When you’re looking into designing your space, you may be wondering how best to create a space that feels like it places you in harmony with the natural world. If this is what you’re looking for, then you should check out using biophilic design as your base idea.
Biophilic design is meant to connect us with our biological roots of unity with the natural world within the built environments all around us. This type of design is meant to allow us the mental and physical benefits that we would receive by moving around in nature, all while in a more urban landscape. This is usually done directly as well as indirectly, by using organic forms and patterns in your designs, incorporating living nature into the building, and adapting the spaces to best allow for well-being.
Wellness Room
For direct nature incorporation, let’s go over some of the quickest ways to accomplish this. By using plenty of windows from varying angles, you allow natural light to stimulate your mental health. You can use water features such as indoor waterfalls and aquariums to add natural motion and sounds that soothe. People have a natural connection to water, and always have, so using water in your biophilic designs is a go-to. Bringing vegetation to your design is also an excellent way to use biophilic design. Plants both inside and outside of your building will boost productivity and creativity, as well as help cleanse the air and bring a bit of calm. You can do things like artistic green walls, where you create a whole wall of plants that can be done in a cool pattern. You can have trees inside your building, to bring nature inside. So many amazing options are available with direct nature that you have essentially endless possibilities.
Biophilic design using indirect nature is done by giving people the experience of nature in the style of design and art. Some perfect examples of this are things like using natural earth-tone colors and materials in the design. This can evoke a deep emotional and psychological response in connection to nature. You can add nature-based art to your walls, such as seascapes or forest imagery, or sculptures that depict nature. You can use natural shapes that are found in nature as part of your design, as well as natural geometries and even biomimicry.
Biophilic Design in a Workplace
When looking to utilize spatial experience, the intent is to give you the sensations of nature. Some of the ways that people in biophilic design will do this are by giving the space organized complexity just like you find in nature, or by incorporating the ideas of prospect and refuge where you have plenty of tucked-away spaces as well as broad, open spaces.
Biophilic design is meant to give us as humans the connectedness with nature that we need in order to feel psychologically and physically stable. It’s not hard to achieve, so why not give it a try and see if it works for you? So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and bring the outside in 😊