a 1000-unit residential tower. 

So those three tools help ensure the materials going into a building are not creating an unhealthy indoor environment or causing damage to the natural world.

The building lifecycle

Of course Buildings, just like the materials that go into them, have their own lifecycle, from planning to design, construction, operation and in some cases eventual demolition

Although if you adopt a 100 or even 1000 year mindset in phases 1-3 you can delay demolition indefinitely, which means less waste, less carbon impact and more chance of making it into Wikipedia

So that in-use phase can extend on and on, our work therefore continues to make an indoor environment as healthy as possible.

Healthy indoor air - inspired by the International Well Building Institute WELL certification

Even before Covid hit, as part of a healthy building plan, we knew We needed to increase indoor ventilation rates, so circulating the air in a closed indoor space more often; upgrade air-conditioning unit filters to catch the smallest airborne particles and off-gasses, and install air quality monitors to help us ‘see’ the air quality and identify issues in real time.

Green healthy indoor air quality

Combined with a materials policy, these initiatives will give us something close to green healthy indoor air, maybe not as good as self-isolating in a forest treehouse but clearly these are solutions specifically for urban living..

Natural materials and biophilic design in indoor spaces

When we start prioritizing non-toxic, natural materials such as woods, stone, cork, wool, rammed earth, lime plaster and clay, they automatically bring an organic aesthetic back into our buildings right when our Dense urban environments feel increasingly disconnected from the natural world we evolved in.

Biophilia in architecture and interior design

Only recently with what is known as Biophilia are architects and designers rekindling that connection with nature by reintroducing elements of the wild back into our built environment in what equates to an aesthetic cross-breed: Part indoor, part outdoor.

Biophilic design is really just a butterfly emerging from its cocoon in design terms, it’s been right there all along, waiting for its moment

So we fill our interiors with all those natural materials and finishes as well as living plants, vertical gardens and hydroponics.

We deploy indirect representations of nature such as colours, fractal patterns, organic textures and shapes, but also sounds, scents, even smart lighting to replicate the ebb and flow of sunlight.

Research studies into biophilic design

In one of two studies I worked on with a research team at the University of Essex, after just 30-60 mindful minutes in a biophilic space, 74% of respondents felt an improvement in mood, 84% felt more productive and 87% reported lower levels of perceived stress.

Matt Aspiotis Morley - Designing healthy buildings like a good ancestor - TEDx - 14.01.24

Vitamin Nature for health and wellbeing

So a space loaded with 'Vitamin Nature' like this one provides enough sensory continuity with the natural world  to trigger many of the same mental health benefits as our brain on actual nature - at least until that next jog along the river. 

Green exercise for building users

Which is where our tale takes another twist, because green exercise / exercising outdoors means you get all the mental health benefits of being fully immersed in nature as well as the physical benefits of movement and exertion. Green exercise is like exercise squared.

Biophilic gym design in new and existing buildings

If a hard working post grad student at this medical university in Stockholm can’t get Outside in their break because it’s a snowy -5C, biophilic design can provide a solution

We converted an under-utilized waiting area of just 25m2 into a forest-themed fitness room using sustainable non-toxic materials with functional equipment for small group training sessions accessible to all staff and students

Why did one of the world’s leading medical universities ask me do that? Because the right dose of exercise has been proven to boost productivity and concentration, reduce anxiety, enhance feelings of self-esteem, and improve mood.

In other words, those around us benefit indirectly too, whether that be an employer or university in this case.

Not all of are focused on health and wellness

But I’m not here to sell you exercise - not all of us were 'born to run’, in fact our ancient instinct is to conserve energy & avoid unnecessary exertion. 

Based on UK averages, Somewhere around 85% of you in here, the non regular exercisers, are officially off the hook, Inertia is the norm.

There’s a catch however because from a deep time perspective, calories were generally scarce, so several hours of daily movement (hunting & gathering) were required to procure even a minimum calorie intake.

The birth of Agriculture and then industrialization broke that bond, unleashing untold numbers of comparatively cheap, low grade calories for our ready consumption.

A mismatch of modernity

There have only been 10-15 generations since industrialization but our ancestors spent around 10,000 generations in a Paleolithic environment. Our genes simply aren’t adapted to a world of calories on tap > it’s what’s known as a mismatch of modernity.

Lifestyle disease epidemic in public health

We’re now in the midst of a lifestyle disease epidemic in advanced economies with obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease responsible millions of deaths every year. 

So how can buildings help? 

Sitting is only part of the issue when it comes to inactivity, it’s movement that really matters.

Matt Aspiotis Morley - Designing healthy buildings like a good ancestor - TEDx - 14.01.24

Inactivity and movement in sustainable design

Some, indeed any physical activity is better than none and studies show going from an entirely sedentary lifestyle to just 60 minutes of moderate exercise per week can drastically reduce mortality rates. 

Active Design strategies as wellness features

'Active Design' strategies facilitate frequent movement snacks amongst building occupants - tiny bite size chunks of low level activity that might not otherwise happen  yet cumulatively make a real difference. 

In a workplace, I’m implementing environmental design 'nudges' that can assist in forming healthy new 'habits':  adjustable sit-stand desks can be a game changer for those with lower back issues, a standing meeting area is ideal for a 30-minute brainstorming, and a low reclined seating area helps take the load off tired feet.

This is about moving between different spaces for different types of work - be it collaborative, creative or deep concentration.

Promoting mental resilience in green buildings

Crucially though, full autonomy remains with the end user in this type workspace, there are no sticks - only carrots.

The individual is accountable for his or her own actions, because beyond the physical benefits, that’s also where inner, mental resilience is built, brick by brick, micro decision by micro decision

So When nobody is watching, what decisions do you make?

It’s not literally about the stairs, there’s a wider metaphor for life in there somewhere i’m sure but… if you let me loose...

Activated Stairwells

Active Design can also wage war with soulless, dull and neglected stairwells that nobody uses for fear of setting off a fire alarm.

Instead, for say a premium student accommodation building for example, we can design stairwells with wall murals, LED lighting, maybe a sound system and a funky playlist - whatever it takes to make the stairs a frequently used feature of the building, not just an emergency escape (although we do have to follow health and safety code too!).

Active Travel Facilities

An under-utilized Basement space or corridor can provide secure storage for a variety of bicycles, folding bikes, e-bikes and mobility options, ideally with charging stations, showers and lockers for wet running gear.

Investing in Such 'active travel' facilities increases the likelihood of more green healthy movement between home and work, be that jogging, cycling or anything else.

 It’s good for us, the planet and again also indirectly benefits the business or developer that made it all so convenient. 

Restorative spaces - quiet rooms

Specifically for mental wellbeing, An empty room in a forward thinking office can become a restorative space, or ‘quiet room’ like this one for cathartic venting, a moment of strategic rest during the workday, or a delicate 1-2-1 conversation. 

If We fill it with natural materials, an air purifier, nature sounds a d aromatherapy we start to see how powerful a joined-up, 360-degree experiential design approach can be…

Evolution-friendly building design adaptations

So as I see it, a healthy materials policy, purified indoor air, biophilic design, active design strategies and restorative spaces are all evolution friendly design adaptations for modern buildings aimed at reducing stress and anxiety, increasing physical activity, improving the quality of our indoor air and bringing nature back into our urban existence.

A deep time perspective on healthy buildings

When i think about what I do from a deep time perspective - of ancestors past, present and future - creating green healthy places starts to look like something of a family business, it’s all a matter of perspective.

Thankfully, Having a transcendent life goal like this, a 'Telos' in Greek, has given me real meaning and purpose going into the second half of my life, at least until i finally answer the call of the wild, find a mate and pass on my stair-loving genes.

Because Remember, continuity is everything, the House of Mother Nature always wins - this whole show will go on, with or without us, no matter how central we think we are to the plot.

So it’s really just three acts: life, death and the stories of our ancestors.

Both I and the real estate industry  therefore, simply have to make this the performance of a lifetime. 

Green Building Interior Design: Biophilic Design in Sustainable Interiors and Buildings — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

sustainable interiors or biophilic interiors? esports gaming room concept A.I. image BIOFILICO

What contribution can biophilic design and its natural elements make to a sustainable building strategy?

Biophilic design emphasizes the connection between humans and nature. It seeks to create a harmonious relationship between people and their environment by incorporating natural elements into green building strategies.

By doing so, it can help reduce energy consumption, lower the carbon footprint, improve air quality, and create a healthier indoor environment. Through its ability to improve the overall sustainability of a building, biophilic design can be an effective component of any sustainable building strategy.

Biophilic design can help reduce stress levels in occupants by providing calming visual cues and promoting well-being through increased contact with nature.

What is the difference between biophilia and sustainable design?

I see biophilic design as a bridge between the worlds of healthy buildings and wellness, real estate and sustainable interiors.

So biophilic design sits neatly between those two worlds. So nature effectively becomes a bridge between people and planet so it's then both a healthy environment for us as people in an indoor space or within a building or even within a city but also a space that is not negatively impacting the environment around us, so good for us and good for the planet.

I think biophilic design is really one of the very few interior design concepts that can do that. You know, the sustainability piece has now started looping back around to incorporate a more people centric or human centric wellbeing oriented approach.

Healthy interiors have some element of considering the environment too of course but in between lives this fascinating concept that we call biophilic design.

I think it is about interior design that is intended to reconnect us with where we came from, and create a more harmonious relationship between living systems our urban, dense built environments and our evolutionary past.

How does biophilic design contribute to a healthy building design?

When we’re thinking about how biophilic design impacts or contributes to the creation of a healthy interior and healthy building you could divide it schematically into two halves. Selecting products with no or low volatile organic compounds to preserve air quality and respiratory health is crucial.

We have mental wellbeing and our physical wellbeing - the latter is slightly more tangible, for example there are things we can do with technology to improve the indoor air quality, removing dust particles and other PM.25 or PM10 particulate matter from indoor air, upgrading HVAC filter systems to MERV13 or better, introducing air-purifying plants in abundance, and so on.

What is the difference between sustainable interior design and biophilic interior design?

Sustainable interior design focuses on reducing the environmental impact of an interior space by using materials and resources that are environmentally friendly and have minimal waste and environmental impact.

This means looking for products made from recycled or sustainable materials, such as bamboo, cork, and organic cotton. It also involves promoting energy efficiency by reducing energy consumption through the use of efficient lighting and appliances, as well as incorporating natural ventilation.

On the other hand, biophilic interior design is more focused on bringing nature into an interior space to create a healthier environment for occupants.

This could involve adding natural elements like plants, wood accents, and stone features to an interior space to mimic nature in some way.

Additionally, biophilic design emphasizes creating a connection between the indoors and outdoors by incorporating large windows or skylights that get fresh air and offer views of the outside environment.

So while the two concepts are inherently linked they are perhaps like brother and sister rather than twins.

sustainable interiors or biophilic interiors? esports gaming room concept A.I. image BIOFILICO

What are the scientifically proven benefits of biophilic design based on the latest research studies?

One of the most significant benefits of biophilic design is the improvement in mental health and wellbeing. Energy and environmental design principles contribute to these benefits by promoting energy efficiency, sustainable sourcing of materials, and integrating environmental impact considerations into interior design.

Studies have found that biophilic design can reduce stress levels, improve mood, and increase cognitive performance. It has also been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Additionally, biophilic design has been linked to improved physical health, such as lower blood pressure, improved sleep quality, and increased immune system function.

Furthermore, research suggests that people who work in environments with biophilic design are more productive and creative than those who don’t.

Finally, biophilic design can help to create a sense of connection with nature which can lead to a greater appreciation for direct nature of the environment and its inhabitants.

Healthy natural materials in biophilic design strategies

If you look at the different types of healthy materials for interior spaces on the market today, the vast majority of them are in fact natural materials, and as they are not man-made they will likely show some visual trace of their natural source.

They're 'imperfect' in other words, at least compared to synthetic, industrial materials that often have no texture or unique patterns to them. This wabi-sabi concept of beauty is where biophilic design can have most fun.

So there's a huge overlap between healthy materials and natural materials that we might look to deploy in a biophilic interior design project.

That's really the game here, it's about how can we integrate as many of these natural components into an interior space whilst also ticking as many boxes as we can from a wellbeing design perspective.

Mental wellbeing and biophilic design features

Then there's a whole other segment around mental wellbeing. So the tangible data-driven stuff is more to do with what materials we're putting in and how we're impacting the air quality while mental wellbeing is about reducing levels of stress and anxiety, while promoting feelings of positivity and boosting mood.

Studies show that you can improve productivity and concentration levels by being exposed to nature, for example a half hour during a lunch break, for example, and then going back in to work is a healthier alternative to having another coffee or sugary drink to pick you up.

Patient recovery rates in hospitals even improve when there are views out onto nature instead of staring at the inside of a windowless room - no surprises there perhaps but combining these physical wellbeing features with the mental wellness angle is what it's all about.

What industries or sectors are successfully using biophilic design?

sustainable interiors or biophilic interiors? esports gaming room concept A.I. image BIOFILICO

Offices

sustainable interiors or biophilic interiors? esports gaming room concept A.I. image BIOFILICO

If it's an office development, then it is all about improving staff wellbeing and creating a space that is desirable for corporations to spend their days (and sometimes nights) in.

Marijuana dispensaries

In a biophilic marijuana dispensary in North America, you can play on both the mental and physical wellbeing aspects but it's less to do with creating a sense of wellbeing right there and then as it's essentially a transitory space, clients are only there a short while.

So it's more to do with connecting the product and brand image with an interior design that reflects their values as accurately as possible.

Hotels & hospitality

Any hospitality business that has a connection to say sourcing local ingredients, or zero waste kitchen policies has a direct connection with nature and sustainability, making it a perfect opportunity for an interior design concept aligned with that positioning.

In eco-luxury hotels we’re seeing a number of brands who are bringing biophilic design in but also still playing in that five star luxury space, especially but not exclusively in resorts, it’s just a natural fit for that type of environment. Additionally, many eco-luxury hotels are using solar panels to generate electricity for powering lights, appliances, and building systems, enhancing their commitment to sustainability. a resort environments for them to be a kind of synergistic approach between inside and out.

Residential

Wellness real estate is focused on creating energy-efficient spaces in which we spend most of our time - where we live and work, then there are ‘secondary spaces’ such as your gym, cafes, restaurants, hotels and so on.

What are the the challenges of implementing biophilic design and its natural processes?

Definitely one of the big questions is always around maintenance because it does come up and clearly there is an element of ongoing operational responsibility when you when you create something like this because it isn't like putting up a sculpture on the wall and then leaving it there for five years and not worrying about it. living plants do need a little bit of love and care.

But there are always options and so there's a discussion with with the client at some point which is which plants are going to require this and and it just may not be possible in some instances to put plants hanging from the ceiling if there's also wiring and electrics and HVAC systems up there and plants don't want to be right near an air vent, etc, etc.

So you know, the realities are both operational and maintenance base, but also just the practicalities of installing this stuff in certain locations where space is limited, natural light is limited, or there's just other things that are taking priorities and so there's always a crunch time in any project where right Okay, well that's the that's the aesthetic that we're going for.

You end up with the MEP consultants or the mechanical electrical engineer with the cost consultants slash project manager, the architects and interior designers and me around the table trying to hash it out and it's a lot of give and take and that's just the messy reality.

But it's not that far off from any other project. If I'm honest, it's just that there's an extra there's an extra head around the table pushing for as much live natural direct by affiliate as possible.

And my second option, My Plan B is indirect biophilia, the things that represent nature that do a lot of the same things aesthetically without actually being alive. And that's where you can get into all kinds of other stuff.

Direct biophilia vs indirect biophilia - what's the difference?

Obviously there are elements of the natural world and natural processes that we'll never be able to recreate without actually being out in nature, but it seems that we can get pretty close in terms of the brain's reaction to those stimuli, whether that be from certain scents, sounds, visual prompts or textures..

What we have to avoid is any kind of dissonance, we have to make the natural spaces in a biophilic interior as cohesive as possible.

Biomimicry in biophilic design elements

Biomimicry is a relatively new field of study that draws inspiration from nature to create sustainable solutions for humans.

It focuses on studying and emulating natural processes and systems, such as the way a beaver builds its dams or how a spider weaves its web. By doing so, biomimicry can help us develop innovative solutions to human problems.

Biophilic design, on the other hand, is an approach to design which takes into consideration the human connection to nature.

It seeks to bring nature into our built environment in order to create more comfortable and enjoyable spaces that are conducive to better health and wellbeing.

Biophilic design can also be used as a tool for sustainability by creating green spaces that help reduce energy consumption and conserve resources.

sustainable interiors or biophilic interiors? esports gaming room concept A.I. image BIOFILICO

Where does biophilic design go from here? What does the future look like for this design trend?

I think biophilic design is now undergoing a subtle but important shift towards a version 2.0. It's no longer enough just to bring inside elements of the natural world, creating an interior that's inspired by the natural environment, likely full of plants and living green walls. That's version 1.0 right there.

Nowadays there's a new wave coming that is closer to a concept called 'organic design', this is how the trend moves on to its next life phase, opening up a wider palette of colours and materials for itself as well as taking inspiration from a far wider range of other natural elements, in the quest for improved human health benefits.

How did you first begin your career in biophilic design?

I came in via the world of real estate development. So I was initially in the Creative Director role in-house with a mixed-use real estate development in Montenegro called Porto Montenegro.

We had construction , design, operations and project management teams building out a small multifamily residential and superyacht marina destination.

I was in the thick of all of this and started to see how teams could literally pull entire buildings out of the ground for 300 units in two years or build an entire Marina and I thought, well, 'this is this is my industry, for sure'.

I enjoy working in the world of interiors and real estate and started to really understand how that process worked from the initial business case right through design, launch and operational phase.

What first inspired you to work in biophilic design and sustainability?

During an early chapter in my career I was placed in South Africa, Cape Town, an amazingly natural location where the big city kid me was taken out of the urban environment and dropped into this low key, nature-centric location and something awoke inside me while I was living there.

Later I found myself working for this real estate development project in a very small town called Tivat in Montenegro on the Adriatic coast, again completely immersed by nature.

So I've got this these two things happening, which was this combination of real estate interiors, architecture, construction industry, all while diving into the world of living in very natural , environments, having previously grown up in cities my whole life.

There was just this strong internal reaction, I stopped training in indoor gyms and started training outdoors, just connecting in a way that I'd never done with nature.

I started reading into this subject, at first it even took me a little while to come across the term 'biophilia' but I knew that something was happening and that perhaps this space of real estate and interiors, that was already my world, could be integrated with my nascent passion for sustainability and nature....the rest is history!

botanical design in architecture and interiors with wayward plants

the green & healthy places podcast explores the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hotels

Episode 059 took us to London, UK to chat with Tom Kendall, Associate Director of Wayward Plants, a botanical design collective on a mission to bring urban communities back into contact with the natural world.

Our conversation covers their work creating biophilic public benches that convey a message about inner city air quality, large scale plant donations as an ethical business practice, designing botanically inspired playgrounds, their work designing a botanical memorial for nelson mandela in liverpool and their nature-inspired sustainable interior concept for a stella mccartney store.

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lemonary by wayward plants

Matt Morley

Let’s start with a question about your ‘better air benches’. There are so many different ways of bringing nature back into the city nowadays, it is one of the things that really inspires me personally and I think we share those same values.

How can something as seemingly banal as a public bench become much more functional and play an actual role in purifying the air within the city?

improving Air quality in the public realm

Thomas Kendall

Yes. So this was a collaboration with business improvement districts (BID) down in south London. And it was kind of interesting because it didn't start out as a bench, the initial proposal was supposed to be a gateway, it was supposed to be something big and grand.

After some really interesting discussions with the BID, we decided to change it to try and in a way take up more space. And to become more purposeful and useful within the public realm.

We knew there were other people who were doing other kinds of more ‘threshold gateway-esque strategies’ in London then anyway. So we wanted to try and find a way to integrate ourselves in a little bit more of a purposeful environment, we also knew that we were going to initially be sited in Borough Market, which is obviously this amazing sort of threshold and space of exchange, of constant flux and change.

We needed something that had an element of transition to it. And for us, this idea of a simple bench was I guess, the key that unlocked that for us, we wanted something that was going to be colorful, something that was going to be very simple yet interactive. And also obviously, that one of the key parts of us has to be something green.

Unusually for us, we ended up working with a monoculture of ivy in this instance. So we filled these very simple mesh cages of benches and we filled them with English IV, which is known to be really good for air quality. And we knew we were never going to fill them with enough to actively change the air quality. But for us, it was very much about raising awareness, which is also why we didn't want to be stuck in one site.

So whilst we started out in Borough Market, the whole point with the benches was that they were mobile, they could go out and fill space. Four years later, now, I'm still getting texts from friends being like, “Oh, I just saw your bench on this street” or “I just sat in this square and had my lunch on your bench”. There's something so wonderfully human and intuitive about them, that people really warm to.

borough market, london

Healthy buildings, outside air quality and raising public awareness

Matt Morley

So let me dig into that a little bit... If we had, say, a closed environment such as a healthy building interior, or specifically a workplace environment where we might be aiming for a much more tangible set of data and outputs. For example purifying the indoor air and improving productivity but when you're working in the public realm, perhaps the sheer scale of the problem is so huge that that you're never going to be able to make a meaningful impact on the air quality in that particular area of London. So do you set out with a different mission in a sense, just to raise awareness amongst the general public?

Thomas Kendall

Yeah, that was definitely one of the client’s key concerns with this was to have a wider discussion on air quality in Southwark obviously, it's a huge conflict points, so many congested roads, curbside deliveries, all day long and the amount of pollution varies so much, even down to like the huge spike in Christmas, because of Amazon deliveries to everybody's offices.

We knew there was a problem. but we only had a budget of £30,000. You're not going to solve all of the borough’s pollution problems for that clearly! There's there's always two strands - one is just the simple factor of enjoyability. In the public realm, the basic user interface of creating something that people will regularly use and then there is the lesson to be learned from that brief experience.

It's not we try not to make it like a giant placard, you know, we don't want to put a big billboard in front of you saying air pollution is wrong, it's usually a little bit more passive or subtle. So on the benches, we included a series of educational quotes or facts about the area and the pollution levels or different plants that can benefit our health and the environment.

air quality monitors and the role of data

We also had a series of sensors that were up for six months on them that were measuring the pollution in the different areas of particular, in particular, and that they sort of as they moved around, there was some data that was collected, just showing the amount of pollution in these different spaces, that was also then streamed to the business improvement district’s website.

In this way we did manage to get a really interesting look at the pollution levels, and how just moving two streets away from the main thoroughfare the amount of pollution would lower and there's now actually a green map that's been created of walks around Southwalk based not just on that data but on a much broader series of investigations to create different pathways to get to work or school for example avoiding pollution.

moor lane community garden by wayward plants

botanical design interventions in the community for added biophilia

Matt Morley

Let’s shift onto the Moor Lane Community Garden project and the idea of creating or co-designing effectively, and architectural interventions in the form of a garden in the local community as a way to bring an element of nature back into that that particular corner of the city. Talk to us a bit about that.

Thomas Kendall

Yes, Moor Lane was a really interesting one when it comes to engagement, because there was already a small community garden there and a huge future proposal involving the whole redevelopment of that particular street. So we were initially invited in actually as a mediator between the City of London and a series of local residence groups, where there seemed to be a bit of a disconnect happening.

Our first role there was to act as a middle person to help them communicate, and to find out what was missing, what wasn't being communicated effectively, and where things might be improved. Initially, we just having a lot of conversations, we didn't even dive into design. In fact the first three meetings were all about conversation and communication. And out of that we discovered that the future proposal had zero relevance to the site and zero relevance to the community. That was their problem.

We were eventually asked to not only come up with a green intervention for the site but also to challenge the entire future proposal for it. The future scheme had no relevance to the Barbecan, and it didn't reference its architecture, it didn't reference the community.

Not only were they concrete objects that we created in the end, but they were also etched in to exposed aggregate in the same way that the Barbican had previously been hand carved. There were certain color themes inspired by the area too as well as referencing old and new planting.

It was great for us, because as well as these conversations, we got to then invite people in to do planting in the project, too. So we had a really nice hands on aspect to it beyond the design and engagement. And then following up on that, obviously, there was a big report we put together that detailed every conversation, everything that had ever been said, as well as how it integrated into the designs.

Now in fact we're back on site, again, looking at how our designs have impacted it. And we're now redesigning the new planters, to include some of the details and motifs that the community thought was specifically poignant or interesting from what we did.

Even our own design got re-critiqued re-engaged with at the end of the whole thing, and the community groups came in and told us what they didn't didn't like about those and what was successful and what they would like to see go forward. It meant putting ourselves on the frontline to be critiqued.

sustainability and social responsibility in botanical design

Matt Morley

Is see that as being part of a wider concept of giving back and incorporating a community aspect into your work, which some could say is a version of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or ESG. It's certainly a cohesive approach within the overall framework of being a business working in the space of sustainability and biophilia that you to make an effort to, to give back via plants. Tell us about that.

Thomas Kendall

So this was something that started even before Wayward was Wayward. In a way, the very first thing that sparked this conversation for us was seeing a plant thrown out of a window in New York City, strewn across the street, it was incredibly dramatic, there was a couple shouting above, some sort of weird divorce argument I think!

Well, we picked up this plant from a broken home, we took it home, cared for it, brought it back to life, repotted it, and then we gave it to a friend. And the conversation we had with that friend was more in depth than I think most conversations we've ever had. And if a single plant had activated, this new conversation with somebody that we thought we knew quite well, we thought ‘well, maybe this is a thing’.

