19 October, 2015
When we think of biophilic design, we think of nature. Its primary intention to reintroduce nature into our built environments. Yet much of the project and literature focus of biophilic design has been on interior environments. What about applications of biophilic design to the external built environment? There is a noticeable bias towards architecture and…
30 September, 2015
How can we design the mindful office? What would a mindful office look and feel like? An introduction to mindfulness We live and work in a world full of distracting pollution. With increased digital connectivity through access to emails, social media, the web’s encyclopedic repository of information and all the other distractions that are commonplace…
25 September, 2015
In my earlier article I outlined the benefit of biophilic design in educational settings and showed you a lovely example of St Mary’s infant school designed by Jessop & Cook imbued with biophilic principles. Further research shows that optimising exposure to daylight alone can improve school attendance by an average of 3.5 days/year and test…
9 September, 2015
In the majority of cases a workers environment, usually an office, is not catered towards maximising their potential health and well-being. This must change. The World Health Organization describes wellness as “…a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.“. Do most desk workers fall into…
24 July, 2015
There is so much evidence about the advantages of biophilic design elements being incorporated into office design. So, we thought we’d share some inspiring examples of office interiors that are putting theory into practice; creating spaces that are teeming with vitality where workers can feel inspired and thrive. Ljubljana Chamber of Commerce and Industry The…
1 June, 2015
The challenge of biophilic design is to address prevailing deficiencies of contemporary building, landscape and interior architecture by initiating a new framework for the beneficial experience of nature in the built environment (Kellert et al 2008, Kellert 2012, Kellert and Finnegan 2011). Biophilic design is about creating good habitat for people as a biological organism…
22 May, 2015
Educational buildings can vary vastly in scale and capacity; from small village nurseries, through to schools that cater for hundreds of students and universities where the campuses can be like self-contained cities. What they have in common, however, is that each of them contains a combination of students who are there to learn, staff that…
21 May, 2015
This is the third post in an on-going series outlining each of the 14 patterns of biophilic design, a collection of biophilic strategies codified in Terrapin Bright Green’s “14 Patterns of Biophilic Design” paper. Pattern 3: Non-Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli Nature is never static; it’s always moving, growing, adapting. We notice when a room is visually…
19 May, 2015
According to the Institute for Building Efficiency, over 50% of the buildings that will still be in use by 2050 have already been built; and close to ¾ of these buildings are over 20 years old, before the principles of biophilic design were well understood, let alone widely applied. On a similar note, the European…
11 May, 2015
Wander through a major hospital in any modern city and a single visual element is likely to dominate the space: nature art is everywhere! Nature art: Images as representative symbols It’s been over 30 years since Roger Ulrich’s trailblazing study on the effect of window views to nature on patient recovery. His seminal finding that…
Joe Clancy 
Oliver Heath 
Interface 
Dr. Stephen Kellert 
Catie Ryan 
Bill Witherspoon