Biophilic design is an approach to creating spaces that connect people to the natural world. It prioritises elements like natural light, organic textures, and calming colours inspired by nature. The goal is to create environments that reduce stress, promote well-being, and foster a sense of calm and focus.
For schools and nurseries, this means designing spaces that help children feel grounded and secure, particularly for those who may find traditional learning environments overwhelming.
The Power of Biophilic Design in Schools and… – The Autistic SENCO | Facebook
Biophilic design is the designing for people as a biological organism, respecting the mind-body systems as indicators of health and well-being in the context of what is locally appropriate and responsive. Good biophilic design draws from influential perspectives – health conditions, socio-cultural norms and expectations, past experiences, frequency and duration of the user experience, the many speeds at which it may be encountered, and user perception and processing of the experience – to create spaces that are inspirational, restorative, and healthy, as well as integrative with the functionality of the place and the (urban) ecosystem to which it is applied. Above all, biophilic design must nurture a love of place.
Biophilic design can reduce stress, enhance creativity and clarity of thought, improve our well-being and expedite healing; as the world population continues to urbanize, these qualities are ever more important. Theorists, research scientists, and design practitioners have been working for decades to define aspects of nature that most impact our satisfaction with the built environment.
Biophilic design can reduce stress, improve cognitive function and creativity, improve our well-being and expedite healing; as the world population continues to urbanize, these qualities are ever more important. Given how quickly an experience of nature can elicit a restorative response, and the fact that U.S. businesses squander billions of dollars each year on lost productivity due to stress-related illnesses, design that reconnects us with nature – biophilic design – is essential for providing people opportunities to live and work in healthy places and spaces with less stress and greater overall health and well-being.
Biophilia is the humankind’s innate biological connection with nature. It helps explain why crackling fires and crashing waves captivate us; why a garden view can enhance our creativity; why shadows and heights instill fascination and fear; and why animal companionship and strolling through a park have restorative, healing effects. Biophilia may also help explain why some urban parks and buildings are preferred over others.
Biophilia, a concept first popularized by Edward O. Wilson in 19841, describes the innate relationship between humans
and nature, and concerns the need we have to be continually connected to nature. Plenty of research confirms this
human preference for the natural, rather than built, environment. For example, in a 2004 study, when asked to describe their ideal city, people more often chose non-urban characteristics, greenery in particular, and in other studies it has been shown that a pleasant and natural view can raise the price of a house considerably.Although it has been proposed that this desire for a connection with nature is the result of an anti-urban bias combined
with a romantic view of nature, environmental psychology research tells us that being connected to nature, is in fact, an
adaptive human function that allows for, and assists with, psychological restoration. This means that within an urbanized
environment, bringing in elements that allow direct nature connection (such as parks and lakes) or indirect connections
(i.e., interior design using natural elements, nature-resembling colors and patterns, indoor plants and views of greenery)
can help us to mentally recover and provide respite from our day-to-day activities, to maintain positive well-being.
Biophilic design is a response to the human need to connect with nature and works to re-establish this contact in the built environment. Ultimately, biophilic design is the theory, science and practise of creating buildings inspired by nature, with the aim to continue the individual’s connection with nature in the environments in which we live and work every day.
In today’s contemporary built environment, people are increasingly isolated from the beneficial experience of natural systems and processes. Yet it is often natural settings that people find particularly appealing and aesthetically pleasing. So, by mimicking these natural environments within the workplace, we can create workspaces that are imbued with positive emotional experiences. It is often the case that we don’t take enough time to immerse ourselves in nature or appreciate the living systems that exist everywhere around us, making it vital for us to incorporate nature into our day-to-day environments.
Amsterdam Apud C. G. van der Post
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/652019
Biophilic Design in Schools
Biophilic design, on the other hand, creates a sensory-friendly environment where children can focus, feel safe, and engage more meaningfully with their surroundings. Here’s why it works:
- Calming the Senses: Neutral tones and natural textures are less overwhelming for the senses, helping children who may struggle with sensory overload.
- Improved Focus: Studies have found that exposure to natural elements can boost concentration and cognitive function.
- Lower Stress Levels: Biophilic spaces have been linked to reduced stress and anxiety, which can have a huge impact on children’s ability to learn and regulate their emotions.
- Increased Creativity: Natural environments inspire curiosity and creativity, encouraging children to explore and engage with the world around them.
What Does Biophilic Design Look Like in Schools?
In practice, biophilic design might include:
- Natural Materials: Wooden furniture, woven baskets, and cotton fabrics replacing plastic-heavy materials.