Plant donations as a way to give back through biophilia

It was an act of exchange and a way to use nature to explore human stories. And so we started off with one plant every year, we've gradually expanded on this. So moving to like 10 plants, 50 plants, 100 plants, so creating what we call ‘plant adoptions’, where we now invite people where we collect plants from unwanted homes, and we invite people into spaces, and they have to fill out an adoption form, and prove to us that they're going to be good plant parents by drawing or describing the home it's going to go to, and only once we deemed them a good plant parent will they then get the plant in exchange. And it's become this fantastic web. It's like exploring people's stories with gardens and nature. And it's not even just about filling out the form. Sometimes it's just the conversations that you have, again around these events.

We now use this as a tool for exploring public space and for large scale engagement. And so we also now give away through the same scheme, usually around 10,000 plants a year from the RHS Flower Show, Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Flower Show, so we now give everybody about 10,000 plants a year to schools and community gardens, mostly sort of in and around London gradually gradually working our way out a little bit further afield as well.

Matt Morley

It's a really unique approach to giving back. We've collaborated on a biophilic design interiors project recently together and it was a very strong calling card for Wayward, being able to contribute to a greener, more ethical supply chain. create a supply chain and a network of consultants and other sort of service providers within that project.

Biophilic design and plants in kids playgrounds

I know that there's a playground that you're involved in recently, Asteys Row in London, I find playgrounds really interesting proposition they can often be so cold and heartless. But there's so many options simply by adding some biophilia and connecting the kids back to nature. Now, I often take inspiration from playgrounds I see in places like Germany, and Scandinavia, where they just seem to have completely reinvented what a kid's playground can look like. And then I see some other ones here, around me in Spain that look pretty, pretty frightening and harsh. But tell me about as these rows row playground because I know that was one you are deeply involved in yourself.

Thomas Kendall

Yeah, so Asteys Row was really interesting projct to be a part of because it was already embedded between two gardens in a way. So it's part of the New River Walk in the middle of Islington, London but when we first got faced with it, it was this very tarmac heavy, brutal, sad, grey crumbling space, a remnant from the 70s.

Again, through conversations with the locals, we started to gather stories about what it used to be the fact that there used to be speculations around streams running through it, there were a whole sort of weird little myths about who remembered what, but the key for us was this connection between the two existing gardens, and there's this amazing boulder garden that runs through part of the New River Walk right into where this playground space was. But there was no connection between it at all it was this is like they just sliced through it, and got rid of it.

rewilding the city for more biophilia

We saw it as an act of rewilding, we wanted to kind of bring this boulder garden back into fruition. It was also when we went on site with kids, as we did when we did our community engagement work for that we didn't want to get stuck in a local town hall talking about it, we went onto the playground. And we actually basically played with kids for half a day, in the space, both in the playground and up and down the area. So really, they we got the kids to take us on tours, rather than us going out taking them on tours.

We decided to take all the lessons learned from the existing garden, that was an amazing topography and landscape and bring that into the playground, whilst also having to handle all the many things that come with a playground, you know, health and safety issues, a ball court, which is never going to be the most appealing thing, especially on a sort of slightly tight Council budget. But it was we were actually really impressed with the way that the council really took the ideas on when we mentioned this idea of a boulder garden.

risk benefit analysis in healthy green playground design

We worked with a lot of amazing play safety inspectors as well, who brought the idea of a risk benefit analysis into the project. So we're no longer that concerned about a few falls or trips or hazards here and there. It's actually now about risk benefit analysis. So if the risk is great, but the benefit is greater, then that's actually deemed to be a positive thing.

And for me, the whole thing really it came out of very much replicating the existing landscape as well as learning from my own childhood, you know, I grew up on a farm near a beach. But there's sort of translation of how I played as a child. And my natural landscape. And the lessons I've learned from that, alongside working in talking with these children, and their appreciation of the natural landscape, sort of brought it all in.

Then we you know, as well as that, that, that's just the general topography, we then play with plants and planting as well on the site, we like introducing new trees, creating moments of play in interactions where the kids felt like they could disappear and hide from their parents and then reappear and emerge, even though they were never really out of somebody's sight. So it was a really nice way of integrating the whole of the History site as well as the way it was very much used by its existing community, and then just exaggerating it and and enhancing it.

Botanical design as part of biophilic design - an outdoor memorial project

Matt Morley

Some people might describe Wayward’s work outdoor biophilic design, others might call it, creative landscaping in some instances so you can go from a playground to something like the Nelson Mandela outdoor memorial project up in Liverpool where again, you're using nature for its mental wellbeing and quasi-spiritual benefits.

I think we all connect with nature on some level, often provoking feelings of calm for example. So how do you go about taking something like that and applying it to a memorial? And why in Liverpool?

Thomas Kendall

The Mandela project is an absolute privilege to work on, as you can imagine. And when we first got approached about this, we were a little unsure if we would be able to find our place within the project but when we started researching and reading, we discovered this amazing use that he himself had for gardens.

Within the prison that he was in, he used the gardens to grow food, both for himself and the other inmates because as you can imagine, the food was not particularly great on Robben Island all those years.Then he also used it as an act of exchange between them and the prison guards to allow books to come into the space. So he used it as this tool for both sustenance and education.

He would turn the quarries into temporary classrooms during lunch. They would then educate each other. And it was all through this exchange of edible foods for books and other educational materials.

In his act of kind of digging the garden over, and he had to grow plants, he'd also then be hiding his manuscripts. So the gardens were originally built, either just dug in the ground or dug into oil barrels, which would be cut in half as a very sort of simple on site piece of infrastructure. We've replicated these oil barrels in form and scale on site, there's going to be 32 of these simple cylinder shapes that are going to have his words on. And that's the reference and the way to Mandela and his approach to gardening.

What we were really keen on is that it wasn't just a memorial or just a public artwork, I don't think we will ever do just a public artwork, it will always have to be interactive, it will always have to be education, it will have to be a place that's accessible and inviting. And so very much in the way that he turned the quarry into a classroom we wanted to turn the island that this project is going to be on, in the middle of Prince’s Park in the middle of a lake and on this island, we wanted to turn it into essentially a theater, or at the very least an outdoor classroom that is active and engaging.

Even now, it's kind of amazing, we go into schools in Liverpool, and we've been doing workshops as well with kids there. And they already understand this at the ages of 9,10,11. They already understand this relationship that Liverpool had with Nelson Mandela. And they understand the importance of this. Hopefully, when they come to use the space, in the end, they will treat it as a classroom and as a theater and as a space to engage and learn and meet as a community. And not just as a memorial. But underneath it, there will still be his words gently carved in and around the space.

stella mccartney store, london botanical installation by wayward plants

botanical interior design narratives in sustainable retail

Matt Morley

It's an example of the role of narrative and big ideas that drive your projects Tom, there's always a lot going on behind it for anyone who's prepared to engage with that experience rather than just seeing the visual aspect, there's always an experiential component clearly.

When you're working indoors in an interior space of say 300 square meters in a retail store, such as the project you did for Stella McCartney, flagship, how do you go about trying to create that same experiential component and integrate those big ideas around bringing the outside world in through biophilia using certain types of plants? It must be a very different mindset, right?

Thomas Kendall

So in a way, there was a lot of similarities, they're both very personal projects, very much dealing in a way with the image of an individual. So obviously, Nelson Mandela, he had his particular approach to gardens and Stella McCartney, she herself has a very particular approach to the environment and sustainability.

With with Bond Street store, we knew that her interior design team were very much trying to explore something new, when it came to retail, they weren't just trying to create a store, what they really wanted to look at was how to integrate elements of her life. And her own experiences into the space.

There'd be a lot more personal conversations around her upbringing and growing up and how it started to translate into sustainable fabrics and finishes, as well as treating the whole building more like a home, there was a welcoming hallway, there's this almost sitting room upstairs.

This idea of a garden is core to any domestic situation, to the sense of the home. But then obviously incomplete counterintuitively to that we needed the kind of polish expected of a flagship store on London’s Bond Street.

So lots of the finishes and stuff that were going into the design of the store itself with the all this beautiful polished brass and concrete work and playing with materials and things there was a lot of process going on invited us to go right the other way and try and keep process to an absolute minimum and to really focus on very raw simple combinations of elements.

We were speaking to a lot about her father's Island up in Scotland and her relationship to stone, we proposed this idea of a boulder garden, right in the middle of the store, very weighty but at the same time relatively calm, sort of meditative. She felt a huge resonance with this idea. She's a big believer in sort of geological crystals and things as well.

The sustainability angle was important so we made sure that every stone in the place was sourced within the UK, carved within the UK, or the mosses either came from local growers, or were recycled from Chelsea Flower Show, and built into the garden. So then yeah, it became this very interesting conversation between the simple raw material of the stone and how to integrate it into into a beautiful green retail environment.

Matt Morley

It's a really unusual case study. And I think one that adds a lot of substance to your to your credentials, as well.

If people want to follow along and read more about what you're up to, where where's the best place for them to go, or to see what you're up to?

Thomas Kendall

Maybe just to have a look at our website https://www.wayward.co.uk/ we treat it like a live news feed as well, I have to confess, we're not the greatest on Instagram at the moment. But we're getting there slowly. We're too busy being outdoors rather than just online!

If you do want to get involved with any of our plant re-homing schemes as well. There's links on there that you can either sign up to as a school or community or as a volunteer. And yeah, usually for sort of have a look about usually around April or when there's usually some really good opportunities to come and volunteer and collect plants with us and enjoy the flower shows.

Thank you very much Matt.

https://www.instagram.com/waywardplants/

Introduction to biophilic design concept best examples — biofilico wellness interiors

What follows is a presentation made by Matt Morley to the team at Turner & Townsend in Scotland in October 2022, introducing the concept of biophilic design as a combination of nature + wellbeing + sustainability.

biofilico Founder MAtt Morley in his biophilic home in Barcelona, Spain

An Introduction to Biophilic Design - Nature, Wellbeing, and Sustainability

Biophilic design is a concept that has gained significant attention in recent years, particularly in the fields of architecture, interior design, and urban planning. The term “biophilic” refers to the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature, and biophilic design aims to incorporate natural elements and patterns into the built environment to promote well-being and sustainability. By integrating natural elements such as plants, water features, and natural light, biophilic design creates spaces that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also enhance mental and physical health. This approach fosters a deeper connection to the natural world, making our living and working environments more harmonious and sustainable.

Presentation by Matt Morley to Turner & Townsend in Scotland, October 2022

In a recent presentation to Turner & Townsend in Scotland, Matt Morley discussed the importance of biophilic design in promoting well-being and sustainability in the built environment. Morley highlighted the benefits of incorporating natural elements, such as natural light, natural materials, and natural patterns, into building design. He emphasized that biophilic design is not just about adding plants to a space but involves a holistic approach that considers the social, economic, and environmental impacts of building design. By thoughtfully integrating these elements, biophilic design can create healthier, more productive, and more sustainable environments.

An introduction to biophilic design - nature, wellbeing and sustainability

What follows is a presentation made by Matt Morley to the team at Turner & Townsend in Scotland in October 2022, introducing the concept of biophilic design as a combination of nature + wellbeing + sustainability.

Biophilic design is an innovative approach that seeks to connect building occupants more closely to nature. It incorporates natural elements like plants, water features, and natural light into the built environment. Additionally, it includes natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells to enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world. This design philosophy is based on the concept of biophilia, which suggests that humans have an inherent affinity for nature. By integrating these natural elements, biophilic design aims to create spaces that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also promote well-being. The health benefits of biophilic design are significant, as it enhances mental and physical well-being through reduced stress, improved mood, and overall greater health and wellness outcomes. This approach is increasingly being recognized for its potential to improve the quality of life in both residential and commercial spaces.

Definition of Biophilia

Biophilia is the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature and living organisms. This concept, coined by biologist Edward O. Wilson, suggests that humans have an instinctual love for nature and that exposure to natural environments can have a positive impact on our physical and mental health. Biophilia is the foundation of biophilic design, which aims to incorporate natural elements and materials into the built environment to promote well-being and sustainability. This includes the use of natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, which have historically been integrated into architectural designs to enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world. By integrating natural elements such as plants, water features, and natural light, biophilic design creates spaces that nurture our inherent connection to the natural world, enhancing both our mental health and overall quality of life.

The Work of a Biophilic Design Consultant in Real Estate and Hotels

Biophilic design consultants play a crucial role in promoting well-being and sustainability in the built environment. Their work involves incorporating natural elements and patterns into building design, as well as ensuring that buildings are designed to promote occupant health and well-being. In the real estate and hotel industries, biophilic design consultants can help to create buildings that are not only sustainable but also promote occupant well-being and productivity. By integrating natural systems and features, such as green walls, water features, and natural lighting, consultants help transform spaces into vibrant, life-affirming environments that support both physical and mental health.

The work of a biophilic design consultant in real estate and hotels incorporating natural elements

As a biophilic design consultant I work across sustainability strategy. I work with real estate developers and hotel groups, and I have a subdivision to Biofilico called Biofit that specialises in gym consultant services, again for real estate developers and hotel groups primarily.

Consultants integrate natural systems into their projects to enhance well-being and sustainability. This involves fostering awareness of ecological processes and incorporating them into architectural design to influence health, productivity, and environmental stewardship. Additionally, they incorporate natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, into their designs to strengthen the connection between built environments and the natural world.

So taking that a level deeper, and now starting to tackle the subject of biophilic design. Any project that comes in could be something like a real estate ESG plan, a sustainable interiors or sustainability for an operational hotel.

what is a biophilic design consultant?

A biophilic design consultant may help architects or interior design teams to define a specific wellness concept, they may play an active part in concept development or concept design but in such cases they cede all creative control to the architects or designers.

What’s really interesting about biophilic design, is that it sits at the intersection of green buildings and healthy buildings. Biophilic design, sort of inter-weaves through both of those worlds, sitting somewhere between the two.

Biophilic design consultants often incorporate natural patterns and natural forms into their projects to create sensory-rich experiences. These patterns reflect nature-inspired colors, shapes, and structures, enhancing aesthetic appeal and promoting wellness by connecting inhabitants with their environment.

So right away from the more strategic piece up top, where I’m working hand in hand with the developer on a building certification project such as LEED, BREEAM or WELL, biophilic design pops up in the credits check list, and recognition is given for incorporating it.

So within the building certifications, that something like GRESB, within a real estate portfolio would expect you’d find biophilic design there.

The same with workplace wellness. And then obviously, within both green buildings and healthy buildings, there are “access to nature” credits, as well as specific “biophilic design” credits.

While I’m not designing for credits or for certifications but these standards do help to push the industry in the right direction a lot of the time, and then demand comes from there.

Why use a biophilic design consultant?

So clients will recognize that this topic is something they need to address as part of their real estate development or hotel development project, then ask how they can bring nature into what they are designing. The architects or designers may not always have the in-house resources for this type of work, in which case a consultant is required to help fill the gap.

Incorporating natural shapes can enhance visual complexity and create a more harmonious environment that resonates with natural patterns, thus improving the overall aesthetic and emotional well-being within a space. Consultants often integrate natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, into architectural designs to strengthen the connection between built environments and the natural world.

For example, there are plenty of options to create biophilic wellness concepts within a healthy building strategy, or if you like ‘set pieces’ - smaller, multi sensory areas or rooms within a far wider project where you’re able to really push the biophilic design angle through.

what is biophilic design?

So what is biophilic design exactly? Well, it’s a design strategy intended to reunite indoor and outdoor worlds through the use of natural materials, forms, textures, colors, patterns, light, sometimes even breezes, we can think of natural ventilation strategies in certain parts of the world, you can also increasingly find the use of specific scents and sounds as part of the mix too. This includes incorporating natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells into architectural designs to enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world.

We’re introducing or reintroducing the natural world back into our buildings and interiors, with the aim of positively impacting occupant wellbeing, whilst always respecting the environment. Access to views of natural landscapes can enhance human well-being, reduce stress, and contribute positively to the overall design of both interior and exterior spaces. It wouldn’t really make sense for me to do this stuff, if I was then having a negative impact on nature. The whole concept is bringing nature into the built environment so that gives us a cyclical approach whereby I also need to think about how I do that in a sustainable way.

Balancing wellbeing and sustainability in biophilic design

A project could be more wellness oriented, or occupant wellbeing oriented, and it can be sustainable but if there isn’t nature in there, then it wouldn’t be biophilic design. Natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, have historically been incorporated into architectural designs to enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world.

Obviously there’s quite a lot that can happen in the healthy building and green building space that doesn’t involve nature. But when there is that all important element of nature, then that’s our magic sauce for biophilic design.

what are the responsibilities of a biophilic design consultant?

As context, I’m clearly working in this space between developers on the one side, and architects on the other. And then a lot of what I’m doing is, is helping project managers, Quantity Surveyors and the interior designers or architects to get a sense of how this will happen, how much it costs, and also trying to iterate along the way. This includes integrating natural forms, such as elements that mimic trees, flowers, and shells, into the design of spaces.

Often the client is more or less on board by the time I get involved because they’ve made an effort to reach out, they recognise a gap in their team resources and are looking to fill it in an efficient manner.

what are the benefits of biophilic design?

We can identify benefits both for people and for planet. On the people side the benefits include enhanced mood, generally making feel people just that little bit happier about spending time in any give space within a building. Incorporating natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, into architectural designs also contributes to these health benefits by enhancing the connection between built environments and the natural world.

It’s interesting the effects on cognitive function too as it helps restore concentration levels and gives the mind a bit of a rest before, for example, going back to work or study.

Nature connection, obviously, has been linked to feelings of vitality, ergo having more nature around generally makes occupants feel good. That connects with mood again, and reduces stress and anxiety.

Whereas on the environmental side biophilic design can deploy a whole array of sustainable materials to help improving the indoor air quality with all these plants coming into play removing or indeed completely avoiding toxic substances by specifying natural, non-toxic materials. I’m minimizing my environmental impact while hopefully making something that looks good too.

There is lots out there around biophilic design’s impact on anxiety, effectively reducing anxiety and stress whilst it enhances and improves cognitive function. So again, concentration levels and creativity are the two to focus on as benefits.

It’s quite hard to quantify that sometimes. But there’s research studies on direct exposure to nature. And that could be going for a walk in the park or spending time in a forest. Then there are research studies, specifically on biophilic design. A lot of what we do is correlated from studies focused on spending time in nature and then effectively, we’re doing our best to recreate that or bring elements of that indoors.

Biophilic design in residential developments

The video above was a residential real estate development in Canary Wharf called The Wardian by EcoWorld Ballymore. Biofilico basically created this indoor green environment as a pre-opening sales and marketing activity with the team at The Wardian, then we did some research around people spending 30 to 60 minutes in there during their lunch hour, mostly visiting from Canary Wharf, so they were busy professionals. The design incorporated natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells to enhance the connection between the built environment and nature.

We recorded various data points such as how they felt when they arrived, vs when they left, their perceived levels of stress or anxiety, again, upon arriving upon departure, or perhaps unsurprisingly, you generally make people feel a bit happier when they spend time in this beautiful green glasshouse with birdsong, natural aromas, plants and all sorts of little hacks that we could use.

I think more than anything, it was the data around productivity and creativity that stood out. So they had some tasks that they could do, at the end of this time that they spent in this biophilic space, and some quite tangible data that came out of the other side of that we did that with the University of Essex, in fact.

what are the key concepts of biophilic design?

DIRECT BIOPHILIA - PLANTS AND NATURE

Firstly, you’ve got plants and landscaping. In fact, most people think effectively, that’s all it is. I think, if anything I’m aiming to show that there’s considerably more to it than that, for example, representations of nature, so indirect forms of nature, so not literally a plant but other ways of evoking nature. Biophilic design also incorporates natural forms, such as elements that mimic trees, flowers, and shells, to enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world.

So clearly, plants is kind of a big one, everyone thinks of vertical garden walls, clusters of pot plants from the ceilings, indoor gardens, rooftop gardens, hydroponic farms of lettuce leaves, and things that can then be harvested on a weekly or bi weekly basis. And that all is very much kind of the common baseline for all of this.

INDIRECT BIOPHILIA - REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE

Then there’s quite a bit further we can go from non living versions of nature, such as wall murals, wallpaper, artworks, mosaics, there’s lots of indirect representations like that, that we can use. And they’re especially useful in areas where facilities management is going to be difficult, or they’re challenged by putting in life elements of nature, and especially if it’s a lower ground space with no natural light. So in that case, I kind of flip away from direct biophilia to an indirect version.

ECO MATERIALS

Lots of materials we do go quite deep into the health and sustainability aspect, combing form and function. We can even get into bio-based materials, there’s a whole myriad of natural materials that we can use that also conveniently give you a certain natural aesthetic. So that would be a big piece of biophilic design that also conveniently connects with both healthy building strategies and sustainable interiors.

SOUND

As I mentioned, sounds, this is a friend of mine from Glasgow in fact, he’s done a biophilic sound project for the Kimpton Hotel, where he created a whole series of soundscapes, he went into forests recorded the sounds of just being in a forest, and then introduce those into a hill hotel room into the Kimpton hotel, in fact, so hotels hospitality, showing quite a serious interest in this now, largely for its sort of calming and restorative effects. Hotels are certainly getting on board.

SCENT

Scent, there’s quite a lot you can do around trying to recreate the smells of the forest. And then yeah, there’s a conversation with the the MEP consultant in how we get that done into the ducts without damaging the indoor air quality. But when it works, it can be quite a nice extra feature. And you’d be surprised how sound and scent in addition to the visual stuff.

LIGHT

Light as well can all make a massive impact in a pretty short time. So we’ve been in sort of a lobby area of a building, or in the waiting room of a spa before going into a treatment space. All of these elements can have quite a tangible impact on how someone perceives that experience. And really that’s what what I’m aiming for - having a positive impact on how they feel as they spend time in that space before they move on to wherever else they’re going.

BIODESIGN

Bio-Design is arguably one of the more avant garde aspects of biophilic design. So what we can do now is use products that have actually been grown or that are made of purely bio based materials. biofabrication would be the act of of growing a product. You might have heard of mycelium, which is effectively a mushroom based or mushroom root base material. You can see a friend of mine there in New York who’s creating a mold for a lampshade with straw husks.

So while some of these things can feel a little fantastical, as with so much stuff, give that five or 10 years and I think you’ll see that it becomes quite a central piece of of sustainable interior design, green building and also biophilic design, which is already adopting it as part of kind of biomimicry, which is the concept of deliberately recreating and cross fertilizing between nature and industrial design, or indeed architecture.

BEAUTY

It’s difficult to define beauty at the best of times but natural beauty is this other thing that when it’s there, you just kind of know it. And that’s really a challenge to the architects and designers, obviously balancing the costs and the budget, but it can often be a visual piece that just has that little something that nourishes the soul in some small way.

SET PIECES / MULTI-SENSORY

We’re seeing things like healing gardens in care centers, and restorative spaces and corporate offices in Silicon Valley. We’re increasingly seeing these small set pieces of biophilic design areas or spaces within a building, or in a courtyard of a building, that really push the whole wellness angle, and also serve to do a whole bunch of other things in terms of biodiversity, rainwater management, for example.

HERO group offices in Switzerland - Biofilico consultancy project 2018

Use of Natural Light in Biophilic Design

Natural light is a crucial element in biophilic design, as it provides a direct connection to the natural environment. Additionally, incorporating natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells into architectural designs enhances this connection. The use of natural light in design can have numerous benefits, including improved mood, reduced stress, and increased productivity. Biophilic design strategies that incorporate natural light include the use of large windows, skylights, and solar tubes. These features allow natural light to penetrate deep into buildings, reducing the need for artificial lighting and creating a more natural and welcoming environment. By maximizing the use of natural light, biophilic design not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of a space but also fosters a healthier and more sustainable living and working environment.

Incorporation of Natural Elements in Design

The incorporation of natural elements in design is a key principle of biophilic design. Natural elements, such as plants, water features, natural materials, and natural forms, can be used to create a sense of connection to nature. Biophilic design strategies that incorporate natural elements include the use of green walls, living roofs, and natural stone. These features can help to reduce stress, improve air quality, and promote a sense of well-being. By bringing the outdoors inside, biophilic design transforms interior spaces into vibrant, life-affirming environments that support both physical and mental health.

Connection to Nature in Interior Spaces

Creating a connection to nature in interior spaces is a critical aspect of biophilic design. This can be achieved through the use of natural materials, natural light, natural elements, and natural forms. Biophilic design strategies that promote a connection to nature in interior spaces include the use of natural colors, textures, and patterns. These features can help to create a sense of calm and relaxation, reducing stress and promoting well-being. By thoughtfully integrating elements that evoke the natural world, biophilic design fosters a harmonious and restorative atmosphere within built environments.

HERO group offices in Switzerland - Biofilico consultancy project 2018

Biophilic office interior case study

This is an office Biofilico worked on for a natural foods group in Switzerland, in fact, a couple of years ago, again, working with local interior designers, advising them on all the eco stuff. And it really went quite deep, because they had a lot of technical issues in that space. As you can probably tell, it’s a round shaped building. And effectively a concrete and glass block. And they have real issues with acoustics. Natural forms, such as elements mimicking trees, flowers, and shells, were integrated to address these technical issues and enhance the space.

So a lot of the work we were doing was around. Yeah, acoustic dampening and bringing some of the outside world in at the same time. So doubling up in a sense, not just thinking about the visuals, but also about how we could bring more light into the core of the building, and get rid of some of their pretty serious acoustic problems or echoes going up through the atrium to the top floor.

Biofilico concept design for ecology room in a corporate office

office ecology room concept design

This is one Biofilico was working on for a tech giant, I don’t think it’s going to happen in the end sadly but it was a big Silicon Valley player who wanted an ecology room in all of their offices - a space that these knowledge workers could spend 20 or 30 minutes in, that was entirely eco friendly and that would allow them a space to be, rather than to do. Incorporating natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells into the design was a key element in creating this eco-friendly space.

