Biophilic Design – 6 Key Elements
March 3, 2023
Biophilic design creates spaces that provide benefits for both human health and the environment.
Nurture your innate relationship to nature and create harmony within the built environment, through biophilic design.
Created by Stephen Kellert, a social ecologist and biophilic advocate, here are the six elements of biophilic design.
Environmental Features.
Taking characteristics from the natural world – and incorporating them into the built environment.
Plants, animals, natural materials.
Just like in our Wellness Design blog, we can create a connection or feeling of nature through certain colors, usage of water and bring in sunlight – and in open or well-ventilated spaces.
These things all promote well-being. And can be extended to buildings that work within the natural environment rather than against it.
- COLOR
- WATER
- AIR
- SUNLIGHT
- PLANTS + ANIMALS
- VIEWS + LANDSCAPES
- NATURAL MATERIALS
- GREEN FACADES
Natural Shapes & Forms.
Used both internally and externally in design, think of natural forms and patterns, like in tree bark, leaves, motifs of animals. It also eschews sharp edges, right angles, straight lines – rather moving towards spaces that imitate the flowing nature of, well nature.
- BOTANICAL MOTIFS
- TREE SUPPORTS
- ANIMAL PATTERNS
- ARCHES, VAULTS & DOMES
- GEOMORPHOLOGY
- BIOMIMICRY
Natural Patterns.
This element focuses on the idea of how incorporating properties found in nature enhances our built environment. Think variations and the richness of detail in things we perceive through our senses like light, sounds, touch.
- BOUNDED SPACES
- PATTERNED WHOLES
- TRANSITIONAL SPACES
- COMPLEMENTARY CONTRASTS
- AGE, CHANGE & PATINA OF TIME
- DYNAMIC BALANCE & TENSION
Light and Space.
Perhaps the most fundamental element of biophilic design are the use of light and space.
- NATURAL LIGHT
- FILTERED & DIFFUSED LIGHT
- LIGHT & SHADOW
- REFLECTED LIGHT
- SPATIAL VARIABILITY
- SPACE AS SHAPE & FORM
- SPATIAL HARMONY
- INSIDE-OUTSIDE SPACES
Place-Based Relationships.
Linking of culture with ecology. What does this mean? We, as humans, can have a strong sense of connection with certain places – like when you get homesick or miss certain places.
These connections we miss can be geographical, historical, local ecosystems, landscapes – and of course sounds, smells, and touch unique to those places.
- GEOGRAPHIC
- HISTORICAL
- ECOLOGICAL
- CULTURAL
- SPIRIT OF PLACE
- LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
- LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION
- LANDSCAPE DEFINING BUILDING FORM
Evolved Human-Nature Relationships.
Think of the very basic aspects of our relationship to nature – and how these can be reflected in our built environment.
What does nature gives us?
- PROSPECT & REFUGE
- ORDER & COMPLEXITY
- CHANGE & METAMORPHOSIS
- SECURITY & PROTECTION
- EXPLORATION & DISCOVERY
- FEAR & AWE
- REVERENCE & SPIRITUALITY
- INFORMATION & COGNITION