- Neutral Tones: Soft whites, beiges, greens, and blues inspired by nature replacing bold, primary colours.
- Plants: Adding greenery to classrooms to improve air quality and bring a touch of the outdoors inside.
- Natural Light: Maximizing daylight with large windows and open spaces.
- Decluttered Walls: Streamlined displays with minimal, purposeful content rather than overly busy and overstimulating decorations.
The Power of Biophilic Design in Schools and… – The Autistic SENCO | Facebook
Bring nature into the classroom or take the classroom outside. Studies show that experiences with and in green spaces provide greater emotional well-being and lower anxiety, anger, exhaustion, and mood disturbance occurrences than in urban environments with little to no nature. Despite this knowledge, low-income and BIPOC communities in the United States continue to have decreased access to green spaces. To mitigate the harms brought on by such inequity try engaging in biophilic design or design rooted in nature which “can reduce stress, improve cognitive function and creativity, improve our well-being and expedite healing.”
Carceral Classrooms | Human Restoration Project | Jessica Hatrick Sophie Sylla
14 Patterns of Biophilic Design
Biophilic design can be organized into three categories – Nature in the Space, Natural Analogues, and Nature of the Space – providing a framework for understanding and enabling thoughtful incorporation of a rich diversity of strategies into the built environment.
Nature in Space
Nature in the Space encompasses seven biophilic design patterns:
- Visual Connection with Nature. A view to elements of nature, living systems and natural processes.
- Non-Visual Connection with Nature. Auditory, haptic, olfactory, or gustatory stimuli that engender a deliberate and positive reference to nature, living systems or natural processes.
- Non-Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli. Stochastic and ephemeral connections with nature that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.
- Thermal & Airflow Variability. Subtle changes in air temperature, relative humidity, airflow across the skin, and surface temperatures that mimic natural environments.
- Presence of Water. A condition that enhances the experience of a place through seeing, hearing or touching water.
- Dynamic & Diffuse Light. Leverages varying intensities of light and shadow that change over time to create conditions that occur in nature.
- Connection with Natural Systems. Awareness of natural processes, especially seasonal and temporal changes characteristic of a healthy ecosystem.
Natural Analogues
Natural Analogues encompasses three patterns of biophilic design:
- Biomorphic Forms & Patterns. Symbolic references to contoured, patterned, textured or numerical arrangements that persist in nature.
- Material Connection with Nature. Materials and elements from nature that, through minimal processing, reflect the local ecology or geology and create a distinct sense of place.
- Complexity & Order. Rich sensory information that adheres to a spatial hierarchy similar to those encountered in nature.
Nature of the Space
Nature of the Space encompasses four biophilic design patterns:
- Prospect. An unimpeded view over a distance, for surveillance and planning.
- Refuge. A place for withdrawal from environmental conditions or the main flow of activity, in which the individual is protected from behind and overhead.
- Mystery. The promise of more information, achieved through partially obscured views or other sensory devices that entice the individual to travel deeper into the environment.
- Risk/Peril. An identifiable threat coupled with a reliable safeguard.
Rewilding
A rewilding of society is a restoration of healthy cultures and social structures that honour our connection to the natural world. Our socio-economic systems are designed from a worldview of ecological disconnection. This affects our whole human world – our daily lifestyles, resource use, buildings and urban design, transport, economic, education and health systems. Imagine what buildings, hospitals, cities and schools would look like if they included nature rather than marginalised it, embraced nature’s intelligence and worked with it rather than against it? Some progressive ‘biophilic’ cities are already blazing trails in this area, such as Vancouver, Amsterdam, and Singapore with its Khoo Teck Puat Hospital – a ‘hospital in a garden, and a garden in a hospital.’
Mutual Trust
Mutual trust is a biophilic ecological phenomenon of emergent local predictability that is not limited to humans. In a dynamic ecological context, enduring relationships of mutual trust constitute the ingredients of a life affirming ecology of care that is integrated into the regenerative cyclical flow of life.
Being part of the Earth in good company – our shared humanity | Autistic Collaboration
It turns out that lived experience in nurturing and maintaining mutual trustat human scale is the key ingredient for being at ease in a seemingly unpredictable world. Being able to rely on each other is at the core of the evolutionary heritage of our species. Mutual trust is a biophilic ecological phenomenon of emergent local predictability that is not limited to humans.
Life defies the dehumanising cut-off points of the bell curve | Autistic Collaboration