As much as anything, I found that a really interesting example of where the tech companies are at now and how biophilic design connects with their vision of workplace wellness in particular, obviously, it’s a company that has plenty of budget for such things. And yet, it is clearly a sign of what’s to come in terms of where these corporate offices are going.

So you don’t need a lot of space, it could be just 50m2 but it can still become a calling card in terms of attracting workers back into the office, for example, post COVID.

Biofit designed gym at Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm, Sweden

university eco gym and mental health wellness space

This is a Biofit designed biophilic eco gym space within the Health Promotion unit in the Karolinska Medical University in Stockholm. Natural forms, such as elements that mimic trees, flowers, and shells, are incorporated to enhance mental well-being. It was really just a piece of unused workspace for graduate students and staff, in fact, at the Medical University, and they asked me to create a fun, interactive area where people could go and do a quick workout or just do some stretching and break away from the otherwise monotonous hard work that they’re all doing at the Medical University.

Karolinska are a very innovative and forward thinking research university in that sense. They’ve got a lot of their own researchers working on biophilic design, so perhaps not too surprising that they were willing to commission something like this for student mental wellbeing.

Beulah residences, Melbourne

Residential Real estate and biophilic design

Some residential examples from around the world. This is currently where it’s at - offices went ahead of the rest, took the lead, but now residential developments are coming round to the benefits of biophilic design too. Incorporating natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells into architectural designs enhances the connection between built environments and the natural world. There is the CapitaSpring building on Raffles Place in Singapore by Bjarke Ingels Group for example, based in Denmark but with offices around the world.

Residential developers are looking for ways to stand out from the crowd. In London it’s interesting to see how many examples are appearing in urban areas like Canary Wharf, so a business district, or in a high-end residential area like Chelsea that is already quite leafy and verdant.

Shui on Works, PRC, by M Moser

workplace design and biophilia

Workplaces is really where it all began, because Silicon Valley were the first movers on biophilic design. Natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, are often incorporated into architectural designs to enhance the connection to nature in workplaces. And so it was, in a sense, the influence from the west coast first, but it’s taken hold in the co-working sector in London for example.

The new plans for a massive Google building in New York represent a huge investment, with CookFox NYC behind the biophilic architecture and design there. In Milano there is Welcome Milano by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma where the whole concept is around biophilic design, that’s for developers Europa Resorse.

Dentista Amsterdam, Netherlands

medical facilities and healthcare with biophilic design

Medical centers now increasingly have healing gardens, a form of direct exposure to nature, while dental clinics are also incorporating this into their interiors, along with cancer care hospitals, care homes and hospitals. Natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, are integrated into these designs to enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world.

So again, largely it’s playing on the restorative wellbeing card - the restorative benefits of access to or exposure to nature. Clearly it’s a bit more serious in these cases, as in, it’s not just an aesthetic decision, it’s more of a functional design strategy.

There’s a specific emotional response that the biophilic designers are looking for when they when they do this.

Same with education in that it can both be an interesting way to engage with kids in schools as well as universities. Natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, are elements that engage students and promote well-being. Again, Karolinska Universitet have got vertical garden walls all around their medical university, they were an early adopter of biophilic design.

If you could design a school today, and you have the option to incorporate an element of nature, especially in a dense urban environment, I think most of us would rather have that for our kids, and give them some access to nature, anything is better than nothing.

Even if you haven’t got an outdoor space, then biophilic design basically solves that problem by bringing nature indoors. It can never fully recreate experience being outdoors, but you can get pretty close. And the kids love it!

Living Bakkali, Valencia, Spain

restaurants and cafes with biophilic design

Restaurants tend to opt for even more creative interpretations of this theme. Whether it’s using foliage wallpapers, they just seem to have a much less constrained brief. Natural forms, such as elements that mimic trees, flowers, and shells, are often incorporated to create unique and inviting spaces. So they can literally build it into the shape and format and structure of the building.

Again, just a few examples of how you can do things like SILO in London, that’s a zero waste, fully sustainable restaurant that has won all manner of awards, and is subtly biophilic in its interiors, without being too obvious.

I think places like that are sort of the cutting edge of where this is all going. They’re using biomaterials, some of those funky ones that we mentioned earlier, and really pushing the envelope in terms of what’s out there and how far this thing can go. Because the end of the day, if all of this is just decorating with plants, I think at some point, people would have got fed up or it would become commonplace. So it’s about ensuring that biophilic design evolves.

CBD retail with biophilic design

CBD retail obviously is all in North America for now but this is a real low hanging fruit for biophilic designers. And again, assuming that the legislation changes in other countries, too, then I think you’ll see very much the same approach as CBD stores take hold in the UK and Europe as well over coming years - biophilic design is a perfect fit for this type of product.

We can identify a pared back, minimal interior space with lots of nature, but very deliberately professional in style, and avoiding the stereotype of what we might imagine a CBD store to look like. Incorporating natural forms such as trees, flowers, and shells into the design can enhance the connection between built environments and the natural world.

Natural Materials in Design

Natural materials, such as wood, stone, and bamboo, are a key component of biophilic design. These materials can be used to create a sense of warmth and comfort, often enhanced by incorporating natural forms like trees, flowers, and shells. Biophilic design strategies that incorporate natural materials include the use of reclaimed wood, natural stone, and bamboo flooring. These features can help to reduce stress, improve air quality, and promote a sense of well-being. By choosing materials that reflect the beauty and resilience of the natural world, biophilic design creates spaces that are both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally responsible.

Biophilic Design Patterns

Biophilic design patterns refer to the various ways in which natural elements and patterns can be incorporated into building design. These patterns can include the use of natural light, natural materials, and natural patterns, as well as the incorporation of natural features, such as plants and water features. For example, large windows and skylights can flood a space with natural light, while green walls and indoor gardens bring the beauty of nature indoors. Natural materials like wood and stone add warmth and texture, creating a more inviting and comfortable environment. By using these patterns, biophilic design not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of a space but also promotes well-being and productivity.

Creating an Indoor Jungle

Creating an indoor jungle is a fantastic way to incorporate biophilic design principles into your home or office. This can involve adding a variety of plants, using natural materials, and incorporating natural patterns into your space. Features such as living walls, indoor gardens, and water features can transform an ordinary room into a lush, vibrant environment. The benefits of creating an indoor jungle are numerous, including improved mental health and well-being, increased productivity and creativity, reduced stress, and improved air quality. By surrounding yourself with natural elements, you can foster a deeper connection to nature, making your indoor spaces more harmonious and life-affirming. Whether you’re looking to create a small green corner or a full-scale indoor jungle, biophilic design can help you achieve a healthier, more sustainable living or working environment.

Famous Buildings that Incorporate Biophilic Design Principles

There are many famous buildings that incorporate biophilic design principles. Natural forms, such as trees, flowers, and shells, are often integrated into these designs to enhance the connection to nature. Some examples include:

• The Amazon Spheres in Seattle, Washington: This innovative workspace features a lush, tropical environment with over 40,000 plants, providing employees with a direct connection to nature.

• The Bosco Verticale in Milan, Italy: A residential building covered in over 20,000 plants, Bosco Verticale exemplifies how urban living can be harmoniously integrated with natural elements.

• The One Central Park building in Sydney, Australia: This building features a cantilevered heliostat that reflects natural light into the structure, enhancing the natural lighting and creating a vibrant living environment.

• The Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore: By incorporating natural elements and materials, this hospital creates a healing environment that promotes patient well-being and recovery.

These buildings demonstrate the potential of biophilic design to promote well-being, sustainability, and a connection to nature. By integrating natural light, natural elements, and biophilic design principles, these structures serve as inspiring examples of how the built environment can enhance human health and happiness.

Examples of biophilic design interiors cannabis retail stores

Biofilico biophilic design consultants review the best retail interior design concepts for medical cannabis stores in north america

Alchemy Downtown Toronto, Canada - example biophilic interior design

Alchemy is a Toronto-based cannabis dispensary brand that not only delivers a nature-based product but a customer experience inspired by biophilic design.

Designed by the Studio Paolo Ferrari, the Alchemy Downtown Toronto cannabis retail store shows influences of art, nature, and technology fused into an elevated space. The result is a sublime yet upbeat atmosphere, rather like the effects brought on by many of the products on sale here.

High technical ingenuity and healthy building materials combine to create a contemporary retail space with a touch of class in an otherwise neglected corner of the retail design industry. Things are now changing for the better with these nature-inspired dispensaries however.

Walking through the cannabis store space feels like a luxury, high fashion experience. Within the foyer, a large skylight shines down upon a circular garden central to the room. At its center, a tree sapling grows tall reaching toward the light cascading down from above. Along its sides, large-leafed plants spiral out into the white room surrounding the indoor garden. At its base, a layer of undergrowth fills the small ‘forest floor’.

Further elements of earthy, biophilic design are brought into the room through whitewashed ash wood. An organically shaped pillar of this material accompanies a curvilinear wood table that bends around the ash pole.

The strong, sunshine yellow accents present within the space are an essential element in the overall aesthetic while natural light is brought into the store via yellow-tinted glass.

Finally, circles are a recurring design theme here: a circular pattern marked by a change in material was created on the floor. In the ceiling a circle of acoustic sound-absorbing material creates a dark circle while on the walls, circular mirrors reflect back the displays of merchandise, even one of the retail store’s rooms is circular.

https://alchemycannaco.com/about/

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City Cannabis Vancouver - nature inspired interior design

This dispensary is what we would classify as a classic example of biophilic interior design. A welcome desk with a curvilinear form of a quarter circle incorporates wood paneling while on the wall behind the reception this wood paneling extends to full height, introducing a large chunk of timber into the visual experience. Each section of paneling is three dimensional in nature protruding a couple inches from the wall.

Moving into the interior of the cannabis dispensary, the wooden panelling covers the two long parallel walls. The beaming goes up each side of the wall and bends like an arch before it meets the corner. The beaming bends toward each-other and connects in the middle surrounding the room in small wooden arches.

A retail display table is a continuous piece of whitewashed wood. It extends to around 20 feet as one solid piece of organically shaped timber.

Lighting creates abstract patterns into the space, as if replicating light filtering in through a forest canopy overhead, inevitably unordered and fractal. Also placed within these nooks, an assortment of artificial plants decorates the ceiling and walls of the space, no doubt a response to low light / maintenance priorities. Placed with intent, they appear to grow outwards and are concentrated within corners of the space.

This greenery cascading down the walls and across the ceiling when combined with living plants and potted birch trees gives the dispensary a tangible connection to nature and biophilic design, the perfect backdrop for their plant-based products.

https://www.citycannabis.co/location/cambie-st/

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Etain Health NYC - biophilic design in medical cannabis dispensary

Female-owned Etain Health located in New York integrates biophilic design into their health and wellness focused medical cannabis dispensary store by Clodagh.

As shown above, a dominant feature of the space is a 20 ft living plant wall. beneath a skylight.with supplementary high-lux LED lights that give the plants what they need to survive in the long-term, all year round.

Thanks to adequate light levels and an in-built irrigation system, there are close on 2500 plants in the wall providing not just air=purifying benefits (neutralizing volatile organic compounds while absorbing mildew and spores) for the space but also a sense of calm and natural vitality from bringing the outside world in.

A Feng Shui water feature provides natural background noise through the movement of running water. From wall to floor, natural elements of oak wood and stone are used to create a reassuring, zen interior.

https://etainhealth.com/Biophila-green-plant-wall/

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Dockside Cannabis Seattle

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/11/19/graham-baba-architects-seattle-cannabis-dispensary/

Located in Seattle, Washington, Dockside Cannabis was converted into a local dispensary clinic from a pre-existing structure. It was designed to redefine the typical, often uninspiring retail experience of marijuana through the creation of a tranquil and inviting environment inspired by biophilic design interiors.

Making not only the interior of the building look open and welcoming but also the exterior facade was intended to reduce any lingering stigma around entering a marijuana store. Large windows fill the wall allowing light fill the interior space. They are complemented by a large skylight above and organic, wabi-sabi wood displays below.

Sunshine filters downward through the scissor trusses forming unique shadows within the space. From the trusses, hanging plants flourish under the natural lighting. Vines grow down into the space from these hanging plants alongside a variety of other living plants to create an abundant nature-inspired interior experience inspired by nature.

https://www.docksidecannabis.com/

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Dutch Love Ottawa

Dutch love is a cannabis dispensary located in Ottawa, Ontario that has taken a unique twist on biophilic design in its retail interiors, primarily via a clever feature in their display table joinery that uses opaque sheets of backlit plastic board with a plethora of potted plants inside, kept alive with grow lights built into the cabinetry.

By leveraging a feature of cannabis production in the interiors, while also connecting with biophilia and nature in this way, the store immediately stands out from the crowd. The rest of the space is neutral, with whitewashed walls and minimalist wood shelving structures for product displays, pot plants and lamps.

Filing the space between each storage shelf are slabs of material placed within the cubby made from an array of materials, from organically broken pieces of rock sitting next to each other, to large slabs of wood, and polished slabs of stone.

https://dutch.love

UK floral stylists - biophilic design concept

UK botanical artist

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UK floral stylist

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UK botanical artist 〰️ UK floral stylist 〰️

As healthy building advisors and biophilic design consultants, we maintain a close eye on the ever more vibrant field of floral art, styling and design. These works use living flowers, dried flowers, preserved flowers and a generous dose of design creativity to bring the outside world in - the fundamental principle behind biophilic interior design.

What’s more, we’re seeing a number of these artists integrating sustainability and ethical business practices into their value system as well, making them even more worthy of our attention as sustainable interior design consultants.

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Design by Nature

floral artist, london, uk

https://designbynature.co/

Design by Nature is a floral stylist studio based out of East London that uses experimental design in dried botanicals and cut florals, a perfect compliment to biophilic design interiors.

Their projects range from sculptures to arrangements, bouquets, and installations. Taking cues from the natural world, their botanical compositions integrate nature’s raw beauty for private clients, brands, as well as weddings and corporate events. Notable client names include Nike, ASOS, Facebook, Vogue, and Swarovski.

In placing an emphasis on sustainable sourcing, Design by Nature works solely with British flowers and dried botanicals. They also provide a flower delivery service. 

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Rebecca Louise Law

floral artist, london, uk

https://www.rebeccalouiselaw.com/installations

Rebecca Louis Law Installations is a London based floral installation company that specializes in large exhibitions of preserved flowers. With this as her signature, her works are widely recognizable in the botanical art sector already.

Along with this recurrent theme, she experiments with the contrasting states between living plants and dried, between with fresh, preserved, and decaying flowers.

She specialises in vast works that often find their natural home within museum and gallery installations. Some notable customers include Skovgaard museum in Denmark and the Chandran Gallery in the United States.

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carly rogers flowers

floral stylist, london, uk

https://www.carlyrogersflowers.co.uk/

Carly Rodgers, a Camberwell based floral artist, creates dazzling artistic installations with the floral medium. She makes stunning cut floral arrangements alongside elaborate garden installations.

By bringing the natural flora up walls and wires and into interior environments, she breaks the mould of a traditional florist and pushes into the contemporary art space.

Rodgers has been commissioned for large-scale events, weddings, and one off installations. Some notable client names include Cartier, Benefit, Michael Kors, Dior, and London hospitality destination Sketch.

Her botanical sculpture has found its place in high-profile business, renowned designers, and private clients around the globe.

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Simon lycett

floral artist, london, uk

https://www.simonlycett.co.uk/

Simon J Lycett is a luxury floral artist based out of South London, a brilliant example of biophilic interior design using flowers. He takes floral design to a breathtaking level creating magical designs for his clients. Some of his most notable and prestigious customers include the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Queen herself.

Lycett’s floral portfolio includes weddings, special events, and commissions for historic buildings. His style is elaborate, evocative and deliberately colourful, seamlessly integrating into any building or interior with his signature touch of class and elegance.

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jam jar flowers - floral installations, london uk

http://www.jamjarflowers.co.uk/events

Melissa Richardson is the founder of Jam Jar flowers, a floral installation company based out of South London with an obvious devotion to the field of biophilic design via flowers, whether living or dried. They create intricate floral designs for events, weddings and creative projects.

Working for notable names such as London Gate and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the elaborate designs have grown into a notable name in the industry. With installations of flowers cascading down from the ceiling, growing up walls, and springing from the floor, her designs are perfect for anything from a product launch to an extravagant party.

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The Flower Laboratory - floral artists, east sussex, uk

https://www.theflowerlaboratory.com/home/

Based out of East Sussex, The Flower Laboratory is a big name within the UK floral industry for those that know and a dramatic example of how to integrate a biophilic design concept into commercial contexts, be they photo shoots or fashion shows.

The team’s stated goal is to provoke an emotional response from their audience by harnessing the power of plants and flowers to communicate feelings. With a large portfolio of projects and installations, they are known for their elaborate set builds for magazine photoshoots. Clients include Gucci, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue.

They also make arrangements, sculptures, installations and set builds for films, events, runway shows, and retail. This is all delivered by their in-house team or botanical designers, florists, plant specialists, set builders, set dressers, and floral artists.

Frog Flowers - floral stylist, manchester, uk

https://frogflowers.co.uk/services/installations-events/ 

The Frog Flower company was started by David Jayet-Laraffe in Manchester creating floral installations for grand openings, product launches, anniversaries and other events.

Their client list includes Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and the National Theatre. They also have florist studios where people can experience the practice of floral design for themselves hands on by making their own bouquets and flower crowns.

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Wild About - floral stylists, London, UK

https://wildabout.co.uk/pages/floral-installation 

Wild About is a floral installation outfit with a client list including Alexander McQueen, Michael Kors, J Sheekey restaurant, Hackett stores and Fifty Cheyne.

Floral displays for weddings and events hold a large place within their portfolio, alongside retail store flower installations and weekly flower delivery services curated to fit each different customer’s preferred style.

Endlessly creative in their retail brand store installations, they have an indulgent, elaborate style that is just right for the instagram generation where big, bold visuals are needed to capture our attention.

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Pyrus Botanicals - floral artists, scotland

https://pyrusbotanicals.com/creative 

Fiona Inglis and Natalya Ayers started Pyrus Botanicals in East Lothian, Scotland. The studio creates botanical installations for events, sets, brands, film and TV, and editorials.

Some top names of their clientele include The Telegraph, The White Company, and Strathberry amongst other fashion and lifestyle publications. They also specialize in weddings from large scale and luxury to more intimate events.

Sustainability and ethics are of high priority to Pyrus Botanicals. They source flowers from small specialist farms across Britain to reduce their environmental impact and support local businesses rather than importing from floral industry the giants such as Kenya, Colombia and the Netherlands.

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best examples of biophilic design in residential interiors

O Lofos Villa by Blok 722, Greece

organic interior design example

Built on the foothills of Thrypti mountain on the Greek island of Crete lies a hidden villa built with respect to its surroundings.

It is a 280m2 private residence on a sloping terrain. Instead of stairs to balance the natural elevation, a series of levels were created to allow ease of movement physically and visually throughout the space.

When creating this design, the architects pulled from a variety of structural backgrounds combining aspects of vistas from mountains, plains, and the Mediterranean Sea.

This allows it to fit cohesively within its natural setting. The vista has plentiful outdoor areas to promote healthy living.

With the site broken down into multiple smaller segments, movement through nature is encouraged in-between spaces, many of which are outdoors. The main division of the building is linked by a semi enclosed feature where the sounds of giggling water can be heard from a large water feature.

The materials used with the natural villa are largely wood and stone which bring the natural elements of biophilic interior design within its walls.

Painted with a palette of warm greys and beiges, neutral, earthy colors dominate the space. The villa was created with a desire for slow living. Its layout, structure, and divide was created to enhance the lifestyle of its occupants to promote healthy living. 

https://www.block722.com/o-lofos/

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Landmark Pinnacle, London, UK

example biophilic design indoor garden

Rising up above the London skyline as the city’s tallest residential tower, the Landmark Pinnacle was completed in 2022 by architects and interior designers Squire & Partners for developer Chalegrove Properties and Farrer Huxley Associates (FHA) Landscape Architects.

This residential complex has views westward of the River Thames and eastward of the docks of the Thames Barrier. These natural vistas are complemented with an earthy, soothing interior palette of blues, beiges, tans, whites and browns.

Biophilic elements of design such as potted plants, dried flowers and stones ornament the building tying it back to the natural environment. Taking a step further into nature, a floor is dedicated to pulling its occupants out of the cityscape.

Residing on the 27th floor of the building, a residential tropical garden brings the outside world in with a carefully curated collection of plants and indoor trees, the space is perfect for watching the sun rise or set as natural light shoots through the open elaborate floor of plants.

There are spaces for lounging and for relaxation. This encourages the residents to escape the intensity of nearby Canary Wharf in order to appreciate their own private slice of nature high up in the sky.

https://landmarkpinnacle.com/

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Pantheon Estate, Mykonos by Nikos Adrianopoulos

example organic interiors

A renovation by architect Nikos Adrianopoulos of a residence in Mykonos, Greece, transformed an existing villa into a luxury abode with subtle influences from both organic interior design and nature-inspired biophilic design.

Built upon a cliff, the villa has impressive views of the old city harbor and the Aegean Sea. Essential to its design process was the unification of internal and external space. Large outdoor areas accompany the indoors encouraging movement from each space.

The outdoor areas have natural views of the landscape from a sky porch with no railings ensuring not to block the breathtaking views of the area. Accompanying this, biophilic design in the exteriors ensures a smooth transition between the building and its surrounding landscape. Curvilinear furniture such as chairs, large couches, and tables are placed purposefully, making use of premium fabrics, a minimalist colour palette and textured patterns.

The view from an organically shaped pool provides picture perfect views of the sea on the horizon while an outdoor gym provides a complete set of workout equipment such as a squat rack,weights and cardio machines. Stone walls, wooden floors, and a transparent plant-based ceiling that lets small slices of light into the gym's training floor.

Moving indoors, the interior design is a harmonious selection of neutral colors - tans, whites, browns, beiges, and blacks. Curvilinear architecture brings nature’s mark inside through arches and curved organically falling countertops.

Examples of biophilic interior design are present in the woven light fixtures, stone sinks, and stone tile. One of the key elements of design within the space was created from the bare rock that the structure was built upon through open rock walls. Bare rock walls are exposed within the sunroom and bathroom, among other spaces.

Painted white bare rock walls create a wonderful natural space within a shower and sauna. Bringing nature further within the walls quarters, wood beams expand across many of the villa ceilings. The space is adorned with artwork of driftwood and curvilinear, undefined sculpture work. This renovation transformed the space into an interconnected body with its natural environment.

https://www.nikosadrianopoulos.com/projects/pantheon-residence-mykonos

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The Eden, Singapore

example of multi-family residential biophilic architecture

The Eden is a private residential building located in Singapore designed by Heatherwick Studio.

From its exterior facade the key principle of biophilic design in building architecture is hard to miss - a cascading central spine of flora created by a series of balcony gardens.

Each apartment is one floor of the building fitted with its own ‘eco-balcony’.

Clam shaped in structure, they each hold sufficient soil for over 20 different species of plant life to thrive in the humid Singaporean climate.

Each sky garden is alternated giving double the height to the outdoor space.

The garden above provides a necessary shade from the hot Singapore sun and a view of plant life hanging down from above. Walking out into these spaces is like walking into your own personal jungle.

Each apartment taking an entire floor also creates opportunities for natural cross ventilation, a low-energy and altogether more pleasant experience than 24/7 air conditioning, at least as an option should owners want it!

The entire ground floor is a heavily planted garden with nooks for relaxation. The pool is lined with an array of flora to one side. Walking into the lobby with 18 meter high ceilings, plant ‘chandeliers’ hang from above helping to decorate the room but creating moments of visual intrigue and wonder too.

https://www.heatherwick.com/projects/buildings/eden/

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Casa Cerros Madrid

example of single family residential biophilic architecture

Located in the hills of Madrid, the Casa Cerros estate was renovated into a. sustainable villa with subtle traces of biophilic design that uses compact space to its maximum potential.

Located in what can be a cool climate, the villa was constructed to amplify heat and sunlight.

With a narrow south facing facade, the team at sustainable architecture studio SLOW in Barcelona had to effectively use the space to pull in as much natural light as possible.

This was executed by lifting the roof creating room for the addition of skylights and additional openings to the south through biophilic design architecture.

Amplifying the introduction of light and solar heat into the south side of the building also affected the placement of rooms within the home.

On the lighter south facing side, the most used spaces were constructed including the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

Within the North facing side of the building, the bathrooms, office, and machine room are housed. Double brick walls with insulation in between allow for heat conservation while also allowing for open brick accent walls with texture of thickness and grooves.

The residents particularly requested a fireplace so a thermo stove was installed to further conserve heat. When the fireplace is running it heats the hot water tank and heating system.

The whole building is unified through a cabin like aesthetic with a large incorporation of wooden walls, ceiling, and furniture. The villa acts as a compact, warm, rustic yet nature-inspired space for a family to enjoy the comfort of home without losing contact with the environment around them.

https://www.slowstudio.es/arquitectura/casa-cerros-madrid

Biophilic Architects: Architecture Studios for Biophilic Design — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

our overview of the leading architecture studios for biophilic architecture that bring the outside world in, combining sustainability and wellbeing in real estate.

