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The 3 Core Principles
Biophilic Design connects humans, spaces, and nature through various design strategies that sometimes overlap or complement each other.
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This includes both direct and indirect experiences with nature. Bringing the outdoors inside by introducing low maintenance indoor planting and green walls improves air quality and reduces noise levels. Vertical gardens increase wellbeing, reduce ambient temperature, and reduce anxiety. They promote calmness, encourage positive social interactions, and improve the built environment.
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Nature in the Space - is how we bring plants, trees, sunlight and fresh air as well as a deeper sensory connection to nature into spaces.
Natural Analogues - is how we evoke a feeling or mimic a sense of nature in the space by using natural materials, colours, textures and patterns.
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Nature of the Space - is how we create spaces that are exciting, stimulating and energising but equally calming and restorative.
Biophilic Design Patterns
Biophilic Design is an architectural and design concept of increasing occupant connectivity to the natural world through the use of direct and indirect natural experience, as well as space and place conditions. When considering the elements of Biophilic Design, direct natural experience refers to tangible contact with natural features and in design this includes light, air, water, plants, animals, weather, natural landscapes and fire.
The 15 Patterns
NATURE IN THE SPACE
1. Visual Connection with Nature. A view to an element of
nature, living systems and natural processes.
2. Non-Visual Connection with Nature. Auditory, haptic, olfactory or gustatory stimuli that
engender a deliberate and positive reference to nature, living systems and natural processes.
3. Non-Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli. Stochastic and ephemeral connection with nature that may be analysed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.
4. Thermal and Air Flow Variability. Changes in air temperature, relative humidity, airflow across the skin, and surface temperatures that mimic natural environments.
5. Presence of Water. A condition that enhances the experience of a place through seeing, hearing, or touching water.
6. Dynamic and Diffuse Light. Leverages varying intensities and colour of light and shadow that change over time to create conditions that occur in nature.
7. Connection with Natural Systems. Awareness of natural processes, especially seasonal and temporal changes characteristic of healthy ecosystems.
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NATURAL ANALOGUES
8. Biomorphic Forms and Patterns. Symbolic references to contoured, patterned, textured or numerical arrangements that persist in nature.
9. Material Connection to Nature. Materials and elements from nature that through minimal processing, reflect the local ecology or geology and create a distinct sense of place.
10. Complexity and Order. Rich sensory information that adheres to spatial hierarchy similar to those encountered in nature.
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NATURE OF THE SPACE
11. Prospect. An unimpeded view over a distance for surveillance and planning.
12. Refuge. A place for withdrawal from environmental conditions or the main flow of activity, in which the individual is protected from behind and overhead.
13. 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.
14. Risk/Peril. An identifiable threat coupled with a reliable safeguard.
15. Awe. Stimuli that defy an existing frame of reference and lead to a change in perception.