Human Spaces — Latest Posts

14 Patterns of Biophilic Design: Complexity & Order

December 14, 2015

Complexity, as one of the more abstract biophilic concepts, has gained quite a bit of traction as a welcomed design challenge. We talk about the objective of the Complexity & Order pattern (#10) as a means for creating a visually nourishing environment, based on an understanding of the symmetries, fractal geometries and spatial hierarchies that…

Q&A: The Role of Floors in Wayfinding

December 3, 2015

With the success of their recent architectural and interior project – the University of Wollongong Science Teaching Facility – Graham Bell Bowman (GBB) Interior Designer, Rene Deoberitz, reflect on the science of wayfinding, and the importance of flooring within the space. What were the overall design objectives for the Science Teaching Facility at UOW? The…

What’s Trending in Boutique Hotel Design from BDNY 2015

November 30, 2015

A boutique is any small, exclusive business offering customized service, especially one that sells fashionable items specializing in one aspect of a larger industry. BDNY is the time for boutique hotels to find the coolest, hippest design elements to enhance guest experiences. Each year I look forward to grabbing coffee and a bagel, putting on…

Hospitality Carpet: A Design Evolution

November 6, 2015

The stereotype of the business traveler—middle-aged, white, male—has given way to a new demographic that is young, diverse and grounded in a culture of work that intersects with all parts of life. In response to this shifting landscape, the hospitality industry is coming up with subtler, more sophisticated environments and a more judicious use of…

Top 3 Hospitality Interiors

November 5, 2015

The accommodation we choose when travelling is an important aspect of the whole experience and should naturally be somewhere that will aide our path to decompressing the stress of our everyday lives, whilst aiding relaxation and calm. We’ve picked out three contrasting examples of hotels that daydreams are made of; that embody biophilic principles to…

The Role of Landscape Architecture in Creating Biophilic Environments

October 19, 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…

How Can We Design Mindful Offices?

September 30, 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…

3 Inspiring Schools Using Biophilic Design

September 25, 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…

3 Vital Principles to Ensure Well-Being at Work

September 9, 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…

Featured Contributor

Mindy O'Gara

With a passion for design and learning, Mindy O’Gara blends both of these talents into her daily role as Director of Product and Learning Experience at Interface.

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