• Batlleiroig, Spain

• Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Denmark

• CookFox, USA

• GG Loop, NL

• Heatherwick Studio, UK

• K Studio, Greece

• Kengo Kuma & Associates, Japan

• M Moser, China

• Nomadic Resorts, SA & NL

• Stefano Boeri Architetti, Italy

• United Network Studio, Netherlands

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Oficinas Lumen, Barcelona

Founded in 1981 by Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, the Barcelona-based architecture studio Batlleiroig is all about tackling the climate emergency through a synergistic fusion of city and nature in the built environment.

The practice combines urban planning, landscaping and architecture, with recent projects showing a clear tendency towards biophilic design, sustainable real estate and occupantwellbeing in particular, often through the lens of greater contact with nature.

With over 140 staff members, this is one of the most influential architecture studios in Barcelona, and indeed Spain. They caught our attention for their ambitious plans for the LaMercedes urban regeneration development by Conren Tramway as well as the Net Zero Emissions Entegra office building, both in our home city of Barcelona.

Going beyond merely ‘sustainable’, Batlleiroig design buildings and indeed precincts that incorporate natural elements and have a deep respect for the advantages of using nature in real estate, be that through materials, plants, aesthetics or environmental protection measures. They emphasize the use of natural materials like wood, bamboo, and stone, all of which adds up to a lightness of touch and an undeniable ‘joie de vivre’ in many of their projects.

https://www.batlleiroig.com

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Bjarke Ingels Group, Denmark - starchitects and biophilic designers

BIG hardly need any introduction nowadays thanks to their attention-grabbing, headline-worthy approach to architecture. Their recent completion in Singapore, the 280m tall biophilic CapitaSpring tower (see image above) that proposes a new type of vertical urbanism, is just one of countless such examples.

The studio completed its first hotel project in September 2022, the Hôtel des Horlogers for Audemars Piguet in the Swiss Vallée de Joux, the design here blurs the boundaries between the surrounding landscape and the contours of the building, creating spaces that seamlessly integrate the indoors and outdoors, a nod to biophilic architecture if ever there was one.

Their 49,000m2 Sluishuis project outskirts of Amsterdam, has been billed as a ‘floating’ neighborhood with public roofscapes and riverwalks that offers a residential vision of life over water, a form of ‘blue nature’ (as opposed to ‘green nature’ in forests and parks)

https://big.dk/#projects

CookFox StJohn’s Terminal, Google building

CookFox, USA - nature inspired architecture

CookFox are a giant in the world of “integrated, environmentally responsive architecture” as they call it. They are also world-class biophilic architects, leading the way in integrating biophilia into residences and workplaces.

From their base in New York they leverage two decades of experience and a 130+ strong workforce to deliver projects that aim to “elevate the human condition and urban environment through beautiful, innovative, and sustainable design”.

Calling cards include the 2.2 million sq ft One Bryant Park tower, the first skyscraper in the world to achieve platinum LEED certification, and the forthcoming 1.3 million sq ft Google office tower in Manhattan called the St. John’s Tower.

As a studio, they have also made a name for themselves designing offices for healthy building powerhouses such as the International WELL Building Institute headquarters and Skanska headquarters, both in New York.

https://cookfox.com/

GG Loop, Netherlands - creative biophilic designers

The architectural and design firm, GG-loop, is a biophilic design inspired creative team in the Netherlands. The team of about 20 has been together since the beginning of the practice in 2014 and rally around the cause of architecture deepening the connection between people and nature through biophilic design.

Recent large-scale projects include Echinoidea, a pavilion in Milan, and Freebooter, a residential development in Amsterdam.

The studio's vision is to raise awareness on the importance of biophilic architecture to both professionals and the general public to fight the current climate condition.

https://gg-loop.com/

Heatherwick Studio, UK - biophilic design experts in London

Thomas Heatherwick’s eponymous studio is an architectural design practice and workshop in London, UK.

Their key concepts are improving lives through the built environment, especially through slow living and a connection with nature in urban environments thanks to biophilic design.

The team of over 200 have a strong stance on sustainability, the integration of nature, and a sprinkle of magic dust aimed at sparking a reaction of delight.

Recent large scale projects include 1000 Trees in Shanghai, China and the Eden in Singapore as well as collaborations with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) on the Google Campus in London.

https://www.heatherwick.com/

K Studio, Greece - designers working with biophilia

Based in Central Athens, the K Studio is a practice of 60+ designers that has evolved a unique, nature-infused aesthetic that fits neatly into the category of biophilic design, without being defined or limited by it in any way.

From the bohemian chic of Scorpios on Mykonos island (see pic above) to more minimalist villas, and the Casa Cook resort properties around Greece, their range is impressive for a modestly sized studio.

Greek culture and a sense of place remain a constant in their architectural and design output, meaning they dial up materiality, keeping things pure and elemental whenever possible, yet always with a touch of nature.

Recent large-scale projects include the Marina Kaplankaya and the refurbishment of the Mykonos airport, suggesting they are on their way to becoming one of the country’s leading design studios with a bright future ahead.

https://www.k-studio.gr/projects/

Kengo Kuma architects, Japan - one of the world’s leading biophilic architects

Kengo Kuma & Architects (KKAA) have offices in Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Paris. With over 170 staff and over 360 projects completed, today they are one of the most significant modern architects not just in Japan but on the global design stage.

The team explores the relationship between buildings, nature, humans and technology, and incorporates natural elements into their designs. This approach, combined with a strong emotional component and undeniable influences from Japan, aims to provoke a serene, harmonious state of mind in occupants and visitors.

Projects are currently underway in a plethora of different countries covering use categories as diverse as museums, restaurants, offices, education, exhibitions, residential, factories and hospitals. A few highlights include the biophilic mixed-use development Welcome Milano in Milan, Italy (shown above).

https://kkaa.co.jp/en/selected-projects/

M Moser & Associates, China - biophilic office design experts

M Moser & Associates is a global firm with over 1000 employees, they are workplace design specialists and maintain a number of ‘Living Labs’ where they experiment with new design solutions before introducing them into their projects for clients.

The team have a strong stance on sustainability, meaning they combine biophilic design in their architecture and interiors as a way to promote occupant wellbeing whilst also keeping one eye on reducing their impact in every way possible.

Recent projects of reference include Shui On WorkX, a biophilic office space in Shanghai, the Dyson Global HQ in Singapore, Nestle offices in Jakarta and the Diageo offices in Shanghai.

https://www.mmoser.com/about/

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Nomadic Resorts, eco architects in South Africa, mauritius and Netherlands

Nomadic Resorts defy most conventions and definitions. They span across a range of disciplines, from masterplanning of entire nature-inspired resorts, to architectural design with biophilic influences, botanical landscape design and interiors.

Via offices in the Netherlands, South Africa and Mauritius they deliver projects with a sustainable edge, each inspired by their location, landscape and natural context.

Their expertise covers bamboo construction as well as treetop living, tented camps and avant-garde resort concepts that push the boundaries of how far sustainable resorts can push the concept of environmentally friendly hospitality. They are committed to sustainable development and fulfilling the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

By incorporating concepts such as low carbon engineering, regenerative landscaping and permaculture, they bridge the worlds of eco tourism, green building sustainable design. Their client list includes giants such as Six Senses Resorts and Spas; Soneva Group; Banyan Tree and &Beyond.

https://nomadicresorts.com/

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Stefano Boeri Architetti - designers of the bosco verticale vertical forest

Defining this architecture studio as the designers behind the Bosco Vertical vertical forest building in Milan, Italy is to put this multi-faceted team in a box that they outgrew many moons ago. In fact they are an international operation with offices in Milan, Shanghai and Tirana (Albania) from where they deliver research and practice in urbaism and architecture.

With over 20 years of experience, the infamous tower did at least help solidify their reputation as leading thinkers on urban sustainability and biodiversity, as well as social housing, urban development and regeneration projects.

Their multi-disciplinary approach engages with landscape architects, engineers, social scientists and agronomists showing that biophilic design can and should engage a wide variety of experts in order to succeed at scale in urban regeneration for example.

Present in the PRC since 2014 their office in Shanghai has delivered projects such as the renovation of the former Shanghai Stock Exchange and with the Nanjing Vertical Forest - the first Vertical Forest in China - current in construction.

Their Tirana office meanwhile is responsible for developing the General Local Plan and the strategic vision of the city, known as “Tirana 2030”.

Other assignments include the masterplan of Doha’s New Port and the development of the “triangle of Maspero”, a complex of towers and public facilities along the Nile waterfront, in downtown Cairo.

https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/

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UNStudio - architects and urbanists big on sustainability

With offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai and Melbourne totaling over 300 employees, UNStudio is now a full-service architecture and design powerhouse.

Founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, they now deliver architecture, interior architecture, product design, urban development and infrastructural projects around the world.

UNStudio see themselves as having to anticipate the future, in particular in terms of sustainability and their environmental impact. They consider social and ecological sustainability upfront while aiming for what they call ‘attainable design’ - projects that are both financially and socially feasible. Their commitment to sustainable architecture is evident in their projects, which incorporate innovative design features and sustainable practices.

Major projects of note include the Erasmus Bridge, Arnhem Central Station, the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the Doha Metro Network, Raffles City Hangzhou and the Hanwha HQ Remodelling.

https://www.unstudio.com/

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Best Examples of Biophilic Design Office: Sustainable Interior — Biofilico Wellness Interiors

best examples of Biophilic design in offices

Benefits of biophilia in a sustainable office interior

Biophilia is deep rooted within the human consciousness. A positive psychological affiliation with nature is a key element of human happiness that is all too often neglected in buildings and interiors today but the recent boom in biophilic design, sustainable interiorswellbeing design is redressing the situation.

Biophilic design elements can have a positive impact on employees’ physical and mental health. Incorporating biophilic design into the office environment can significantly enhance employee well-being and productivity. The use of natural elements, natural lighting, and greenery improves air quality, reduces stress, boosts happiness, and increases relaxation, ultimately leading to higher levels of productivity and job satisfaction.

When designing an office space or workspace, from our perspective as biophilic design consultants it is fundamental to create an interior in which occupant wellbeing is maximized while also minimizing environmental impact - a magic combination made possible by biophilic design.

Why is this important? The best office designs provide a way to increase employee happiness and productivity, reduce anxiety in the workplace and attract then retain top talent while respecting the planet around us - it should not be ‘people first, planet later’, or vice versa.

Here we review some recently completed or soon-to-be-completed examples of biophilic design and sustainable interior design offices from around the world that have caught our attention for their aesthetics, creativity and evidence-based approach that pushes the boundaries well beyond a plant wall and some desk plants…! Read on for more office design ideas.

• Citibank Wealth Management offices, Singapore

• Shui On WorkX,* Shanghai by M Moser & Associates*

• Welcome, Milano* by Kengo Kuma Architects for real estate developer Europa Risorse*

• Fosbury & Sons Harmony Coworking, Antwerp, Belgium

• Uncommon Coworking Holborn, London, UK

• Andyrahman Architect Office, East Java, Indonesia

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CitiBank Wealth Hub, Private Wealth Management Offices, Singapore

Designed by Singapore-based Ministry of Design, the increasingly famous biophilic interior designers, the CitiBank Wealth Hub looks more akin to a Silicon Valley tech giant’s headquarters than a banking space… but then this is Singapore, the garden city, and CitiBank clearly wanted to make a statement.

The result is a rare blend of banking and biophilia, with dense indoor landscaping that breaks up the double-height loft-like space with expansive views of the city skyline and abundant natural light to keep the indoor forest flourishing.

Rather than creating internal walls, the main space is peppered with separate meeting pods for one-on-one client meetings, each surrounded by an individual soil bed packed with lush foliage that both purifies the air and provides additional privacy, whilst also helping to boost mood and reduce anxiety. For more on the benefits of biophilia, see here.

A deliberately sumptuous range of materials choices from reception through to the ‘feature’ bar’ and office areas ensures that the private banking clients feel at ease. We see plenty of prestigious marbles, wood cladding, ergonomic furniture, subtle overhead lighting and yet more indoor planter boxes loaded with greenery.

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Shui On WorkX - biophilic offices by M Moser associates, Shanghai

As you walk through the front doors of the Shui On WorkX realistate office located in Shanghai, the presence of biophilia is immediately prominent.

Plants line a welcoming corridor and the large design of a sun illuminates an otherwise drab sidewalk.

Biophilic design fills each and every corner of the large building located deep within the industrialized, busy urban environment of Shanghai.

The reception protrudes down from the ceiling with diverse plants falling from a curvilinear, organic form. Living walls are incorporated to bring nature into the workspace, enhancing well-being and encouraging interaction among employees.

A natural color scheme fills each room with a pallet of greens, tan-browns, and stone-grays. It’s illuminated by walls of large windows filling the space with natural light. This light gives the vegetation a perfect place to flourish. The office is not only lined with small house plants, but entire living trees and moss floors.

Biophilic interior design elements embellish the office with leaf shaped lamps, stump shaped stools, large boulders, and a digital waterfall cascading down from a high ceiling. The elements of nature are brought into the interior space with sophistication and intention creating a masterful, biophilic space.

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Welcome, Milano by kengo kuma associates - the biophilic office of the future

We have watched the development of this ambitious biophilic office park development by the Milano-based real estate developer Seagreen with great interest, not just for its commitment to nature but also for the role of the lead architects, Kengo Kuma Associates, without doubt one of the most consistently impressive design firms in operation today and increasingly famous sustainable interior designers. This project aims to seamlessly integrate the natural world into the built environment, creating a harmonious and sustainable office space.

Made up of 43,500m2 of healthybiophilic offices, 2700m2 of co-working space, 1100m2 of meeting spaces, 2000m2 of food & beverage spaces and 1800m2 of commercial spaces, it looks set to make a tangible impact on Milano’s office landscape.

Solar panels on the rooftop, pocket parks and open-air courtyards, terrace greenery and a 360m2 bioclimatic greenhouse will all ensure a constant connection between the office-worker and nature within the built environment.

Where the Welcome project truly distinguishes itself is in making the connection between biophilia, sustainability and real estate ESG objectives - it may seem obvious but a building that goes out of its way to integrate nature through its architecture and interiors, only to harm nature by using materials that harm the planet in their extraction, manufacturing or transportation to the site would make very little sense at all.

As such, the project espouses both ‘organic architecture’ and people-centric design.

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Biophilic interiors with natural elements at Fosbury & Sons Harmony Coworking, Antwerp, Belgium

In Antwerp, Belgium, a modernist cathedral was stripped down to its concrete bones and rebirthed into what we believe to be an aesthetic marvel of an office that displays subtle influences from the world of biophilic design.

Is it 100%, declaredly nature-inspired? Probably not but it perhaps represents how such organic interior design cues have become a part of our interior design canon in recent years.

Towering six meter high windows line the building illuminating the main, open workspace. Outside of these windows, there is a natural view of King Albert Park - in green and healthy building standards such as the WELL certification and LEED green building standard such views onto nature are rewarded with credits in the final scorecard for their restorative powers on potentially anxious, stressed out office workers.

Areas designed for different settings of productivity, relaxation, and collaboration are incorporated to make the space a healthy office design that is versatile for its patrons. Most furniture is wooden and wooden artworks suspended from the ceiling bring natural elements into the space, helping to frame the experience from floor to ceiling.

The use of natural materials, including sustainable wood and indoor plant walls, further enhances the biophilic design of the Fosbury & Sons Harmony Coworking space.

A large amount of the furniture is vintage making it inherently sustainable. Biophilic elements such as lush greenery, oval shaped windows, and leafless branches adorn the environment.

Overall this a prime example of how an existing building can be diligently restored and converted into a design-oriented coworking environment that gently, almost imperceptibly brings the outdoor space in to create a calm, uplifting environment for productivity. Chapeaux Fosbury & Sons!

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Biophilia at Uncommon Coworking Holborn, London, UK

Uncommon adopted biophilic design into their DNA early on and have consistently delivered interior spaces that overflow with organic design details and living plants - their forthcoming site in central London’s Holborn district looks set to push the boundaries even further in that direction.

We previously interviewed Uncommon’s CEO for our Green & Healthy Places podcast -listen to that episode here.

Scheduled to open in 2023. Located just outside the city bustle of London, the center is sustainably designed for its members to work and thrive within.

The green building, sustainable design has declared three main objectives: Reduce their emissions, achieve net zero, and be carbon negative.

If these objectives are achieved, the coworking space would be one of the first of its kind to achieve a positive environmental impact.

The execution of these plans to realistically obtain their goals is a holistic strategy of the reduction of waste, use, and purchase. Waste reduction includes proper and safe disposal alongside the maximization of reuse and recycling. Use reduction will be executed through regulated energy and water usage.

Finally, purchase reduction will be minimized through expending fewer consumables and purchasing sustainable consumables to ensure a reduction of single use items.

The Holborn coworking environment will be a biophillic space filled with an abundance of plants from floor to ceiling that is created with organic, environmentally friendly materials, and filled with sustainable items. It is the sustainable, biophillic coworking space of the future. The biophilic design also aims to improve air quality by purifying the air, reducing indoor pollutants, and controlling humidity, which contributes to better physical health and mental well-being for its members.

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Andyrahman Architect Office, Indonesia - an example of biophilic office design

In Sidoarjo, Indonesia an architecture office was created with the wellness of their employees as the top priority. The biophilic office design was brought to life with nature around every corner.

The Andyrahman Architect Office also features green walls, adding a dynamic and inviting element to the workspace.

A living garden filled with plants ranging from grasses to hard wood trees is centered within the first floor of the structure creating a view of greenery for all.

Alongside this, a koi pond gurgles with the natural sounds of flowing water. On the second floor of the building resides a movable, breathing wall.

Using a local weaving technique, the bamboo walls allows for the transparency of light and air. It can be opened completely to the outside world.

This truly biophilic office gives workers nooks of relaxation and community such as the rooftop social area for employees to engage in conversation and relaxation in the open air.

Summary

Through these diverse examples of office biophilic design, we can see the tangible aspects of biophilia at work, visually, but we have also tried to highlight the intangible psycho-emotional responses these environments evoke in building occupants. the intangible is paramount.

The nature of biophillic office design is founded within the happiness and wellbeing of those who spend time there, while also respecting the environment with sustainable materials. Ultimately, such tangible connections with nature boost quality of life and work.

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Further Reading

• healthy coworking offices

• home office desk and ergonomic furniture

• What Are Sustainable Office Buildings?

• The Best New Green & Healthy Office Buildings In Barcelona, Spain

• Sustainability Strategy & Sustainable Design Consultants

• Sustainable Office Space - Make Your Office More Eco-Friendly

• What Are The Benefits Of Healthy Coworking Space Designs?

• Coworking Space Design - A Secret To Productive Coworking Space

• A Guide To Biophilic Design In Offices & Coworking Spaces

• Posts Tagged Sustainable Design

• Biophilic Design For People, Planet And Profit

• Benefits Of Biophilic Design On Cognitive Performance In The Workplace

• Nature In The Office Workplace

• Benefits Of Biophilic Design - Why Is It Good For You?

• Free E-Book: Benefits Of Biophilic Design In Offices & Coworking Spaces

• Becoming A Biophilic Design And Healthy Building Consultant

• An Introduction To Biophilic Design - Nature, Wellbeing And Sustainability

• About Us

• What Are Biophilia And Biophilic Design?

• Biophilic Design In The Well Building Standard

• Best Architecture Studios For Biophilic Design

• 5 Best Examples Of Biophilic Design

• Best Examples Of Biophilic Commercial Developments

• Wellness Interior Design Consultants

• Homepage

• A Guide To Workplace Wellbeing Design

• How To Know If Your Workplace Fits The Wellness Office Concept

• Furniture In Workplace Wellness Interior Design: The Ultimate Guide To Choosing Ergonomic Office Furniture

• Sustainable Design Consultants

• An Introduction To Biophilic Design In Sustainable Buildings

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Wellbeing Gardens and Biophilia with Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Welcome to the Green and Healthy Places podcast, in which we explore the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and interiors today.

I'm your host, Matt Morley, founder of Biofilico healthy buildings and in this episode is episode (50) I'm in the UK talking to Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui, a wellbeing Fellow at the Royal Horticultural Society. The RHS is the UK's leading gardening charity.

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui completed her PhD at Sheffield University where she conducted research on how domestic gardens can support physical and mental health via exposure to plants and wildlife. So if you're a regular listener to the podcast, you'll see the angle of where our conversation might go connecting gardens with biophilic design in interiors and buildings.

Our discussion covers topics as diverse as

• wellbeing gardens, also known as healing gardens

• planet friendly low environmental impact gardening

• environmental psychology as it relates to gardens

• the emotional, physical, and even social benefits of gardening and generally tending to plants

• the benefits of biophilia for our microbiota via direct exposure to soil and earth

• her forthcoming research publication on the role a garden’s colors and scents can play in creating a positive impact on human health and wellbeing.

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Matt Morley

Thank you so much for being here with us today. I'd really love to start with a an initial question on the concept of environmental horticulture, which is your area of expertise. Could you give us a brief intro to that?

environmental horticulture

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Yeah. Hi, Matt. Thanks a lot for having me. So I'm a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Horticultural Society under the University of Sheffield. And I'm physically based in Wisley, in the hilltop home of gardening science, and I'm in the environmental horticulture team.

So we're primarily primarily concerned with improving our understanding of the interactions between soil, plants, water, and people. This includes carbon, water and nutrient cycles for both outdoors and indoor plants, and how they're impacted by people, of course, as well as the impacts of gardens and gardening on human health and wellbeing. All of these functions are interconnected. And that's why the word ‘environment’. And of course, as I'm sure you'll know, it's all in the context of accelerated urbanization and land use change the biodiversity and climate crises.

We're having more frequent extremes of temperatures and precipitation, which then has the knock on effects on climate on the hydrological cycle and biodiversity on soil health. And our environmental horticulture team is composed of different specialists in these areas.

So we've got horticultural scientists, the soil and climate change scientist, water scientist and fellows like me on tree traits and ecosystem services, for example, in sustainability, of course, research technicians as well. So our primary question in all of that is about the practical interventions that gardeners can apply to reduce their gardening footprint and then also improve environmental health and human wellbeing.

Biophilic design

Matt Morley

It strikes me that there's a parallel between the work you're doing, which is very much academically driven around these outdoor spaces, and biophilic design - some of the principles that apply to my world in terms of creating greener and healthier buildings, where we're constantly balancing those twin demands around our impact on the environment, and the potential positive or indeed negative impacts on the occupants of a building.

You mentioned, climate change. I know it's not perhaps your first specialism but just give us a very broad intro to sustainable gardening, how can gardening be anything but sustainable?

Sustainable gardens

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Right, so I think in terms of a garden sustainability is very much about environmental resilience, whether that's indoors or outdoors. And there's many ways in which we can actually have a negative footprint, if you will. So if you're using peat based compost, for example, that is depleting peat bogs, which are a very important ecosystem and also a carbon store. So it really depends on the practices. And there are so many different ways of garden gardening.

When we think about surface area, we might think that oh, domestic gardens, for example, are quite small and won't necessarily have a big impact. But residential gardens comprise about 30% of Great Britain's total urban area while the total area of UK domestic gardens is about 700,000 hectares, which is equivalent to more than 90,000 football pitches. So it's quite a large area.

Carbon sequestering trees

One positive thing for example a gardener can do is to plant a tree, in their garden or community or school or wherever. And if every gardener did that we would be storing huge amounts of carbon. But one further thing to think about when we think about environmental horticulture, again, is that we shouldn't necessarily just plant a certain tree because it's sequester is more carbon, because we would loose diversity if we planted the same tree. And the goals of a garden are different for example, the goals of a woodland or an agricultural patch.

We're operating on different timescales. So in a timber woodland, you might want to plant a tree that sequesters more carbon in that shorter timescale before it gets cut down. But in a garden, you're probably not anticipating to cut down your tree within the next 10 years. So you might want to choose a tree that encourages that slow growth and sequester carbon over time and storing it in the tree.

Water efficiency for sustainability

Then there are water practices. So whether you are irrigating your garden from mains water will be very different to if you are harvesting rainwater, creating permeable as much permeable surface area and just different practices of how you water, how you feed your soil. There's definitely lots of scope that any gardener can do in their home and for us at the RHS how we can influence the horticultural industry, the government and how we can promote these different, more sustainable behaviors. And then, of course, we have our own gardens that, you know, we have our own operations that are going in here. So we're also trying to improve that.

sustainable green buildings

Matt Morley

Great, okay, so you've brought up a couple of things there. I think the one point that just occurred to me as I was listening to you is very much same principles, when we look at, say, putting in a green roof on a, on a building as part of a sustainable real estate plan.

You know, we're trying to achieve many of the same outputs that you've you've just described and also deal with many of the same issues around for example, irrigation and how rainwater collection can just effectively reduce overall water consumption and lower irrigation systems and shear escaping and things like that.

wellbeing gardens

You mentioned the RHS and its role so for those who are perhaps not familiar with it, or anyone listening from outside of the UK, we're Royal Horticultural Society, what is the overall aim you're obviously specialists in Wellbeing within the health and planetary aspect of the Environmental Horticulture team, but the RHS itself? How does your team fit into the wider picture? And what are the aims and objectives of your teamwork over the course of a year?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Right. So the Royal Horticultural Society is the UK is largest gardening charity. And so it's, it's all about that horticultural knowledge. So we have an advisory service members can call in and ask questions. It's about inspiring people to, you know, do the best and their guidance. And it's about promoting that horticultural industry as well. And within our team, it's very much the science so the evidence base for this for for all of this the different initiatives, we've also got a community outreach team, for example, who work in areas that may not have that safe and quality access to green spaces.

planet friendly gardening

One of the campaigns at the moment is a planet friendly gardening campaign. So this is exactly the kinds of things that we're talking about. And the aim of that is to help gardeners make the most of the physical and emotional benefits of gardening both for the planet And for ourselves? What was the next part of your question?

healing gardens

Matt Morley

So you mentioned? Well, you, you've just tied them both in next you mentioned the emotional benefits of gardening. And you also mentioned that the IHS had been working on some of his own gardens. And doing some research for our conversation, I saw that I think it was four of these sort of health and wellbeing gardens going up. So let's dig into that a little bit. So the emotional benefits from your evidence based perspective, like, how do you quantify those? How do you provide evidence for them? And what are the sort of broad buckets in terms of those emotional benefits? We're presumably talking more about mental health and well being?

biophilia for mental wellbeing

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Yes, so there is a wealth of evidence on the mental, but also the physical and the social health benefits of gardens and gardening. And this is it's a relatively new field in science, it started picking up in the 80s in the field of environmental psychology. So there is an and it's been growing ever since. And I think the COVID pandemic, one thing that it has alerted us, other than, of course, you know, medical infections, is the importance of green spaces.

Biophilia research

So I think it's really picked up. Most people now understand this, if you tell them about the mental health impacts of a garden, they're not going to look at you like you're crazy. So I think that it's really been building but in the 80s, one of the first studies was by an environmental psychologist called Roger Ulrich, and he had a sort of natural experiment where he was looking at patients recovering from gallbladder surgery.

In the hospital, one wing of the hospital had a view of trees, the other wing of the hospital, the windows had a view of a brick wall, and other buildings. And he saw that the people who were having rooms with a view of the trees were recovering a couple of days faster and being discharged a couple of days earlier than the patients with the view of the brick wall. They were requiring less painkillers, and they were less grumpy with the nurses. So that that was the real seminal studies.

Since then, there have been theories that have been proposed. So the likes of attention restoration theory by Stephen and Rachel Kaplan stress reduction theory which was developed by the same Roger Ulrich. And I started this research with my PhD in 2016. And really, in these past five, six years, it's it's really grown a lot to the wealth of evidence on mental physical and social health.

So for example, the things we can really look at are symptoms of depression, anxiety, so that's been shown to be reduced with gardening. There you can also look at pleasant and unpleasant emotions and the frequency of them. You can look at mental health during the COVID lockdowns for example, they've been quite extreme scenarios, but quite common scenarios now for many of us, we can look at general scales of well being we can look at reported stress, feminine.

Physiological benefits of biophilia

So that's a self reported psychological perspective. But we can also look at physiological stress regulation. So one of my studies, for example, looked at cortisol, which is the body's main stress hormone. And I found that the presence of plants and small front gardens did actually have an impact on the residents cortisol patterns on the daily basis.

So there's all sorts of things you can there's also in terms of physical health, you can look at positive habits forming around diets and physical exercise, there have been studies showing that greener spaces are more likely to encourage active travel, so such as walking and bicycling, for example.

Green exercise in the garden

Gardening regularly also has been shown to reduce the risk of fracture. So like limb fractures, and it's it's an adaptive form of physical exercise. So as one grows older, and perhaps physical abilities change, it is an activity that one can keep up with, as opposed to maybe running that is not as adaptive. And we're learning more and more about the importance of exposure to microbial diversity. So that's through soil and vegetation, small microbiota, very small organisms that are found on the skin and in our gut depending on what we eat, and that will have a knock on impact on our immune system.

social health benefits from gardening

Finally, social health, which does often get forgotten is linked to things like a sense of community, a sense of belonging in one's area, making friends, feeling feeling connected with the world around us. And that will have a knock on impact on our sense of self esteem and creativity and having, you know, a kind of meaningful occupation to do. So there's, there's lots of things, really, and it's only growing. Of course, each of these studies are done in particular context of particular populations. So there's always more to do.

Biophilic design research studies

Matt Morley

The thank you for that. It's, it's so interesting to see the crossover, you know, that Ulrich study, which I think was in sort of the early 80s. And not that much seems to have been done since then, if I'm honest, we all go back to that one study of X number of patients in a hospital room, but even in the biophilic design space, it's really the seminal piece that we all refer to, and then again, into the sort of the ATR and that are SRT studies, or concepts and theories biophilic design.

What I'm seeing is that it has much more of a passive component, I think what's coming through from what you've just said, is there's this active piece. And I think the key word, there might be gardening, rather than just exposure to plants in nature.

So I often think about that in terms of forest bathing, where there is an element of engagement with nature. And I think with gardening, you're taking it a level further, because you're then prompting exposure to the plants and therefore tapping into that sort of immune health microbiota. And then that social peace around community and engagement is immediately suggesting that perhaps a like a rooftop garden in a residential building, for example, or an office even would have far more or perhaps a wider application in terms of the physical benefits than just bumping up the number of air purifying plants in reception, for example, I think that's, it's a really striking piece of of, of insight that perhaps biophilic design, yeah, maybe struggled to get to, because it tends to be more about introducing these elements into a space and then accepting that people will just sort of passively take in their surroundings and, and hope for the best gardening is much more about engaging with the garden and, and playing an active role in it clearly, that's the main difference. Right?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Right. So there's two, the active and the passive engagement of the plants, you're absolutely right to, to draw those two as key differences. And of course, when you are gardening, you do have that added element of creativity of being able to shape the environment that's around you, which psychologically is very linked to to, to a feeling of control. And when we look at how that might be impacting, I mean, often a lot of the ills that we have, are often around uncertainty and lack of control.

So when someone can control something that will usually have quite a lot of benefits. However, I do disagree with you, but the more passive exposure to plants doesn't have much impact. And that is kind of negligible because there are more and more studies, including one of my own, that, even just that that passive exposure of having something nearby so whether that's in an office or in a home or just outside of the home, that very frequent access does have an impact on perceived stress on perceived well being but also on this cortisol patterns, which I mentioned earlier.

So I did a study that we we found the whole street, that garden, they had front gardens, so that the physical space between the House and the street or front yards if you're in North America, that were previously paved over and so I did an intervention where I added plants to them. And I studied the residents there of over the course of a year. And we found that before the interventions only intervention only 24% of the residents had this healthy diurnal cortisol pattern. So it healthy physiological stress regulation, and then after we added the plants this increase to 53%, suggesting that those individuals had better physiological stress regulation in their bodies, which probably had a link to their mental health.

Matt Morley

That was your four year research project with the University of Sheffield. Is that the one Yes,

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

most of those people were not actively taking care of. So they were to planters, with some ornamental plants in them. They were self watering containers. So that was a store of water underneath. So the participants barely even had to watch them. It was in Salford, where it rains a lot. Though for the vast majority of these people, there was no real active gardening engagement, but they still got those benefits.

Matt Morley

And you went with ornamental plants. Is that so what were the specifics of that we're looking for color. Do you think what you obviously went for what you would imagine would create the most positive benefits? Right? So is that about aesthetics? Is it about painting the rainbow with the flowers and the plants that are out there? Or what suggestions would you have in terms of trying to bring a little bit of that in?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Sure. So interestingly, in that experiment, I didn't go for what I thought would have the most benefits, I wanted to isolate as many factors as possible. So when you're doing a science experiment, I didn't want to kind of conflict I didn't want to put food for example, because then it could be argued that the people were having a higher well being because they were deriving other benefits, maybe having a cheaper food bill, if they were getting some harvests from it. I didn't want to go for anything to aromatic that might, you know, lift up spirits in other ways. I wanted to go for something not too exotic either, that would provide a huge novelty factor.

For example, I wanted to go with plants that are quite normal. So all found in regular garden centers and quite familiar to people. So we had a mix of some bedding plants, some shrubs and climbers. And the focus also was of course, the climatic conditions of of Salford, but something that was easy to know, maintenance and that self watering container. But yeah, I mean, we did go for something.

So we went for a kind of purple palette we had asked for. We had asked the residents beforehand if they had anything they particularly didn't want. But then beyond that, they were happy to go with anything. So they were Viola's petunias as alias clematis, then spring bulbs, so daffodils, snowdrops and practices. Yeah, so So quite a quite a familiar range of plants.

Matt Morley

And I know you recently were involved in the health and horticulture conference 2022, and your particular presentation, there was around research and community. So with those two, research a community, the city and the street. So were you there talking about that subject? And have you evolved or thinking since the end of the research projects? What were the sort of key messages you were communicating there to the audience?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Yeah, so the RHS, health and horticulture conference that was on the 17th and 18th of March was very much part of my own research agenda. Were going beyond the actual logistics of the research itself, we really do want to play that role in bringing people together. So one of the things we've found is that the horticulture industry itself doesn't necessarily fully recognize these health and wellbeing impacts and the evidence base for it.

And the health and social care sector as wide as I can cast that net doesn't necessarily have the skills and understandings to really have that Win Win effect. And then of course, around and associated that to that you've got professionals in urban planning and in the built environment, like yourself, and, and there's so much more.

So really, what we wanted to do was bring people together and share that knowledge and my own talk as as part of that was, yeah, so titled, research and community and that was really to tie in the importance of people in the development and the application of that research.

So how can we achieve the integration between science and and I mean, to call it outreach, but knowledge dissemination and sharing, and what I meant by the city and the street level, was because it refers to the scale at which physical, mental and social health often operate for individuals and for communities, especially when we're thinking about green and cultivated spaces and domestic gardens.

So for the average individual, their well being will be based on you know, to a certain extent their genetics and their lifestyle and things like that. Of course their family their Friends, but then in terms of a spatial scale, it will be the city and the street, their home, their workplace, their school.

And it the aim of the conference all together is to improve the recognition of gardens and gardening as that as a valuable public health asset and as a resource that can contribute to promoting better health for everyone, but also reducing that incidence of poor health that are generally well seemingly well population as well as for specific groups of people who might need more targeted interventions or more specific support to access safe green spaces.

Matt Morley

And from the outputs of the conference, and but also based on your own knowledge. When one thinks of, say, healing gardens in cancer care homes, for example, like in the Maggie's care centers, where they create gardens that are intended to be spaces for cancer patients to on some emotional level to heal. Is there a is there a playbook emerging in terms of the way to maximize the space to get the most out of it from a scientific perspective, in terms of those mental well being benefit mental and physical? Benefits? Are there key principles that are starting to become clear? Or is that still a work in progress?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

From the design element, I'd really recommend the work and the book of Claire Cooper Marcus, who has looked at therapeutic garden design, and she has based a lot of her findings on post occupancy evaluations. And it's it's really wonderful, she not only looks at the impacts on patients and their visitors, but also quite importantly, on the staff who are working at that hospitals who often do have quite tough frontline jobs.

Again, we've seen that even more with the pandemic. But actually, there's not yet any scientific evidence base. So I have a PhD student who's just been citing out doing a scoping review for exactly what you're saying. And looking at the scientific literature, she's not really found much that has any kind of quantitative evaluation of this. So it's all quite qualitative, subject to the designs, of course, in very different contexts, it can be relatively straightforward, I think, to spot a bad design, something that just isn't used by people, you might have a garden space that, you know, has metal benches in a hot climate.

So of course, nobody's going to sit there, that's very easy to pinpoint. But then, in terms of really leveraging and optimizing what we do know, that scientific approach isn't there yet. And that is the case for these kinds of hard features, let's say but also for plants. So the role of scent of color of symmetry, for example. And often in when you're looking at planting design handbooks, there isn't, there's often an approach that's based on choosing the plants for their function for the wider ecosystem. And then the last thing is kind of aesthetics and sensory properties. And of course, all three of them are very important.

But that last point, is generally just completely subjective. And based on personal taste of either the garden designer, or if they've done a sort of consultation, focus group with the with the future and potential users of the place. But there's not. Yeah, there's not yet that scientific approach. So that's what we'd really like to get to one of our goals at the RHS is to create an evidence based blueprint for wellbeing gardens, whether that is in a hospital context or a a residential context, the school context, the prison context, those kind of model to go on that is based on scientific evidence

Environmental Psychology

Matt Morley

which would then be so useful for various other sectors, including my own. That's what's I think, so powerful about the work that you're doing is that it can then be leveraged in other sectors too, because it has this sort of spillover effect. You mentioned. Color and scent. I know you've been doing your own research on that. It may be too early to, to speculate on the outcomes of it, but what's your initial hypothesis in terms of the role of color and scent on stress and well being from a garden context?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Yeah, so I've started doing some indoor experiments and we'll be doing outdoor ones as well to kind of have a multi pronged approach to understanding this. Essentially, what we've got outdoor for example, in the wizzley RHS Bisley garden in Surrey, we've got a wellbeing garden, which has been designed by Matt Keatley as a living laboratory. So it's got these different features, there is an area of running water for example, there is an area of Stillwater there's an area of plants and flowers that are deeper reds and oranges. And then an area that has more whites, pale pinks, pale yellows.

So the wellbeing garden there is, as I said, not based on any scientific conclusions, but it's based on scientific hypotheses. Um, and then it gives us the space to test them out. So one of the hypotheses for example, is the impact of color on an emotional responses to different colors. So in psychology and marketing, we know for example, that the color red can evoke certain different emotional responses. So be that power or anger or love. And often these kinds of things will be mediated, of course, by cultural and individual idiosyncratic experiences. But there's no research so far on whether those color stimuli, whether they have the same emotional responses when they're in a natural setting in a garden and on a plant.

And so one of the hypotheses following that psychological theory is that the reds and the warmer colors might be more arousing when we when in terms of arousing emotion, so they're the more active emotions, like excitement and invigoration. And anger as well is excited is an arousing emotion. And then when we look at the cooler colors, the whites, the pastels, the blues, whether they would be more calming. And of course, when I think often when we think of a well being garden, or a therapeutic garden, or a healing garden, or whatever you want to call it, I think most people automatically think of relaxation under lower stress.

But actually, that's not necessarily what we need. As humans, we don't want to just be relaxed all the time. And guidance can be a place for us to experience our full range of human emotions. So sometimes we want to be really stimulated. And so that's part of the design and whether that's through color that I've been talking about or a sense. So we know that sense, like rosemary, for example, there have been tests on rosemary essential oil that has increased alertness and cognitive attention.

aromatherapy for wellbeing design

So you know, if you do a little kind of little cognitive tests, people have scored higher when they've had some rosemary essential oil next to them versus without. So there are so many ways in which the planting palettes of a garden can influence and if you've got a space that can be, for example, divided into two areas very crudely, you can have one that is less arousing one one that is more arousing, and depending on how you as an individual are feeling that day, you can go and surround yourself in an environment that suits what you need, what you want, how you're feeling. And that will help you regulate your emotions in a in a healthy way, rather than suppressing anything.

Matt Morley

Well, if you can get to it, that type of insight would help anyone working in the biophilic design field to say create know how to adapt the interiors in a space, for example, in an office environment where perhaps it is more about cognitive performance and alertness and concentration productivity, versus, say a quiet room space within a large office, which was more about the end to that Yang.

So then about calming and restorative, because I think, yeah, we just don't have the scientific base basis for that. I think we're often doing it more on instinct. And I was going to close if I may, by a question on that, Rob, perhaps less instinct more on an angle around evolutionary psychology. I just wondered from your perspective, which is clearly science based.

evolutionary health perspective

Is there any room for an evolutionary psychology approach that says, well, perhaps some of what we're dealing with here is, is about as much as anything our genes, our history, our evolution on the planet in tune and connected with nature? Is there space for that? Or are you looking for hard facts only in the present day?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Really interesting question. So I think that at the end of the day, we are all the same species with Animals, you know, we have our habitat our habitat is increasingly for, for most people in the world, urban. And I don't personally, I kind of understand the very big dichotomy between urban manmade environments and nature when especially these are often contrasted.

But I think that what's important and what we as a as a kind of modern day human need is, is the balance and the integration of those two things. I think that often there can be a very easy over attribution to these evolutionary arguments, that we are a much more today we are much more mediated by our cultural experiences, whether that is nationality or race or gender, or just just past experiences that we've had as individuals. And I think that for most people, that will probably be the more important when we think about emotional reactions that often will kind of override any evolutionary aspects.

But I think that we certainly at the basic level, yes, we are, we are drawn to nature. But the question is, which kind of nature and and the you know, a tree is something that is very understandably, nature, a virus or pathogen less so. So I think, you know, sometimes we've got to, we've got to really understand what we're talking about. And sometimes it can be over generalized. So. Yeah, I mean, I think there is definitely an importance for that, for that science of understanding what it is, and what reactions are we finding? And the, the argument isn't, it doesn't always just go back to, you know, where did we evolve?

Matt Morley

It think that's critical. It's, it's too much of a, of a, an umbrella concept to just say, well, nature dominates nurture. So it's not about what we've learned, but it's about what we were born with in our DNA, and therefore, Biophilia is, is already proven, and we don't need to back it up. I think it's, we need, we need both, we need an understanding of the science that's proving that it's still present today. And that we are in fact, reacting as perhaps an evolutionary approach might suggest, we need to

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

definitely and I think we also need to understand our impact on nature. So things like sustainable practices, environmental, Pro Environmental behavior, things like that. I mean, they may sound quite small in the grand scheme of things, when you look at, you know, the huge tipping points of climate change and things like that. But ultimately, that integration, however much nature there is in your environment, you still depending on the water, you're still depending on the air, you're still depending on climate stability.

And we do need to understand our impacts on that and how it all ties in. And I think that's how just to go full circle back to the kind of Environmental Horticulture it's not. It's not just our well being versus a planetary natural, you know, very Green Planets everywhere. It's really about everything coming together and everything is interlinked and equally important.

Matt Morley

I think we should close on that. That's a big thought to wrap things up with thank you so much. Well, we'll leave a note. We'll leave a mention of the well being garden book by your colleague at the IHS, Professor Griffiths in the show notes, in terms of people connecting, showing support for the RHS, how can they follow along with the work that you're doing that?

Dr. Lauriane Chalmin-Pui

Well, we've got a oh, I can't remember the URL, you might have to link it. But we've got some we've got plenty of pages on our website that has links to all of this well being research. People, of course can contact me directly if there is a specific question or access to a specific paper or study in terms of more generally gardening inspiration for for example, small spaces, things like that.

The rest of the RHS website https://www.rhs.org.uk/ also has plenty of horticultural knowledge that is freely available. You don't have to be in the UK but of course it is probably more biased towards UK plants. And in terms of sustainable gardening practices, again, there's a wealth of tips and advice on the RHS website.

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FURTHER READING:

• World Green Building Council Health Wellbeing Framework

Benefits of Biophilic Design in Schools: From Nurseries to Universities — Wellness Design Consultants

Nurseries, schools and universities can leverage healthy building strategies to facilitate learning - here we cover the role of biophilic design, healthy materials, indoor air quality, light and restorative spaces

How can wellbeing design be used in schools?

The cultivation of a healthy learning environment goes well beyond curriculum, teaching staff, physical activity and the canteen menu - by implementing evidence-based design inspired by biophilia and healthybuildingprinciples, we can create educational spaces maximized for learning and happiness. Biophilic design can significantly improve emotional well-being by reducing stress levels and promoting overall mental health. Incorporating natural elements such as plants, water, and natural light into educational spaces is crucial for enhancing student performance and well-being.

How do we do this? By leveraging the latest thinking around healthy materials, indoor air quality, light and set pieces known as ‘restorative spaces‘.

Children are especially sensitive to **environment

Using Healthy Materials in educational environments

If no expertise on sustainable, non-toxic, and natural materials is delivered to a project team during the design phase, materials can find their way into an interior that will negatively impact the health of building occupants.

This happens primarily through off-gassing of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and the emission of toxic chemicals into the air through the processes of natural

sources of pollutants in nursery and school buildings

Unhealthy materials have the potential to increase indoor air pollutants, which have been found to decrease cognitive functioning and therefore diminish student productivity. The hotspots for such issues tend to be insulation materials, flooring, paints, adhesives and furniture.

We focus on the internal make-up of building materials and their health impacts, a research process facilitated by Health Product Declarations (HPDs) that provide a clear, concise overview of a product's ingredients.

Deploying a Healthy Materials strategy in a nursery, school or university can:

• Reduce negative health impacts from toxic chemicals

• Improve indoor air quality

• Reduce symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome

Paul Chevalier School, France - an example of a healthy learning environment using biophilic design

Enhanced Indoor Air Quality in nurseries, schools, universities

Indoor air quality has a tangible impact on human performance and if not properly established, maintained and monitored, can negatively impact learning and productivity

After steps have been taken to reduce pollutants coming from materials and surfaces in a space (see above), proper cleaning and ventilation practices should be incorporated to maintain good air quality.

Numerous studies have linked cognitive success, absenteeism rates and Sick Building Syndrome symptoms to indoor air quality and ventilation rates (see here).

Ventilation and indoor air quality

Higher ventilation rates are associated with lower rates of absenteeism and Sick Building Syndrome symptoms as well as improvements in test scores, while poor ventilation rates were found to decrease attention and increase school days missed.

One study showed that higher ventilation rates led to 1.6 fewer days missed, while another demonstrated that students had higher scores on math, reading and science tests when the classrooms were properly ventilated (Allen / see sources below). 

In summary, deploying an enhanced indoor air quality plan in a nursery, school or university can:

• Increase attention rates

• Reduce Sick Building Syndrome symptoms

• Decrease absenteeism

• Improve student test scores / cognitive function

The importance of lighting design in nursery, school and university settings

Consideration around natural light as well as electric lighting solutions is an important factor in creating a healthy indoor environment for learning, both for its biophilia benefits and added focus through details such as task lighting solutions. Incorporating ample natural light in educational settings enhances student performance, well-being, and productivity. Maximizing natural light can create a bright and inviting atmosphere, improve overall mental, physical, and emotional health, and contribute to energy efficiency and ecological sustainability.

Daylight and biophilia

Daylight connects students to the natural world, fostering a closer connection with nature. Natural light has a positive impact on students' mental health by reducing stress and promoting emotional balance.

In addition, enhance exposure to natural light as part of a biophilia plan synchronizes us with our body’s circadian rhythms, which when optimized has been shown to increase worker performance (Allen / see sources below).

Task lighting (e.g. smaller format table lamps) is another tool to boost learning environments for activities such as reading or writing, which rely heavily on visual performance.

It was found that a group of third graders who had access to focus lighting for a year had a 36% increase in oral reading fluency, while a group without focus lighting had only a 17% increase (Allen / see sources below).

Circadian lighting

In addition, the type of artificial light has been proven to have an impact - a study found that blue-enriched light causes higher levels of concentration, alertness, and cognitive performance, as well as higher test scores for students (Allen / see below). 

In summary, such lighting strategies as part of a biophilia plan can:

• Improve student mood

• Increase learner alertness and concentration

• Increase student cognitive processing speed and performance

• Improve learner test scores

Restorative Spaces in nursery, school, university settings

Classroom design and orientation can be just as important as the elements that function within the space. The incorporation of small restorative spaces that have been deliberately created using the biophilic design concept for example can help relieve stress and mental fatigue amongst students, providing a modest mental refresh. 

WELL Certification and restorative space design

There are many ways to designarestorative space, and the WELL Building Standard (see more on that here) aims to provide guidance on what can be most successful, using its evidence-based design approach. While the creative design work still needs to come from us, leveraging research data and scientific rigour is a key part of the process in order to deliver tangible results once the space is completed.

Integrating outdoor spaces into school design can provide students with access to natural landscapes and green roofs, fostering sensory interaction with the environment.

According to the WELL ‘Mind’ concept, restorative spaces should include natural elements**/ biophilic design** and have thoughtful lighting, sound, thermal and material choices. In addition, an element of privacy and the inclusion of calming colors, textures and forms is beneficial for recharging and refocusing. See our Biofilico design example image above for this.

Simply creating a place of quiet and calm can have an impact on student performance. For example, a French study found that test scores decreased by 5.5 points for each 10 dB increase in noise levels above the average noise level (~50 dB) (Allen / see sources below).

Biophilic design not only supports mental health but also contributes to the physical health of students by reducing stress and promoting overall well-being.

Schools and learning environments can, if not designed thoughtfully using healthy interior design principles, cause low level stress for students and even increase mental fatigue, so the incorporation of places or respite and restoration are key to providing kids and students with a nourishing place to perform their best.

In summary, the integration of biophilic design in restorative spaces can:

• Relieve mental fatigue and stress

• Recharge and rejuvenate

• Promote increased learning and academic success

• Provide a nature connection

Biophilic Design in learning environments such as nurseries and schools

Biophilic design has been shown to improve cognitive function through increased memory, concentration, creativity, and productivity—all key factors in learning environments. See more here.

A recent study looking at the impact of biophilic design on learning spaces found that the reduction in student stress was much greater in a biophilic classroom when compared with control. In addition, learning outcomes were greatly improved—math test score averages increased more than three times higher in the biophilic design classroom over a seven-month period.

Finally, 7.2% more of the students in the biophilic learning environment tested at grade level when compared with the control classroom (Determan). This study provides encouraging outcomes between biophilic design and improvements in student learning outcomes, wellbeing, and the potential for success.

In addition, the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) correlates increased nature exposure to a faster recovery from mental fatigue and stress (Jimenez).

The use of biophilic design to enhance learning environments connects to many of the strategies mentioned above—such as the incorporation of natural elements in restorative spaces or materials, and the use of daylighting to enhance learning capabilities. Occasionally these lines can blur but only because the biophilic design concept encompasses so many healthy design strategies within it.

In summary, biophilic design principles in learning environments can:

• Improve cognitive functioning and productivity

• Enhance creativity and memory

• Increase test scores and improve learning outcomes

• Reduce stress and provide restorative benefits

Overall, the atmosphere and personality of learning spaces has the potential to positively influence student performance. Healthy material choices, indoor air quality monitoring, lighting, and the incorporation of restorative spaces and biophilic design are tools available to us as healthy interior specialists, so we believe they can and should be deployed to full effect for this purpose!

SourcesAllen, Joseph G, and John D Macomber. Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity. Harvard University Press, 2020.

Barbiero, Giuseppe, et al. “Bracing Biophilia: When Biophilic Design Promotes Pupil’s Attentional Performance, Perceived Restorativeness and Affiliation with Nature.” Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2021,https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01903-1

Determan, Jim, et al. “THE IMPACT OF BIOPHILIC LEARNING SPACES ON STUDENT SUCCESS.” Oct. 2019.

Jimenez, Marcia P. et al. “Associations Between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.9 (2021): 4790. Crossref. Web.

mental Health benefits of biophilic indoor environment in virtual reality - harvard research study

A review of Harvard's research into the wellbeing benefits of a biophilic space experienced through virtual reality

Four virtual reality office layouts. Note: indoor green incorporates green plants, water, natural materials and biomorphic shapes into indoor space; outdoor view incorporates long-distance natural view and daylight into indoor space through windows; combination incorporates biophilic elements from indoor green and outdoor view.

Source: Effects of biophilic indoor environment on stress and anxiety recovery: A between-subjects experiment in virtual reality. Harvard study.

Harvard has delivered two different studies on the wellbeing benefits of exposure to a biophilic space in an online world, the first in 2019 and a follow-up study in 2020, both of which explore the positive impact of biophilic interiors experienced through a virtual reality headset.

A biophilic design consultant perspective

Why is this of interest to us as biophilic design consultants? We already work with a combination of direct biophilia (live plants or a fish tank for example) and indirect biophilia (analogues such as botanical wallpaper or inspirational landscape photos) in our projects as biophilic designers and healthy building experts, utilizing biophilic principles to reconnect urban dwellers with nature. Yet as we enter the age of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse, it is surely pertinent to consider the potential of online, virtual reality worlds that incorporate biophilic design too.

benefits of biophilic design examples in online worlds

In summary, the Harvard studies show that biophilic elements in the online environments experienced by participants did increase physiological stress recovery by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety levels in respondents, demonstrating significant physical health benefits, as we might expect by inferring from real-world biophilic design studies.

The implications of this are profound, consider a fast-paced office environment where no natural light or nature views are available, no park or gardens nearby, and no budget available for a complete biophilic interior fit-out of the space but there is scope to create a virtual reality pod for stressed-out staff to relax in when they need a break.

By providing a biophilic virtual world for them to spend time in, we can now predict, thanks to this rigorous Harvard research, to have a tangible impact on stress recovery and anxiety levels.

Interestingly, the study also highlights how certain biophilic design examples were more effective than others for certain types of tasks. For example, window access provides stimulation for creativity but having no window may be better for tasks that require deep concentration.

harvard research into biophilic environments

In the Harvard 2019 VR study - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ina.12593 - the methods deployed were as follows:

• 4 types of rooms (3 biophilic, one non biophilia) each repeated in an open and enclosed environment, incorporating green spaces to enhance mental health, productivity, and community bonding

• Natural elements: “visual connection with nature” and “dynamic and diffuse light”

• Green plants, access to natural light and view

• Natural analogues: “biomorphic forms and patterns” and “material connection with nature”

• Products made/looked like natural materials, furniture w/biomorphic shapes

• Combined: combination of both

research results of virtual reality biophilic interior spaces

• Participants in open biophilic spaces had more physiological stress reduction than in enclosed biophilic spaces

• Participants in enclosed biophilic space had higher creativity score increase than in open biophilic spaces

• Increased green exposure = significant decreases in blood pressure

• Natural elements and combination had highest increase in RMSSD (stress relief)

• Biophilic environments increased creativity due to their calming influence

• Window access= better for creativity (more stimulation)

• No window = better for concentration tasks (more attention for task)

• Participants preferred to maximize natural light, having a view, and indoor plants over natural materials (wood) and biomorphic forms

• Participants spent most of their time looking at biophilic elements

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Fig. 2. Experimental procedure. Note: IEQ: indoor environmental quality; BP: blood pressure; STAI: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; HRV: heart rate variability; SCL: skin conductance level.

Source: Effects of biophilic indoor environment on stress and anxiety recovery: A between-subjects experiment in virtual reality. Harvard.

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Review of the follow-up study into mental health benefits of biophilic environments online

In the Harvard 2020 virtual reality study into the positive impact of biophilic environments in a virtual reality context - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019336347 - the methods deployed were as follows:

• 4 rooms made up of a non biophilic space, an indoor green space, a space with an outdoor view onto a natural landscape, and a combination of biophilic interiors and views out onto nature

• Window vs. no window (big difference in office spaces)

• Outdoor view: long distance natural views of trees, grass, water, daylight (windows positioned same place as living walls in indoor green), intangible elements, natural light

• Biophilic tangible elements

• Indoor green: living walls, potted plants, water (fish tank), natural materials/biomorphic shapes, tangible elements

research results of exposure to biophilic environments in virtual reality

• RMSSD (stress relief)

• Non biophilic vs. Indoor green: 2.1% faster indoor green (sig. Better recovery in this environment)

• Heart Rate Levels : throughout recovery pd, biophilic settings caused faster recovery

• 70% of the time in Indoor green people had a complete recovery of heart rate

• 72% of the time in combination people had a complete recovery of heart rate

• General Trends

• Indoor green more physiological stress recovery in the built environment

• Improves participant blood pressure the most (along with all biophilic conditions)

• Outdoor view: more anxiety reduction

• Combination: between the two

• Improved both (2nd best for both)

• Baseline stress conditions were either met or went even lower under biophilic conditions

Design Principles

Biophilic design principles are the foundation of creating spaces that promote well-being and a connection to nature. These principles guide the incorporation of natural elements into interior spaces to create a harmonious and restorative environment. By integrating natural elements such as plants, water features, and natural materials, biophilic design aims to mimic the natural world, fostering a sense of tranquility and balance. These principles not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of a space but also contribute to the physical and mental health of its occupants, making them feel more connected to nature and improving their overall well-being.

Natural Light

Natural light is a fundamental element of biophilic design. It has a profound impact on human health and well-being, influencing our circadian rhythms, mood, and cognitive function. Maximizing natural light in interior spaces can be achieved through various design strategies, such as:

• Orienting buildings to optimize natural light exposure

• Using transparent and translucent materials to filter and diffuse natural light

• Incorporating skylights, clerestory windows, and solar tubes to bring natural light deep into buildings

• Minimizing obstructions and using reflective surfaces to bounce natural light throughout spaces

By prioritizing natural light, biophilic design not only enhances the visual appeal of a space but also supports human health and well-being, creating environments that are both beautiful and beneficial.

Natural Materials

Natural materials are essential in biophilic design, as they provide a tangible connection to the natural world. These materials can be used in various ways, such as:

• Wood: a natural, renewable resource that can be used for flooring, walls, and furniture

• Stone: a durable, natural material that can be used for flooring, walls, and countertops

• Plants: living, breathing organisms that can be used to purify the air, improve acoustics, and enhance aesthetics

• Natural fibers: such as wool, cotton, and hemp, which can be used for upholstery, carpets, and textiles

Incorporating natural materials into interior spaces not only enhances their aesthetic appeal but also promotes a sense of well-being and connection to the natural world.

What are the Benefits of Biophilic Design?

Biophilic design offers several key benefits, enhancing both your mental and physical well-being. By incorporating natural elements into your home, this approach can create a soothing and restful environment.

Now, let's explore how you can implement these benefits with specific design choices.

Improves our mind restoration and productivity

Biophilic design enhances cognitive function by fostering an environment that promotes mental restoration. By incorporating nature-inspired designs, you can create an atmosphere that supports higher levels of creativity, problem-solving, and productivity. This connection to nature not only boosts concentration but also contributes to a sense of calm, allowing for a more balanced and stress-free mindset.

Physical Health Benefits

Besides its effects on mental well-being biophilic designs also affect physical health. Accessing natural light and landscapes has helped patients improve sleeping and reduce symptoms in the treatment of seasonal afflictions. Integrated biophysical elements have become an increasingly prevalent trend in healthcare facilities.

Stress Reduction and Improved Cognitive Function

Biophilic design is capable of dramatically reducing stress levels and promoting mental health. Exposure to the natural world can lead to lower concentrations of cortisol which is a hormone released by stress. Integrated natural elements within an interior environment give individuals the opportunity to engage in visual, tactile or sensory experiences that create a soothing effect. Furthermore, biophilic design is associated with a better cognition and memory. The researchers say green-certified buildings score better on cognitive function tests than buildings with no certification in the U.S.

Connection to Nature in Urban Environments

The biophilicity of architecture has evolved as we move towards urban environments and the biosphere becomes vital in connecting urban and rural communities. Urban areas usually do not have direct access to natural features, however a thoughtful design intervention might bring the advantages of nature into city centres. Public spaces, including parks, rooftop gardens and facade greens, provide a way to experience nature's healing benefits. Urban planners and architects incorporate increasingly biophilic ideas within their designs for sustainable, healthy and attractive cities.

Implementing Biophilic Design

Implementing biophilic design principles requires a thoughtful and intentional approach. Here are some strategies for incorporating biophilic design into interior spaces:

• Conduct a site analysis to identify opportunities for natural light, ventilation, and views

• Incorporate natural materials and elements, such as wood, stone, and plants, into the design

• Use biophilic design elements, such as water features, green walls, and natural art, to create a sense of connection to nature

• Consider the psychological and emotional impact of design decisions on occupants

• Engage with stakeholders and occupants to ensure that the design meets their needs and promotes well-being

By thoughtfully integrating biophilic design principles, we can create interior spaces that not only look beautiful but also support the physical and mental health of their occupants.

The Role of Natural Elements in Biophilic Design

Natural elements play a crucial role in biophilic design, as they provide a tangible connection to the natural world. These elements can be used in various ways, such as:

• Visual connections: providing views of nature, such as windows, skylights, and green roofs

• Non-visual connections: incorporating natural elements, such as plants, water features, and natural materials, into the design

• Tactile connections: incorporating natural elements, such as wood, stone, and plants, into the design to provide a tactile experience

• Auditory connections: incorporating natural sounds, such as water features and birdsong, into the design to create a sense of connection to nature

By incorporating natural elements into interior spaces, biophilic design can promote well-being, reduce stress, and improve physical and mental health. These elements not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of a space but also create environments that are restorative and nurturing, fostering a deeper connection to the natural world.

Best examples biophilic design research — biofilico wellness interiors

What is biophilic design and the biophilia hypothesis?

Urbanization and life in dense city centres brings with it a concomitant risk of a disconnect from nature on one level and a cascade of negative impacts on the environment on another. To counter-balance this trend, biophilic design proposes a realignment of priorities by bringing the outside world back into our urban planning, architecture and interiors.

By integrating both sustainability and wellbeing, green building design and healthy building design concepts, this biophilia hypothesis led strategy offers a bridge between the artificial dichotomy of ‘People’ on one side and ‘Planet’ on the other. Incorporating biophilic design elements, such as natural materials and elements, into these designs can improve air quality, thermal comfort, and water management, contributing to the overall sustainability goals.

On the basis that we cannot act on one without inevitably acting on the other, a nature-centric approach provides a vision of future buildings and interiors that nudges us considerably closer to a state of harmony with nature, as per all of our evolutionary history up until the industrial age.

Why do we need biophilia and natural light in buildings and interiors?

City living often equates to a disconnect between our daily existence and nature, with many of us now spending 80-90% of our lives indoors. Introducing a connection with nature through biophilic design is crucial in urban living, as it integrates natural elements into built environments to enhance human health and well-being.

Whereas once our own health and that of the natural environment we inhabited were inextricably linked, it is all too easy to ignore that dynamic when our days are spent between our home, office, school, gym, restaurants and so on… i.e. indoors most of the time!

Indeed, the disconnect has been more extreme and more damaging than any of us could have foreseen, with climate change being only the most prominent manifestation of this new state of affairs.

Only now are we truly coming to appreciate the positive impact this nature exposure, previously taken for granted, can have on our mental and physical wellbeing, or rather - what happens when we deprive ourselves of it (this is the essence of the biophilia hypothesis)

what are benefits of biophilic design?

The main benefits of biophilic design patterns, from our perspective as healthy building and wellness interior consultants, can be collectively grouped into three main categories, specifically spending time in nature has been shown to:

1. reduce anxiety and stress, lowering blood cortisol levels. Biophilic design has positive effects on human health, promoting healing and restorative benefits.

2. increase cognitive function, concentration and memory. It also significantly impacts mental health, improving well-being and productivity, especially in the workplace.

3. enhance positive mood states, promoting a sense of vitality and purpose.

Evidence-based biophilic design in architecture and interiors simply harnesses these scientifically proven insights to bring nature back into our built environment, inviting the outside world in once more via natural materials, colours, patterns and shapes.

Best examples of biophilic design research studies

1.Biophilic design benefits - reduction in stress and anxiety, improving mental health

• Vegetation can reduce stress, increase healing through stimulation of nature views and accessibility (Bratman).

• Biophilic elements increased physiological stress recovery (lowered blood pressure), reduced anxiety, lowered heart rate (Yin, Dec 2019). Creating a seamless connection between indoor and outdoor spaces can further reduce stress and anxiety by integrating natural elements like water, natural ventilation, and greenery.

• The Stress Reduction Theory (SRT) (Ulrich/ Jimenez) states that stress is reduced in nature due to our natural affinity and comfort with the natural world

• Increased healing/recovery rates due to lower stress (Kaltenegger, ch 13). Views of vegetation has been proven to decrease hospital stay times and increase healing (related to stress/pain levels)

• Exposure to natural light increases a neurotransmitter in the body called serotonin, which increases happiness (Kaltenegger ch. 13)

• Research shows that exposure to the natural world can reduce negative thought and rumination (Bratman)

• Two groups, one walked in nature one on a busy street

• Those in nature: increase in positive thought, decrease in negative thought/rumination (the part of the brain linked to depression), decrease in stress/anxiety

• Biophysical services (if larger scale/parks etc.)

• The physical changes that nature creates causes benefits to humans (ex: if more parks, people may be more encouraged to go on a run near their house and will cause decrease in mental disorders, rumination, obesity, etc).

2. biophilic design benefits - increase cognitive function, concentration and memory

• Improved memory, cognitive performance in office setting in VR (Aristizabal) in a study involving three groups over a 10-week Virtual Reality open office biophilic design study. Working memory and cognitive performance improved in all biophilic design conditions compared to baseline.

• Lower levels of absenteeism/higher productivity levels (Kellert) when daylight is incorporated into office and school buildings

• Student test scores increase, lower dropout rate (Kaltenegger ch. 13). In school buildings with increased natural light, students test scores on average rise between 7-25% due to increased cognitive capacities.

• Attention Restoration Theory (ART) (Kaplan/Jimenez) states that spending time in nature causes humans to refresh their mental state, overcome mental fatigue and improve mental focus and attention

• Increased memory and creativity as exposure to green spaces can positively affect brain development in children through creativity/discovery/risk taking opportunities

3. biophilic design benefits - enhance positive mood states, promoting a sense of vitality and purpose

• Exposure to natural light increases a neurotransmitter in the body called serotonin, which increases happiness (Kaltenegger ch. 13)

• Research shows that exposure to the natural world can reduce negative thought patterns (Bratman). Two groups were assessed, one walked in nature and the other on a busy street, the former experienced an increase in positive thought patterns and a decrease in negative thought patterns (interestingly, this is the same part of the brain linked to depression), whilst also stated they felt a decrease in overall stress levels and anxiety.

• Biophilic design in urban environments can significantly enhance positive mood states by integrating natural elements into city settings.

• Biophysical services (if larger scale/parks etc.). The physical changes that nature creates causes benefits to humans (ex: if more parks, people may be more encouraged to go on a run near their house for example, thereby reducing obesity risks, cardiovascular disease, and so on).

Benefits of nature exposure <> benefits of biophilic design

Biophilic design studies are slowly becoming more common (see our own studies into the benefits of biophilic design here) but much of what is out there is still based on reviewing a number of key research studies done a while ago. Biophilic design plays a crucial role in promoting sustainable development by integrating natural elements into built environments, which contributes to sustainable architecture and the transformation of healthcare spaces.

There is considerably more information available on how nature exposure positively affects humans, and a lot can be inferred from these studies as the properties of nature exposure are similar, and correlations can be reasonably inferred.

• Biophilic design studies are slightly different than nature-based studies but there is considerable overlap, for example

• window/nature views could be included in both

• natural light/sun exposure could be included in both

• greenery/vegetation could be included in both (although likely on a smaller scale with biophilic design)

Direct nature has been proven to have the most wellness benefits but indirect exposure (ie, looking at a picture of a tree) still has health benefits too - this is how a lot of examples of biophilic design can justifiably claim to be wellness spaces even if they do not contain any direct biophilia (i.e. living plants or trees).

This does however mean that white blood cells known as Natural Killer (NK) cells may not increase with some examples of biophilic design interiors as there are likely far fewer or even no phytoncides in those spaces that a real forest provides in abundance (see forest bathing research for more on this).

Tsao, Tsung-Ming et al. “Health effects of a forest environment on natural killer cells in humans: an observational pilot study.” Oncotarget vol. 9,23 16501-16511. 27 Mar. 2018, doi:10.18632/oncotarget.24741. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5893257/

Examples of biophilic design sources referenced above:

Aristizabal, Sara, et al. “Biophilic Office Design: Exploring the Impact of a Multisensory Approach on Human Well-Being.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, Academic Press, 9 Sept. 2021, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494421001353.

Bratman, Gregory, and Gretchen Daily. The Benefits of Nature Experience: Improved Affect and Cognition. Tech. Vol. 138. Stanford: n.p., 2015. Landscape and Urban Planning. Stanford University Libraries. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Jimenez, Marcia P. et al. “Associations Between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18.9 (2021): 4790. Crossref. Web.

• Note: this source was used for ART/SRT info (although original theory names given credit above)

Kaltenegger, Ingrid. “Integration of Mother Nature into Smart Buildings.” Integration of Nature and Technology for Smart Cities. By Helen Santiago Fink. Switzerland: Springer International, 2016. ch. 13,18. Print.

Kellert, Stephen R., and Bill Finnegan. “Biophilic Design-The Architecture of Life Viewing Guide.” (n.d.): n. pag. Biophilic Design. Tamarack Media and Stephen Kellert. Web. 7 Dec. 2016.

Yin, Jie, et al. “Effects of Biophilic Interventions in Office on Stress Reaction and Cognitive Function: A Randomized Crossover Study in Virtual Reality.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 11 Sept. 2019, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ina.12593

Yin, Jie, et al. “Effects of Biophilic Indoor Environment on Stress and Anxiety Recovery: A between-Subjects Experiment in Virtual Reality.” Environment International, Pergamon, 24 Dec. 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019336347?via%3Dihub

Biomimicry and Biophilic Design: Biodesign Insights by Danielle Trofe - Wellness Design Consultants

the potential of mycelium as a healthy building material / examples of biophilic design that are truly sustainable / biomimicry as a leading light in the new field of sustainable design

Welcome to episode 43 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast, brought to you by Biofilico healthy buildings & interiors.

In this episode I’m chatting to Danielle Trofe, a biodesigner with her own studio in New York who also lectures in biomimicry for The Pratt Institute and Parsons New School. Danielle is a part of the green building movement herald, promoting sustainable and biophilic design.

Danielle’s MushLume collection of lampshades made from organically grown mushroom mycelium and hemp have featured in the seriously cool, eco-luxury 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge amongst other projects and she is a leading proponent of biofabrication - that is using naturally grown materials in product design.

Our conversation covers all of these ‘bio’ terms that may understandably be new for many of you, we also look into the full Life Cycle impact of a design product from production through to end of life, we discuss how biophilic design can when delivered poorly equate to a largely superficial greenwashing of the interior design process, and we introduce the topic of green chemistry, that is research and development around new bio-based materials that designers such s Danielle can then introduce into future product development.

Conversation highlights

• biophilic design allows us to connect to nature indoors, reminding us that we are still part of nature

• a label of ‘nature-inspired’ doesn’t necessarily mean a product is good for both people and planet, poorly delivered examples of biophilic design may in fact be harmful to the environment

• biomimicry as a movement is emerging as a rigorous framework for creating design that takes into consideration both our own health and that of the planet.

• I think a lot of the biodesign field is really about taking action, it’s not just the study of it but rather how we can actually start making goods that help restore balance back to our ecosystems.

https://danielletrofe.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielletrofe

https://twitter.com/DanielleTrofe

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FULL TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS COURTESY OF OTTER.AI (excuse typos)

Matt Morley

Let’s begin with some terminology, specifically ‘biodesign’ and ‘biofabricated design’. How do you describe those two concepts to someone coming to this subject for the first time?

Danielle Trofe

In this past decade, or maybe even a little bit further, biodesign as a term has kind of come out in two different fields, one in the medical field and one in the design field. It’s serving a purpose as this catch all term that incorporates biomimicry, biofabricationbiophilic****design, to help those who don’t really know what each of those different facets really means. So that we can all kind of have the same conversation.

What is Biofabrication?

Biofabrication is what I do, it's about using a living organism to actually grow a product or design for you. So you're typically extracting something from nature or not, you can actually grow in a lab and and use that living organism to do the producing for you. In this case, I'm not not doing the manufacturing, the organism is actually doing that, for example mycelium - the roots of mushrooms - but also bacteria, algae or kombucha.

What is biophilic design?

I refer to Biophilic Design as the visual copying of nature and natural elements. We all have Biophilia, we all instinctively connect to nature in different ways, biophilic design is about tapping into that emotional state, that very native energy that we all have inside of us. Biophilic design has been shown to improve cognitive performance and provide health benefits. It allows us to connect to nature indoors, reminding us that we are still part of nature.

What is biomimicry?

Biomimicry goes a bit deeper by looking at Nature’s forms, processes and entire ecosystem, so it has these three different levels in other words. The aim is to draw out these principles to integrate them into human design to address any design or engineering challenge. Biomimicry involves understanding how nature overcomes similar challenges to the engineering challenge encountered. It leverages nature's evolutionary problem-solving to solve technological challenges.

Matt Morley

I think it’s very clear that you’ve mastered those concepts, it’s often so difficult to give a succinct description of concepts like biophilic design, yet you just managed to do it! Part of your work is in fact in education isn’t it? Besides being a designer you are also a teacher on biomimicry?

Danielle Trofe

Yes, correct. So I’ve been teaching biomimicry and biodesign at the Pratt Institute and the Parsons New School in Manhattan. I try to help orient students with an understanding of what this new field of nature inspired design is all about. That’s really what it is, it is a very new field, that is still unfolding, these terms are really being birthed at the moment, we continue experimenting with them.

Terminology can also vary from region to region. I know in the UK and in Germany, there are different terminologies for biomimicry for example. Everyone involved in this field is collectively trying to come up with a language to be able to talk about these particular topics such as biophilic design.

Matt Morley

There is so much discussion now around healthy buildings, healthy materials and wellness interior design on one side, with concerns over the sustainability of our buildings and interiors, the impact of our built environment on the planet, on the other. It looks to me like biodesign bridges those two worlds of wellness interiors and sustainable buildings.

It is not contributing waste, nor damaging the environment, and at the same time biodesign products are non-toxic, so these bio materials are inherently healthy and help contribute to an Indoor Environmental Quality plan.

Danielle Trofe

Yes… but with the caveat that it is done correctly! So let’s talk about that. Yeah, there is poorly delivered biomimicry, biofabrication or indeed biophilic design, right? You could create something that looks exactly like a tree. But if you’re using materials that can’t be recycled, that take tremendous amount of energy to create or that are mined unsustainably, you’re not really completing the holistic viewpoint of what biomimicry is, or hopefully in the larger sense, bio design.

My point is that just because it can fall under that label of nature-inspired, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a product is good for both people and the planet. The issue is that there’s nobody really there to judge what is or isn’t a high standard of biophilic design, for example.

So we’re kind of evolving together to be able to evaluate our own designs. Even if you are taking inspiration from nature, do you have the understanding and the tool set to be able to authentically factor in a products complete life cycle assessment, including where it’s coming from, how it’s affecting humans / nature during its use phase and the end of life disposal?

Whether that’s biophilic design, bio design, biofabrication or biomimicry, one thing that really stands out when you work in these fields is that there’s a greater framework for ensuring that a design meets all those needs throughout the process, from inception to production and end of life. This framework ensures that the number one thing and biomimicry is life can do, life creates conditions conducive to life.

That’s where I feel biomimicry as a movement is emerging as a more rigorous framework for creating design that really does take into consideration our health and the health of the planet.

Matt Morley

You’re practicing what you preach as you apply those same theories in your own products. And so that, in a sense leads us into the MushLume Biofabricated Lamps discussion. Why don’t we talk a little bit about how you have created a case study in a way of how to implement these ideas in a product-led business.

Biofabricated lamps

Danielle Trofe

Sure. Yeah, so about eight years ago, I started working with this amazing material that was coming out of upstate New York that was created by Ecovative - a mushroom mycelium material. And so for anyone who doesn't know what Mycelium is, it is the roots of a mushroom.

So just like an apple is the fruit of a tree. Mushroom is the fruiting body of this network of mycelia that live beneath the forest floor. And nature is the big recycler you know, it decomposes all dying and decaying matter in a forest or in an ecosystem. It connects all plants and an ecosystem actually is nature's communicator, it shares information, can warn other plants of impending danger, distributes water within a forest, shares nutrients underground… It really is this incredible organism that is one of the largest terrestrial organisms on the planet. There's one network that's known to be a couple 1000 years old in Oregon and stretches several football fields long.

Mycelium and hemp as healthy materials with positive health benefits

We take this mycelium and instead of extracting it out of nature, like we often do for most of our goods, we are we are inoculating it in a lab and reproducing it, then once it is in a liquid form we combine it with hemp and let nature do what it does best - grow! For that we put it in an environment that it wants to grow in, allowing the mycelium to bind to the hemp over a course of just a few days. You will see this white matte structure that actually solidifies all of the hemp.

The hemp is just used as support material for it to grow into, and also food as well. So cellulose, it wants to digest the cellulose. To give an understanding of the application of a lampshade, we create these forms, we pack them with the substrate that's already been inoculated. And then we just leave them to grow, we're not even adding additional water or energy into the production process!

Our largest lampshade, which is a 24 inch diameter dome takes about a week to grow. And if you think about this timeframe, to be able to use wood, you know, you're looking at anywhere from 25 to 100 years of a tree growing out in nature, and then you're harvesting this and you're putting all this energy into being able to process the material to use it.

We isolate mycelium in a lab, transport it a very short distance, and then let it grow in the course of just a few weeks. So you can already start to see the life cycle impact there.

The other most important part which is something that we're not as familiar with, but we're starting to understand its value now, is at the end of its life, the mycelium product is just going to decompose!

Biodegradable at end of life

Traditionally, in the last couple, maybe last 100 years, we've really wanted things to last. We want things to last as long as possible, we want them to be super durable. But we're starting to find out and especially since the invention of plastics that these might not be the best concepts. And rather than using materials that we're not quite sure how they're going to break down to an elemental form and affect our own bodies. We know exactly what's in these lampshades and they are going to actually add nutrients back into the soil rather than pollutants. So that's a completely different concept to a lot of our traditional goods.

And often people are like, Well, is it gonna break down in my living room but it's actually a very inert material. We do bake it at the end of its growth cycle, that's mainly to damage the cells enough so it won't continue to grow in your living room. It won't spore, it won't shoot off mushrooms. It's a completely stable, inert material in your living room. There's nothing that's going to break it down.

What's more the lampshades have this incredible soft feel, almost like a lamb's ear. So it's something that you actually want to touch. And there's not many lamps out there that inspire you to interact with it. And of course, that makes it a conversation piece, being able to talk with your guests at the dining room table about the light fixture that's overhead.

Matt Morley

You are rightly pointing out how long a lampshade really needs to be with us, where's that sweet spot between durability and being biodegradable. I wondered whether the lampshade had anything inherently suited to this particular medium. Could you have done any other number of things but you randomly selected the lampshade? Have you got an entire collection of products in your mind eventually?

Danielle Trofe

Yeah, so that's an excellent question. Part of the story is that Ecovative at the time was working mainly in packaging. So using the material to displace Styrofoam, which is a fantastic use for it.

We reached out to them, ordered samples and we wanted to start working with the idea of using it for a lampshade and it was kind of a crazy idea at that level eight years ago, and it ended up being one of the best use cases for it because of the material's properties. So to give everyone a better idea - when fully grown, it's very lightweight, it almost has the density of Styrofoam, but has a much softer exterior coat, which is actually the mycelium.

We can actually tune the material and kind of play with a little bit with its coloring. So yeah, we do have some that are not completely white. And that's the other thing about them. Once it's grown, the Mycelium is white, naturally. And that's how we leave them. So there's not any paint that's added to them. That's just the natural form that the mycelium takes.

Mycelium as an alternative to plastic packaging

It's great for packaging for single use packaging but it has limitations in terms of you a product like a chair or stool that is going to get bumped around, rubbed, scratched or knocked over. But for an object that's hanging above you suspended from the ceiling or perhaps a table lamp that's not always being touched, then that's a perfect case for using mycelium.

There were a number of years of us getting over shipping issues, modifying the form so that when they ship they don't crack or break, and they can be installed easily by the end consumer too. So there were huge learning curves of bringing this biotechnology to a place where you could commercialize a product.

I used to grow everything in Brooklyn, New York, I had a studio space here, and I would grow each one by hand. And just over this past year, year and a half, we move production to a company out in California who now grows all the lampshades for the studio. So we're able to finally expand past my own capabilities.

Biofabricated materials as a future trend

You're really seeing not just the general public, but the industry start to buy into Biodesign. Early on when we started to work with this material, nobody really knew what mycelium was, it was kind of a new term but the conversation has really shifted in the last five years so people know what Mycelium is.

There's all these startups around the world now working with mycelium whereas when I first started, there was maybe a handful around the world. We're talking single digits. So it's really been larger than just one studio or just a few companies. It's now so many young startups, working around biomaterials because they see the value in creating new products that are not going to necessarily pollute the planet or provide a negative impact.

Algae as a healthy material in design

Matt Morley

The other big player then, that I think deserves a mention in our conversation is algae - another biomaterial often mentioned in the same breath along with mycelium. Are you working with algae based materials too?

Danielle Trofe

Yeah, just when I started working with it, and it was for a completely different project, I ended up closing the studio to shift focus a little bit but we do work with it, for example an algae-based pigment to color the lampshades. We're collaborating with artists and designers to paint on our lampshades using algae ink. A start-up in Colorado has developed a new ink pigment derived from algae, which is fantastic.

There's also the Biodesign Challenge, which is a nonprofit organization that has a worldwide competition for young students to be able to create Biodesign applications and then have them be judged by professionals within the field. And there's been so many startups that have come from just these kinds of competitions, and you're really starting to see this field being driven by people that are under 30.

I really I do believe it's the generation underneath mine that is really going to power everything in terms of sustainability because they've inherited something that generations before did not - there has to be action. So I think a lot of the biodesign field is really about taking action, it's not just the study of it but rather how are we can actually start making goods that help restore balance back to our ecosystems.

Matt Morley

You collaborated with the 1 Hotel brand - they arguably reinvented what ‘eco luxury' could mean in hospitality. Can you talk to us about that project to help them create an example of biophilic design in one of their suites using your mycelium lampshades?

Biophilic design with natural elements in hotels

Danielle Trofe

Yeah it was fantastic. Working with 1 Hotel, that really was the project that elevated our lampshades to the next level, we did around 130 lampshades in this huge cloud in the presidential suite at the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge. Biophilic design in hotels can support positive health benefits for guests.

Just working with 1 Hotel as a partner, it was really fantastic. We share the same values and be able to create different kinds of opportunities where the public can participate. So for instance, we had an exhibit where people could come in and see the lampshades being grown for the hotel. One of the things I realized is to hear the conversation that we’re having now, it’s really difficult to not physically see and feel the material, or watch the growing process. Demystifying that experience was really valuable.

The images that we got from that project really captured the possibilities of what our MushLume lampshades could do and have inspired a few other hotel installations since then too. We have grown from that as well I think, those images really did solidify that this is not just a case study. This is not just a single project but a commercialized product - that differentiation was huge. From there, we could move beyond this small niche to compete against big lighting brands, while also supporting positive health benefits through biophilic design in hotel suites.

Vertical gardens

Matt Morley

You've also got a vertical garden product that looks to be essentially a sort of an upright, vertically oriented planter for multiple plants. I'm wondering if you've got more things in the pipeline. Where do you go from here?

Danielle Trofe

Yeah, so the vertical garden was actually originally a hydroponic vertical garden. So that was the first product I ever created. And we launched that back in 2012. And it really kind of grew into a couple of installations with BMW.

The vertical garden now exists in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. So if you go to their Visitor Center, you can see it there. And it's something that hasn't completely come to full realization, mainly because I started getting into the lighting and that kind of took off. But it's something I do want to bring back and one of the main reasons this was lagging is because at the time there weren't the tools to be able to create those planter pods. They look kind of look like Alien eggs, if you will.

So we created them out of thermoformed plastic which went against everything that I as a designer and as a studio believed in. So we've kind of been in this holding pattern to get to the right material and the right process to be able to recreate this. And that's actually being done right now, with much more sustainable materials.

For example we're looking at upcycling food waste into ceramic planter pods. So that's definitely something that's happening in the future. We hope to actually come out with a full product and not just an installation.

As for future, it's a good question. I recently became a mom. So a lot of things have really shifted. You know, even a fetus can contain over 100 Different manmade chemicals at that stage yet it's extremely difficult to find healthy materials or healthy interior products aimed at babies. That's the next thing I want to get into - green chemistry, and being able to actually bring products that are not toxic to our environments.

Green chemistry to develop new natural materials

Matt Morley

So the green chemistry thing for those who perhaps not clued up on it, that’s really where the nature-inspired R&D is taking place that then facilitates people such as yourself as a designer, to create the bio products you envision, that then are sold to bio-friendly businesses like 1 Hotels with their biophilic design in the bedrooms. Green chemistry is a crucial part of sustainable design, focusing on creating products that are environmentally friendly and efficient. It can help create products that mimic natural forms and patterns.

If you haven’t got the green chemistry, providing you with what you need - the tools and materials to create the products - then the products can’t materialize yet. These products can enhance human well-being and connection with the natural world.

Equally, if there isn’t also the consumer demand, the end market there to make it all into a viable business proposition, then the products either don’t materialize or remain prototypes and concept designs. So we have this delicate dance required to push the industry forward…

Danielle Trofe

Exactly - what you’re doing with the Green & Healthy Places podcast is also helping these fields to advance, by communicating these ideas to a wider public. We need to popularize the basics of what Biodesign is about, biomimicry, biophilia, all of the ‘bio whats’ to our industry and beyond, to consumers because ultimately consumers are driving the demand for these bio materials and bio products as well.

Clients are asking for things that are more sustainable. And they’re also starting to ask the questions. Well, where does this come from? How was it made? Hopefully ‘where does it end up?’ will be the next question that they’re going to ask…!

https://danielletrofe.com/

Danielle’s products are available in Europe through https://www.grown.bio/

Circular Interior Design: Soma Studio Milano — Wellness Design Consultants

Talking Circular Design with Soma Studio Milano - advisors, trend forecasters and content producers focused on the circular economy

a conversation on circular design for the Green & Healthy Places podcast

“sustainability alone is no longer enough - besides not doing harm to the planet, we also need to do good. We can’t only sustain the current system, we need to regenerate”

— ana luiza magalhaes

Matt Morley

This week we’re in Milan, Italy, talking to Ana Luiza Magalhaes the Brazilian co-founder ofoma Studio](LINK 1), a company engaged in the circular design sector as b2b advisors, trend forecasters, content producers and all round expert guides for those seeking to improve their knowledge of this relatively new industry that we call the circular economy. Soma Studio Milano works with interior designers to implement circular design principles, emphasizing the importance of incorporating sustainable practices into interior design to foster a more sustainable future.

We talk about the key principles of this new interior design concept, the product categories in real estate and interiors that are excelling in circular design terms, take-back programs for used furniture, surfaces made of bio materials, waste as a design flaw, the importance of collaboration between brands, how nature offers guidance for circular designers, the endless potential of mycelium to replace plastic in future, the Eco wellbeing interior trend in homes as well as the role of biophilic design within circular economy.

Ana Luiza Magalhaes

So Soma is a Milan based studio working to help professionals and companies to take action and shift from a linear to circular economy. And to do so we strive to raise awareness, provide relevant information to strategies within the circular economy and circular design. It is important to incorporate sustainable materials into interior design projects to minimize environmental impact and contribute to a more resource-efficient future. And then in terms of services, always under this umbrella of circular economy in design, we offer strategic consultancy for product development, which includes transfer testing, transporting and material research.

We also create content such as ebooks, reports, webinars to help organizations raise awareness around the superior economy and superior products and services. And we also create short courses, lectures or workshops in collaborations with companies and educational institutions.

Matt Morley

So in a way, you’re providing a series of consultancy services that are intended to push the industry forward by making it easier to integrate and understand circular design circular economy principles, would that be a fair description?

Ana Luiza Magalhaes

Yes, this would be a very good description because we try to raise awareness, educate, educate people and professionals and make it easier for them to apply the similar principles within their organizations and work in projects.

what are the circular design principles?

Matt Morley

And how do you define circular design and would you consider it in some ways to be different to let’s say, sustainable design or environmentally friendly design.

Ana Luiza Magalhaes

So, I think when we talk about circular design, we need to think about the three main principles of the circular economy which are designing waste out of products, systems, keeping materials and products in use in regenerating natural systems.

So, when we talk about structural design, we are dealing with a whole system from production to disposal and therefore with production in consumer waste. Circular design aims to minimize environmental impact through sustainable practices, focusing on restoring natural systems. When it comes to sustainable design or eco-friendly design, which are definitely important concepts, we are talking more about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future of the planet in the next generations.

So we are talking more about minimizing our impact. However, we believe that with climate change sustainability alone****is no longer enough - besides not doing harm to the planet, we also need to do good. We can’t only sustain the current system we need to regenerate. And I guess this is the biggest difference between circular and sustainable design. Circular is more about the system as I mentioned in regeneration.

Matt Morley

Effectively you’re encouraging businesses to take full responsibility for the products that they create. Rather than produce something, sell it to a client and perhaps offer some customer service during the in-use phase but the relationship effectively ending there, taking no responsibility for what happens at the end of use phase, the circular approach includes what happens and how you reintegrate something back into the system.

the role of waste in circular design

So companies, they need to be held accountable for the construction waste they produce, they need to allow consumers to return materials and products, which is not really the case. For example, when we think about computers, phones, so they need to think about the whole system, you know, doesn’t matter if they do something with a sustainable material. But in the end, the consumer doesn’t know what to do with that when they don’t more than that product.

Circular design in real estate and interiors

We see that furniture design is taking important steps towards circularity with different approaches. So for example, we see some brands launching take-back programs to allow their clients to return their used furniture, IKEA is doing that in the US. So their clients for example, can return IKEA furniture get a discount on new purchases, while the brand turns those used materials into new resources.

Using furniture made from recycled materials is also crucial in circular interior design. This not only helps in reducing waste but also promotes sustainability by repurposing and repainting these materials.

Another approach that some brands are using is modular design, which allows for repair remanufacture and recycling. For instance, we see that with sofas in his leaping systems.

A very good example that we spotted at the London design festival in 2019 is from a Scottish design company that’s a modular sofa that you can repair so you can extend the lifecycle of this piece.

And also recently at the Milan Design Week, we saw the customm modular sofa by matches with the same idea of modular design.

Another interesting take on circular furniture is the emergence of companies renting office furniture instead of selling. So furniture becomes a service with companies have the possibility to rent and then return them after some time. And then these pieces can be used by other companies, or can be remanufactured or recycled into new materials. So this is very relevant nowadays for the circular economy because we are talking about services in ownership.

And we also see some remarkable innovations with come when it comes to surface design. We have now stunning tiles made of plastic waste coming from our oceans or from textile waste from the fashion industry.

We also see surfaces using biomaterials, like mycelium and innovative technologies to recycle vinyl floors. So yeah, we see a lot of steps forwards into secularity, we think different products.

Matt Morley

If we look at it from the other side, then where do you identify the problem areas? So what are the sectors or the products within interior design as an industry where you’re seeing the most work still to be done?

Waste is a resource in design

There is much more to do to transition to a circular economy. But in our opinion, what is really missing overall is more collaboration between different players. Because when we talk about the circular future, this future is only possible when we consider the whole system from production to disposal, including the challengesand demands related to the extraction and consumption of raw materials in a linear model. So brands must collaborate with each other, with designers, with consumers.

So for instance, one company’s waste can be another company’s resource. And as we were mentioning earlier, a company must be held accountable for their waste, what is really not happening with computers, phones and smart appliances for homes. So I think we need to work further to collaborate because collaboration is key for this circular economy. And it’s not so easy to do that between brains or brains and consumers and designers.

Matt Morley

So it’s an optimistic message and that you can see the solution. And we have a way through and a circular approach is really the way to resolve the issue of creating all this waste. But do you think perceptions of waste are changing now even that word, waste?

Closed loop cycles in design

Yes, definitely. So with the rise of the circular economy in interior design, we are turning our attention to nature and in nature, there aren’t linked fields. So nature basically doesn’t generate waste - it turns everything into resources.

Optimizing production processes to make them more energy-efficient and generate less waste is crucial in this context.

So materials flow in circles - one species wast is another species food, so more and more designers and architects are seeing waste as a design flaw.

So this is changing their approach to waste from organic waste to industrial waste. Everything now can be repurposed. All this waste is becoming a valuable resource. And this is happening not only with plastic, but with all kinds of industrial waste.

Matt Morley

Do you see a strong potential for biomaterials as an alternative? So just moving away completely from plastics or even recycled plastics and finding more bio based materials as an alternative route forward?

Recycled plastics and bio-based materials

I think sustainable materials have a lot of potential, of course, it’s something that we still need to explore more and manage to produce in large scale, because with some materials there are not enough support to make them more scalable. But I think that’s the future because again, it’s looking at nature to find solutions for our problems. And I believe this is the best way to to deal with climate change and all the environment crisis and waste.

And one of the materials the bio materials that is really a great material and it has been explored a lot lately is mycelium, which forms the root system of fungi. It’s really amazing because it’s fire retardant, has excellent insulation and acoustic properties, can sequester carbon, and it’s biodegradable and non toxic.

So we see mycelium used in lamp shades, acoustic wall panels, furniture packaging, often replacing plastic. Yeah, so I think there is a lot of potential for biomaterials.

Wellbeing interior design trend

In the past years, we have seen wellbeing becoming one of our highest values, even in Major Design festivals like Milan Design Week, London design festival, Dutch Design Week that designers and architects are starting to pay much more attention on how spaces can affect our creativity, efficiency, and overall wellbeing.

Embracing circular design principles in architecture, interior design, and construction is crucial for fostering a more sustainable future.

We see a lot of professionals and brands exploring neuro-aesthetics, biophilic design and how to create spaces for cocooning. So within this context, we see for example, soft and tactile materials becoming important in helping to integrate technology in our homes and also workspaces in a more natural and human way. And the pandemic has greatly accelerate this trend.

Now we have a new sort of wellbeing that we call eco wellbeing, which is about living a more sustainable and circular lifestyle. It’s about welcoming the imperfect and impermanent state of things inspired by the Japanese Wabi Sabi’s really strong now as well. And finally, it’s about feeling physically safe, while we face pandemics.

So we need to work we need to entertain ourselves, you know, we need to do everything at home and yet feel safe in your shirt. So wellbeing is very strong that homes also workspaces, hotels and public shared spaces. The idea is really to provide people with places to feel safe and reassured to cope with their very fast speed digital lives in all the multiple crises we are living through, like climate change, the health crisis, recession, and so on. So people really need spaces to feel reassured, to recharge in. So that’s why I think wellbeing is something that will only evolve and improve.

Matt Morley

You mentioned biophilic design, as well. I’ve noticed obviously a huge increase in interest in in the topic over the last 18 months really in the COVID era. But it was already happening before then - do you think that’s something that will completely change the way we think of buildings and interiors in years to come or is just another trend?

Biophilic design in buildings and interiors

No, I don’t think biophilic design is just a trend that will fade away, we see biophilic design As part of our journey to reconnect with nature and restore our broken ties with it, we believe that biophilic design can help us realize that we are part of nature that we have this innate connection and affinity towards the natural world. And above all, that we are responsible, we have responsibilities towards it.

The Circular Building by Arup in London is an excellent prototype using circular design principles, constructed with sustainably sourced materials and designed for easy disassembly, promoting resource efficiency and minimizing waste.

So and in fact, scientists have proved that nature does have a positive impact on us, both psychological and physiological. So we believe architects and designers will continue to improve their take on biophilic design, providing us with new shapes, forms, materials, and technologies that bring nature closer to us.

So I think this will only evolve, not fade away. And recently, we saw again at the Milan Design Week, very interesting options for outdoor kitchens and outdoor furniture, especially the ones designed for public urban spaces.

So we also see not only interior spaces, but cities trying to promote more their public spaces, like parks where people can interact and be in contact with nature. So we really believe believe there is no turn turning back when it comes to biophilic design.

Matt Morley

I wonder how you see that connecting with and integrating an element of technology? I think there is perhaps a misunderstanding of biophilic design that it’s trying to return us to some state of primordial nature and therefore, technology is not a part of that vision. What potential do you see for wellbeing design and biophilic design to integrate elements of tech?

Wellness tech in eco wellbeing interiors

Well, I think technology is really key for our eco wellbeing and in many ways for biophilic design as well. We see new technologies, for example, that allows for sofa fabrics to purify the indoor air, improving its quality and also improving our wellbeing our health.

There is a need for new business models that support circularity in the industry to fully leverage these technological advancements.

There are also technologies that make surfaces much easier to clean, which have become top priority to reduce the spread of germs indoor and make us feel safer. So again, we will impact our wellbeing.

We also see multi purpose and easily assembled furniture that accommodates different needs either at work or at home and make our routines more flexible, lighting technology that is evolving to set different moods in the same space, smart gardens becoming very popular in allowing us to grow our our own vegetables and spices, regardless of our home natural lighting conditions, we also see that technology can improve the planet’s wellbeing because it helps us manage our waste either at home or at work spaces. Technology can turn surplus into new resources, decreasing pollution and so on. So technology is definitely key to to help us with our wellbeing and to improve the ways we work with biophilic design I believe.

Matt Morley

You do talks, workshops, trend memberships, how can the industry typically engage with you?

Yes, so we have different approaches. So for example, we can work with manufacturers, product manufacturers, to help them identify future trends or also doing material research. We recently did that we for example an American tire company. We also provide circular consultancy, to help organizations on how to implement circular design principles within their products. Source services. We also work a lot with education.

So you know, because for us, the first step towards this transition to the circular economy is really to educate yourself. So we provide content that’s relevant within the circular economy and circular design, to companies or educational organizations, and so on.

We also collaborate with media outlets. And we have this product, as you mentioned, our train membership and some ebooks and webinars that we do in partnership with an Italian blogger and architect Italian bark.

And we provide people with the latest news innovations and trends in interior design, which always includes regular news and innovations. So we can we have many different services, but always within this, bro. Bigger topic, the supply point, I mean, supply design

Matt Morley

That makes complete sense. You know, I think there’s there’s so much movement happening in this industry that not everyone can stay up to date. And there’s a lot of confusion. I think still there’s a lot of these the terms and a lot of we don’t necessarily know how, how to go about making things better. What you do is effectively like you’re an educator, you’re there to help fill in the gaps and, and boost understanding increased understanding of why this matters.

Ana Luiza

Yes, we also like to build bridges between two companies in order to manage their waste. For example, we also do reports on events, you know, if a company wants to see what’s happening in a particular design fair festival, and they cannot go or even if they go but they want our insights. We also do that. We consider ourselves researchers and educators and content creators, a bit of everything really.

multi-sensory wellbeing interiors

How to use light, sound, scent and texture in multisensory Biophilic design for wellbeing benefits

What is wellbeing interior design? 

Wellbeing interiors are simply indoor spaces that have been maximized for human health and wellness. These may or may not include consideration for sustainability as the focus here is primarily on People rather than Planet. The role of human senses is crucial in this context, as a fundamentally multisensory approach to design can enhance the overall well-being of occupants by considering a broader spectrum of human perception, including light, air, sound, and materials selection. Multisensory design is essential in creating meaningful experiences that engage users’ senses, impacting mood, behavior, and well-being.

It’s a subtle distinction and by no means one that suggests mutually exclusive concepts, in fact we would argue that the best examples manage to marry both, bridging both worlds, respecting the environment whilst also promoting enhanced health for occupants of the space.

Wellbeing design considers light, air, sound and materials selection. This is often delivered by a Wellbeing Champion either independently or as a consultant on a wider project team.

What is biophilic design?

Biophilic design combines elements of nature, health and sustainability in interiors and architecture.

Far more than just landscaping, in its finest examples, it maintains a strong visual connection between indoor and outdoor worlds through the careful selection of colours, materials, patterns, shapes and, yes, both living plants and non-living representations of nature.

Our ‘tools’ in this sense include indoor planters and mini gardens, living walls, flooring, wall decor, acoustic panels, natural artworks, furniture fabrics, even eco cleaning policies, aromatherapy, soundscapes.

Natural light in healthy indoor environments

Lighting in a home office environment is important not just for ensuring a respectable image on a Zoom call but also for its role on our mental wellbeing. Natural light is crucial for maintaining consistent circadian rhythms, promoting physical and mental health, and contributing to a healthy multisensory workspace. Digital design plays a significant role in creating multisensory workspaces that incorporate non-visual sensory aspects, such as smell, taste, and touch, to enhance overall perception and experience. Considering a broader spectrum of sensory perceptions, it may not be the first thing we think of in relation to Biophilic design and healthy indoor environments but it is a valuable component in any wellbeing interiors project.

In a workplace wellness strategy, both for home and commercial spaces, daylight exposure is key for well-being.

First up, it’s always a good idea to get a few minutes of direct natural sunlight within the first 30 minutes or so of waking in order to help regulate your circadian rhythm - use a smart light system that recreates that same spectrum of colour for you indoors during the winter months, these lights can also be used to replicate sunlight as your alarm clock all year round, assuming dogs, cats and kids do not get there first!

Similarly, when working from home place your desk set-up near a window to give you as much natural daylight during your work day as possible. When you need supplemental lighting, again a smart light system will allow you to program the colour frequency from blue-white in the morning to amber in the evening, easing you into the day and winding you down steadily at night.

In the evenings one should avoid exposure to intense sources of blue-white light. Halogen ceiling lights will struggle to create the right atmosphere mornings and evenings above all, so you’ll want to switch to a combination of standing lamps and task lighting (e.g. desk lamp) to give more flexibility.

Get this wrong and it can severely affect quality of sleep - we may even be able to fall asleep as usual but there will be less REM sleep and therefore less mental recuperation taking place during the night. Those with sleep monitors on their wrists or fingers should be able to produce their own data to verify this for themselves.

Clearly all screens, be they from a TV, computer or smartphone are possible sources of this same sleep-disrupting light, so ensure there is a program such as f.lux on your computer or just the TV brightness later in the evening - better yet allow yourself a minimum of one hour of screen-free time before bed.

In a family or work scenario where compromises need to be made for whatever reason, individually electing to wear a pair of amber-lensed glasses in the evenings does the same job. Again, it’s worth testing this out and monitoring your sleep quality if it is of interest.

Acoustics in wellbeing interiors

A healthy building needs to address acoustics and other sensory features in order to create a healthy indoor environment that does not promote stress, while aiding in concentration and, in a residential context, ensures high quality sleep at night.

Incorporating sensory integration into the design process is crucial for creating a healthy indoor environment, as it considers the impact of various senses on inhabitants and promotes well-being through a multisensory approach.

Sound insulating materials are often integrated into or under flooring tiles, dry wall insulation, decorative wall panels, room dividers, planters, furniture and even wall paint.

Distracting noises in large, open-plan office spaces can have a direct impact on worker wellbeing and leave staff struggling to find a quiet corner in which to do deep work alone.

Equally, a small room with no soft furnishings in, such as a second bedroom converted into a home office, will require either carpet or a rug, furniture and fabrics - basically anything soft to help stop the sound reverberating around the room.

Once an acoustic plan has established an agreeable baseline of background noise, then we can apply acoustic Biophilic design by bringing in subtle nature sounds or other forms of white noise to mask noise from HVAC systems and elevator shafts. This may not be appropriate everywhere but can, for example, be applied in specific areas such as a reception or waiting area, or canteen.

Sounds of trickling water could be a fountain outside, allowing nature sounds from outside to come indoors, acoustic world music, ethnic, or traditional music from around the world especially drumming, those are all evolutionary aligned soundtracks that are likely to promote focus and drive without distracting.

Delos in the US, the company behind the WELL Certification for healthy buildings, amongst other things, recently launched a biophilic sounds and mindfulness app called MindBreaks that offers high-quality 3D audio to help you “Escape, Energize, Rest, Meditate, Focus and Inspire”.

Acoustic sound booths such as these ones we sourced for the HERO food group’s corporate offices in Switzerland can also be integrated into a Biophilia plan by selecting suitable colours for the acoustic fabrics inside, options for models with wood (or veneer) panelling, placing plants around the booths and generally ensuring they integrate smoothly into the overall workplace design.

Finally, music with lyrics can be distracting at least in a language that we understand and there is nothing worse in a workplace context than a playlist that prevents us from doing our best work each day but as a rule, acoustic, traditional and ethnic sounds are going to be especially good at filling the void in a workspace context without demanding too much of your mental focus and attention.

Whether that is a realistic game plan for 8-10 hours a day or not is up to you and your colleagues to decide, perhaps just as we move around a workplace for different tasks, having specific playlists (or indeed a ‘no music’ policy) that match those tasks, might be a sensible solution?

Scent in Biophilic design interiors

So, we mentioned the idea of forest bathing a corollary of Biophilic design in interiors. Forest phytoncides are a particular airborne substance given off by certain species of trees that has been shown in South East Korea to boost the human immune system too.

When combined with what we know about the mental health benefits of spending time in nature, it’s clear that aromatherapy has a role to play in a multi-sensory Biophilic design strategy. This strategy emphasizes the importance of sensory experience, incorporating all five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and even taste to create innovative and memorable environments. Adding layer upon layer of nature-inspired detail in a Biophilic interior concept can significantly enhance the sensory experience.

Invest in a high-quality pine or cypress oil for your home aromatherapy diffuser, perhaps combined with rosemary and peppermint to capture some of the same health benefits of spending time outside in a forest.

Think especially of how this could be done in a home office environment, for example, where a little Biophilic design can go a long way in creating a wellbeing interior geared for productivity and calm. The impact of sound in the workplace environment should also be considered, addressing both its positive and negative effects.

Equally, citrus oils such as bergamot and lemon are especially good for focus, followed by lavender later in the evening to help you wind down when the workday is done.

Texture in healthy interiors for sensory experience

Last but not least, let’s not forget the role of texture and sensory qualities in wellbeing interiors, as designing for all the senses with a carefully chosen natural fabric or finish with just the right amount of tactility can add an additional layer of nature-connectedness to a Biophilic design.

Man-made materials tend to be impossibly perfect compared to nature, so integrating natural materials such as wool, cork, wood and cotton in carefully selected places can invite a tactile interaction with the interiors. Plastic may be cheap and easy to clean but, at least from a Biophilic design perspective, it will never be able to compete with real wood or bamboo say.

We might imagine a decorative cork wall in an office reception for example such as those by Gencork or a textured jute rug by Nanimarquina in a home office inviting the user to spend time barefoot during the day.

Not all of the strategies need to be combined in every wellbeing interior but there is magic in integrating more than one of them as a way to add interest and intrigue…

Q&A with a Biophilic Design Consultant: Healthy Building and Wellness Interiors — Biofilico

How did you enter the field of wellbeing interiors, healthy buildings and biophilic design?

Biofilico’s Founder, Matt Morley at the creative workspace ‘Montoya’ in Barcelona, Spain

Biofilico’s Founder, Matt Morley at the creative workspace ‘Montoya’ in Barcelona, Spain

I spent 10 years with a mixed-use real estate developer and operator in what eventually became a Creative Director role delivering new business concepts. I’d work with the construction and development teams, as well as finance, marketing and operations, taking a sports bar, coworking space, business club, beach club or concept store from idea to reality.

It was an amazing learning experience for what would come later - effectively doing a similar thing but a boutique consultancy business and focusing specifically on green and healthy spaces, incorporating biophilic design principles.

Where did your interest in health, fitness, and mental health come from?

So in parallel with that 10-year process I’ve just describe my 7-10 hours per week of training starting to take on ever more importance in my life, especially as I was doing so much of it outdoors, immersed in nature, with minimal equipment.

I was also experimenting with standing desks, going barefoot, a low-carb Paleo diet and bringing the outside world in to my office and home. I aimed to bring nature into my living and working spaces to enhance wellbeing and productivity. Incorporating these elements into my living and working spaces helped to reduce stress and improve overall wellbeing. In other words, my life became a testing ground for these new ideas around workplace wellbeing, ancestral health and wellbeing interiors.

Do you remember the exact moment you first discovered biophilic design?

It was a very organic, intuitive process for me. This is so important to reiterate as a biophilic design expert - I got there by myself, using my own instinct and listening to my body, testing things out on myself and eventually coming to the conclusion that most indoor spaces devoid of the natural world were simply not happy, uplifting places for me to be. I realized that integrating biophilic principles, such as the use of natural elements and patterns, was essential to creating environments that promote wellbeing and productivity.

At that point, I knew I had to quit my job and make my own rules from then on. I needed to go to an extreme to understand what was out there, what was possible and what my body could feel if I went all-in on this approach for a while. I don’t think my then-girlfriend knew what on earth was going on by that point!

In other words, biophilic design was not something I studied, it was as if it came from inside of me first and all I had to do was recognize what was happening.

Of course, it helped to be immersed in real estate and interiors for my work at the same time, that was the magic mix that made it possible to become a wellbeing champion and biophilic design consultant later on.

What experts influenced you on the path to becoming a biophilic design consultant for real estate and hospitality?

Over time I worked out that there was a whole school of thought largely led by the US around how to actually do what I was talking about in a clear, structured way. Terrapin’s 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design and Stephen Kellert’s The Practice of Biophilic Design were fundamental reference points. Their work highlights the proven benefits of biophilic design in promoting wellbeing, productivity, and creativity in living and working spaces.

How did you become a consultant in healthy interiors and biophilic design?

I set up my first company, Biofit, back in 2015 specializing in creating sustainable gyms and wellness concepts through biophilic interior design. Over time that evolved into a fitness advisory business working with hotel groups and corporates around Europe to create innovative wellness concepts, gym facilities and fitness programs. This work also emphasized the importance of the built environment in promoting overall wellbeing.

Originally I thought I was setting up my own natural fitness studio in London but several successful pivots led me to where I am today!

In 2018 I set-up my second business, Biofilico focusing on a wider market of wellbeing interiors and healthy building services. This is much more closely aligned with the work I was doing for the mixed-use developer / operator before becoming an entrepreneur.

What advice would you give to someone hoping to become a biophilic designer or wellbeing interiors expert?

My path is not the only path clearly, other people may be coming from an engineering background, architecture or sustainability but to do this you really need to have a solid understanding of real estate, construction and how buildings are made.

Otherwise you’re going to struggle to put yourself in the shoes of your clients, to understand what their objectives are and how best to help them get there.

If you intend to be an independent consultant in biophilic design, wellbeing interiors, or indeed healthy buildings, you’ll need some certifications to show for it to, so studying for at least one if not several certification systems is a really good place to start. Certifications like WELL, LEED, and Living Future are essential for demonstrating expertise in biophilic design. Interior designers play a crucial role in integrating biophilic design concepts into interior spaces, significantly impacting mental health.

Additionally, biophilic design consultants often work alongside architects, engineers, lighting designers, acoustics consultants, and client representatives, emphasizing the collaborative nature of these projects.

Biophilic design research study for The Wardian - an EcoWorld Ballymore residential development in London’s Canary Wharf

What prompted you to do your own research studies into biophilic design and natural elements in London?

We were commissioned by a real estate developer called EcoWorld Ballymore to take over a space of theirs by the river in Canary Wharf, London’s business district for a 4-week residency.

We created a mini biophilic workspace in small glass building, turning it into a creative meeting room right by the water full of air-purifying plants to improve indoor air quality. We also integrated natural elements such as natural light, plants, and water to enhance the connection between the built and natural environments, creating a healthier built environment. A team from the University of Essex then created a scientific research questionnaire for us as a ‘before and after’ questionnaire for office workers during their visit to our ‘recharge room’ full of Vitamin Nature. (see the full report here)

In total 108 people spent about an hour in that biophilic green space designed for mental wellbeing, and we saw very positive results for key indicators such as productivity, creativity, nature-connectedness, stress and anxiety levels, even concentration.

So, a ‘recharge room’ or office ‘quiet space’ can become especially interesting when we layer in biophilic design as a way to give purpose and meaning to for example an unused office.

Maybe there is room for a little yoga and stretching in there too, or maybe not but let’s be clear - mental health in the workplace has never been more important than it is today.

This type of nurturing space in an office environment may seem a mismatch but in fact it can be a tangible help for HR departments looking to recruit and retain top talent by ensuring they have a happy and healthy workforce.

Biophilic Design and Wellbeing Interiors- an evolutionary perspective

A lot of the same principles are at the root of biophilic design, wellbeing interiors and healthy buildings. Here we explore the synergies between these distinct but ultimately complementary concepts.

Q. What is your personal background?

Matt Morley: I come from a real estate development background. I was a creative director for real estate developer for many years, from there grew a passion in what we could call healthy buildings or what's often described as wellbeing design in the real estate sector.

In parallel with that I was always heavily into nature and spending time outside and looking for natural alternatives to what I was doing indoors, so if we put that all into a shaker, the cocktail that comes out is this company Biofilico.

I started with gyms under the Biofit moniker, that remains a highly specialized business providing consultancy services to hotel groups and real estate businesses on creating green, healthy gym spaces with style.

It's a very niche market, but there's a market for it, and it's been growing steadily over the last five or six years I’m glad to say.

Q. How did you move into the workplace and residential sectors?

I noticed that there were adjacent categories where applying the same principles of how you to create a healthy building or biophilic space could be of value.

So I soon started working on office projects and more recently residential, as well as hotels.

Q: How do you think about healthy interior spaces?

For me it all goes back to our evolutionary history which is obviously so much longer and more extensive than the history we have of living indoors in centrally heated, air conditioned, electrically illuminated environments.

This post-industrial age is just a tiny blip in our evolutionary history over the last call it three and a half million years or 200,000 years if we're going back to the start of Homosapiens. No matter how you look at it, our ancestors spent a long ,long time surviving out in nature, that's our DNA, that’s what our genetic make-up is still equipped for but contemporary lifestyles are largely disconnected from that. For better or worse.

For me, that's where biophilic design comes by in trying to realign our indoor environments with the natural world and our evolutionary past.

Q: How do you define biophilia and biophilic design?

There are two versions for that. There's the version that you will read online that says either Eric Fromm or E.O. Wilson coined the term but for me all they were doing was giving a name to the innate connection that we all have as human beings to nature. They didn’t invent anything as such.

Biophilic design then takes that a step further by bringing it indoors, into the modern world and the realities of life today where we spend most of our time in some form of built environment.

When I talk about it I'm very much pushing the idea of biophilic design bridging two worlds, between green buildings and healthy buildings.

A lot of the work for LEED or BREEAM building certifications is focused on the environment while WELL and FITWEL building certifications zero in on the human aspect of buildings and interiors, the health and wellbeing side. Together, that gives us people and planet.

Healthy spaces are more to do with the people, the inhabitants or occupants and the users while the planet angle is more related to impact on raw materials, pollution, and so on, Biophilic design combines elements of the two, so a natural environment that is both healthy for the people who spend time in it but also healthy for the planet in terms of its impact on the world around us.

Biophilic design joins the dots between nature, human health and environmental wellbeing.

Q. What are the key principles of wellbeing design?

One key component is indoor air quality - here we are working to purify the air via enhancements to the ventilation system’s filters for example but it is also about the materials and finishes introduced into that space during the fit-out. Are they natural, non-chemical materials or are they materials containing plastics of chemical treatments for example, such as flame retardants?

There's a lot of interesting research out there about the mental aspect as well so if air quality is about physical wellbeing in one sense it is also a way to boost mental performance, through productivity and concentration levels. It is a way to improve how office workers perform during the day or how residents sleep at night. So producing in one sense and recovering in another, both linked to the indoor air quality.

Then we have light quality - having a connection to nature with a view out onto plants, greenery or a landscape will serve to exposure you to certain color spectrums of light at certain times of day. This can be supplemented with smart lights indoors that produce the ‘right kind’ of blue-white light during the day time before softening to a more amber tone towards the end of the day.

Philips Hue bulbs are great. I've been using them for a few years, but there are others out there now too. It's a relatively simple system, you don't have to have it set up to your Wi Fi network if you decide you want everything grounded and you want to avoid EMF risks, but that's a separate topic!

These lights serve as my alarm in the mornings so I wake with a replica of sunlight that slowly increases over a 30-minute period in what is hopefully my pitch black bedroom - to promote deep sleep and recovery.

Q: What air-purifying plants do you recommend?

It's relatively easy to find air-purifying plants that can be kept indoors with indirect light and they'll do a lot of good in terms of taking out the bad stuff, and pumping oxygen back into your home, for more Oxygen and less CO2.

Air-purifiers simply enhance and improve that same process, as plants can only do so much alone given the quality of inner-city air nowadays! The key is to go big, don’t hold back on your plant strategy, aim for six to eight plants per person in a room of say, 25m2

If you live in a remote location, if you're living in the middle of the woods or mountains, that's one thing. If you're in the middle of a city then I tend to hack that scenario a little bit with an air purifier running during the night. In other words, a combination of wellness tech and natural solutions is best.

In terms of plant species, my go-to species is the ‘ZZ’ plant as they're really resistant. They do a lot of good for you as well so I recommend those in your home especially.

For a home gym, garage gym or garden gym, space is probably limited so your floor space is at a premium, here I'm looking for low maintenance plants while keeping my floor space free for training activities like crawling, running, jumping, and so on. Generally, potted plants on the floor in your gym is a bad idea, especially if cats and dogs are in the mix as well.

Q: How do you use wabi-sabi design in wellbeing interiors?

This is a Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection. So imagine an organic apple, perhaps not the best looking, it may not be perfect but it is going to taste 100 times better than one that has been genetically modified to look ‘perfect’. The organic apple is full of vitamins and is far closer to an apple as nature intended it to be.

So wabi-sabi design can have a patina of age, curves instead of right angles, or a wobbly edge to a handcrafted ceramic plate for example.

Q: What healthy materials do you work with most often?

I always try to recommend a non-toxic, chemical and VOC-free paint for interior walls. There's this whole world of eco-friendly paints out there now, for example from the likes of Graphenstone or Lakeland, both fine examples of what is possible today from a sustainability perspective. Some paints can even absorb unwanted gases and chemicals that might be coming out of the plastics in your furniture.

Flooring is another key area to focus on for healthy materials. There's lots of high quality rubber and cork gym floor options out there that are generally much better than some of the cheaper flooring tile solutions, if natural wood, bamboo or stone is not within the realms of possibility budget-wise.

Q: What segments of the real estate market do you expect to see biophilic design impacting in future?

At the moment I'm looking at example at two different projects around the ‘senior living’ space. So, what I see is that post-COVID there's a huge spike in demand in advisory services on healthy materials as well as projects aimed at creating healthy indoor environments, and where better to do that than in a health clinic or residential development for seniors?

There are different concerns according to the specific project type but what makes it interesting is that they all join up and overlap in the end, at least in terms of my consultancy briefs.

Wellbeing interior design and biophilia at Can Ikigai, Barcelona

Our wellbeing interior design for “Can Ikigai” is a haven of tranquillity and biophilia in Barcelona’s Gracia neighborhood

Wellbeing interiors and biophilia

In this project we combine elements of wellbeing interiors and biophilic design in response to the existing Japanese influences present in the apartment in its unfurnished state.

The use of solid oak sliding panels and flooring, combined with an abundance of natural light and an over-sized wrap-around terrace meant that we could keep the majority of the plants outside, leaving the interior space for a more minimalist, neutral palette of beige, white and grey-black.

Healthy home design

A living area has a Japanese futon paired with a quality mattress covered in a beige linen fabric cover sourced from our friends at La Maison in Barcelona. We then added a Libeco throw and some tonal cushions to ‘disguise’ the guest bed as a day bed / sofa, layering natural fabric over natural fabric.

Wabi-sabi design

An entire wall of bespoke shelving was decorated with objets d’art and tribal artifacts collected from around the world in particular Spain and the African continent, each one ‘imperfect’ in its own way and thereby creating a degree of visual consistency through materials and finishes. A reading lamp from Artemide then makes this a comfortable corner for reading, especially during winter months.

Biophilic kitchen

The kitchen is more of an architectural statement so required nothing more than some carefully displayed wooden chopping boards and designer kitchen goods for a keen chef to enjoy the cooking experience, such as a Vitamix blender and a classic Pavoni espresso machine. Plants, leaves and indeed fruit and vegetables themselves plat a decorative role off-set against the backdrop of a dark grey, rough ceramic wall finish.

Biophilia in a home office

A healthy home office set-up features a standing desk and stool combined with a floor pad for added comfort under-foot, a biophilic art installation on the wall by Flowers By Bornay, vintage Scandinavian side table in solid teak and a biophilic art print sourced from an at fair in South Africa.

Eco-friendly bathroom

Linen towels, reusable bottles for natural soap and shampoo, a plastic-free set of bathroom accessories and a smart lighting system for those dark evenings all ensure that this is a healthy bathroom experience that also does no harm to the planet as we removed all plastic completely. This requires proximity to a good eco-friendly store selling soaps and so on, in this case Barcelona had plenty to offer nearby!

Home gym design

Making use of the large outdoor space, we brought in a set of kettlebells, sandbags, dumbbells, medicine balls, bands and exercise mats to create a functional fitness training area with all the essentials, and just the right amount of design influence to ensure continuity with the rest of the property. A row of succulents lines the whitewashed balcony wall, keeping the connection to nature whilst working out.

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An introduction to biophilic design and wellbeing interior concepts

What is a green building vs a healthy building?

The real estate industry has increasingly shifted away from thinking exclusively about 'green buildings' and 'sustainable real estate' in what has been a quiet revolution over the last 10-15 years towards building occupant wellbeing and human health, extending the concept further to give a mix of Planet (green buildings) and People (healthy buildings).

What role do smart buildings play?

Aligned with that, we are increasingly looking at smart buildings too, so 'healthy, green and smart' are becoming the holy trinity of high performance real estate today in other words.

Thinking about a workplace, home, building, or an entire community that is healthy, green and smart means we have three possible levers to play with. Let's leave the smart slightly to the side for now.

Biophilic design in wellbeing interiors

When we're thinking about wellbeing interiors, there's been this massive shift towards appreciation for integrating nature into an indoor environment, a concept now typically referred to as biophilia, which is really just our innate connection to to the natural world and how increasingly urban environments, come with their own risks because we end up disconnected from where we came from.

Biophilic design brings the outside world back in. I started doing gyms and then branched out into coworking spaces, business clubs, offices and now entire buildings. The focus there is combining elements of both eco-friendly and sustainable interiors that are conscious of how an indoor environment’s materials, fabrics, plant count and so on can also affect occupant wellbeing.

What's fascinating is that the natural and organic are inherently healthy, just think about diet for example. So natural positioning for a brand or office interior in a Silicon Valley tech company is a fundamental piece of their workplace wellness and employee engagement strategies. Not not just doing less harm to the environment but actually giving something back to your people, to your employees who are spending their days there.

What are the benefits of biophilic design in the workplace?

Besides making just about any interior space more pleasant and uplifting, biophilic interior designers can make a workspace more productive for workers, helping with concentration with views onto nature, be it direct or indirect, living or a representation of nature in other words. Both work, as it turns out!

Biophilic spaces also foster feelings of vitality and by being connected to nature during the work day the research shows it promotes overall positivity. We also look for data, tangible results that highlight the impact of such biophilic design interventions, it’s not enough to rely o aesthetic improvements alone, we’re after functional health improvements here.

What data or science is there behind biophilic design’s benefits?

That's where the tech piece loops back in, increasingly all of this needs to be data driven and/or scientifically backed, delivering functional health benefits. One area of particular interest is indoor air quality, previously this was wrapped up in the wide-ranging healthy building certifications such as WELL Standard and Fitwel. Now though, we’ve seen dedicated air quality standards coming onto the market such as RESET AIR. This is a real sign of the times and holds the key to more widely available data around indoor air quality.

When you're dealing with a workplace, we don't have a standardized system of rankings for how healthy a space it is. The green building movement did make some progress in that sense, with certifications like LEED and BREEAM and various others all around the world starting the process off.

how do smart building certifications fit into this?

More recently we've had smart certification systems come into the market; I tend to use WIRED Score. They go in and make sure that everything within that building or workplace is future-proofed so that you can effectively integrate tech into your facilities management system, opening the door not just to high connectivity but also energy efficiencies, invaluable building usage data, and so on.

Air quality monitors produce data every hour that can be analyzed online and set-up to send alarm notifications whenever there is a change in air quality in a particular space, for example if something doesn’t look right in a particular meeting room because it has been full of workers for four hours straight and the ventilation system has started to play up. Technology gives us a real time view of the health credentials of a space, no matter its function.

Yes, there is a modest cost to all of this but once you're set up I think you then get into discussions around providing support for your occupants, guests or customers. You’ve made health a priority. Another tangible output is often productivity rates and less low-level anxiety.

Work doesn’t need to be about putting hours in at your desk in a specific corner of the office, it's about how much can you produce and what type of space(s) do you need to do your best work, adding value to the company’s bottom line in the process?

Does biophilic design have its own wellness building standard?

Biophilic design is a part of building standards such as LEED or BREEAM for example, there are components within them that give credits or recognition for integrating elements of biophilic design so rather than being a separate standard it appears as a feature, or a design strategy that we use to not just tick boxes on a standard’s check list but to deliver tangible aesthetic enhancements to an interiors space.

So in a sense, biophilia sits between the two worlds of green and healthy buildings, with wellbeing interior design on one side and sustainable design on the other. In other words, if I create a biophilic office or biophilic gym for example for a project pursuing LEED or WELL, it would secure points for both standards.

what about wellness lighting?

There has been real revolution in lighting systems over the last few years, and so there's a few different ways of looking at it one would be to say, okay, how can we, first of all, reduce energy expenditure with the lighting? That’s the easy part, we've been doing that for a little while now.

Then it becomes, ‘how can we enhance wellbeing through our lighting choices?’ That’s where smart lighting systems, exposure to natural daylight, even color therapy come in. It’s all about the spectrum of light we use, that affects our energy levels basically.

From a biophilic design perspective, I take inspiration from ancestral health practices, with a brighter blue-white light in the mornings and into the middle of the day, then softer, more amber hues or yellow and orange with no blue at all after dark. That means no TV and no bright halogen overhead lights please otherwise it disrupts sleeping patterns, that then results in decreased energy levels the next day, and we all know what feels like.

We see hotels engaging with that concept but workplaces are only really just catching on. How many of us have spent entire days in offices with intense blue-white halogen lights above us from nine o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night, then you go home and guess what, it's hard to switch off despite being tired!

If it’s dark at 5pm in winter, consider a task lamp on your desk combined with a softer uplighter on a wall or a standing lamp with a dimmer option. We want energy levels not to drop but we also need to protect the quality of our sleep once the work is done. It’s not that complicated really once you work it out.

how do you apply your knowledge to residential projects now?

I'm often dealing in quite large-scale projects, so it might be an eight-story mixed-use real estate development in London, an entire hotel or various fitness rooms and gyms in a health centre. When I have scale, I'm part of a team working alongside engineers, architects even interior design studios. Over the last year though I've been at home and so my challenge has been to take some of this big picture thinking and apply it to my own little world of a home office environment with wellbeing interiors and biophilic design principles.

I've created a home gym space as well as a home office in fact, applying the knowledge gained from commercial or hospitality projects and converting them into a residential context. What happens when you apply those ideas to your home environment where you now spend a lot more time than you did before?!

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