6 Ways to Reduce Stress at Home With Biophilic Design
An easy guide to using biophilic design in your interior to regenerate the mind, reduce stress and boost your creativity
Biophilic design has become a driving force in interiors and architecture and is the perfect complement to sustainability and energy efficiency. The practice uses the built environment to satisfy our biological need for nature and connect us with the natural world. And the aim is to create homes and buildings that are environmentally friendly and capable of improving our physical and emotional wellbeing, reducing stress and improving concentration and creativity. How? By using theories of biophilia to build spaces in harmony with our innate, and often subconscious, tendency to seek connections with nature.
Designing using biophilia means being conscious of what people perceive as pleasing, intriguing and reinvigorating in their natural surroundings, and systematically integrating the lines, colours, materials, sensations and solutions that make them feel good on both a physical and emotional level into their constructed spaces.
But what kind of interior choices does this translate into specifically? Read on to find out with these six easy ways to work biophilic design into your home.
But what kind of interior choices does this translate into specifically? Read on to find out with these six easy ways to work biophilic design into your home.
1. Biophilic design connects people directly with nature
The first and most intuitive way of furnishing any indoor living space in line with the principles of biophilia is by adding plants (in vases, garden beds, terrariums, vertical green walls, and so on).
Alternatively, stabilised greenery (a plant whose sap has been replaced, by capillarity, with 100-percent natural glycerin to preserve it), which is much easier to maintain, gives you a long-lasting visual connection to nature with a highly refined aesthetic.
The first and most intuitive way of furnishing any indoor living space in line with the principles of biophilia is by adding plants (in vases, garden beds, terrariums, vertical green walls, and so on).
Alternatively, stabilised greenery (a plant whose sap has been replaced, by capillarity, with 100-percent natural glycerin to preserve it), which is much easier to maintain, gives you a long-lasting visual connection to nature with a highly refined aesthetic.
Sharing our homes with furry friends can also help us feel closer to nature. And a truly biophilic home doesn’t just cater to its human occupants. Theoretically, it would include space for everything you need to respond to your pet’s instinctive needs, such as cat climbing walls and cosy dog beds, bird feeders, aquariums, you name it.
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2. Connecting with nature through sight
Biophilic design also encapsulates design strategies that can encourage memories of being in nature through sensory triggers. Upholstery, wallpaper and trompe-l’oeil surfaces with floral motifs or giant murals of wild landscapes all suit the brief.
Biophilic design also encapsulates design strategies that can encourage memories of being in nature through sensory triggers. Upholstery, wallpaper and trompe-l’oeil surfaces with floral motifs or giant murals of wild landscapes all suit the brief.
If possible, a biophilic house should directly enhance your visual connection with nature via large windows that frame your views or surrounding greenery.
3. Connecting with nature through touch
Natural raw textures such as stone and timber surfaces – particularly ones that have been left as untreated as possible – also help us feel at one with nature through touch.
Natural raw textures such as stone and timber surfaces – particularly ones that have been left as untreated as possible – also help us feel at one with nature through touch.
4. Connecting with nature through smell and sound
References to nature through smell and sound can be particularly rejuvenating and calming. Ideally, the natural world itself – rather than simulations of it – should stimulate your senses. Windows that open onto fragranced gardens, which encourage pollinators to visit, are just one example.
References to nature through smell and sound can be particularly rejuvenating and calming. Ideally, the natural world itself – rather than simulations of it – should stimulate your senses. Windows that open onto fragranced gardens, which encourage pollinators to visit, are just one example.
Scented candles and diffusers, cut flowers, small indoor fountains, and natural sound simulators also work well if a direct connection to the great outdoors is difficult to achieve at home.
5. Celebrate natural shapes and patterns
Another biophilic design strategy is to replicate the organic structures that we find in nature by prioritising soft, rounded shapes.
You could welcome these into your home in large gestures by working organic shapes into the architecture and design, or in smaller ways by adopting natural forms in furniture and artwork.
Another biophilic design strategy is to replicate the organic structures that we find in nature by prioritising soft, rounded shapes.
You could welcome these into your home in large gestures by working organic shapes into the architecture and design, or in smaller ways by adopting natural forms in furniture and artwork.
The use of repetitive biomorphic patterns, such as hexagons, has a similar effect and can also play an interesting role in biophilic design.
Browse more contemporary Australian bathrooms with timber vanities
Browse more contemporary Australian bathrooms with timber vanities
6. Biophilic design replicates the feeling of natural spaces
Nature is full of spaces that make us feel happy, from familiar places we go to when we want to seek refuge, to new places where we rediscover the joy of the unexplored.
A biophilic house or apartment is therefore designed with this in mind: spaces you can retreat to, such as a cosy reading corner, and areas where you seek adventure, such as a hanging chair or a view across a vast, expansive landscape.
The key is to acknowledge your need for nature and simply allow yourself to be inspired by it within your interior.
Nature is full of spaces that make us feel happy, from familiar places we go to when we want to seek refuge, to new places where we rediscover the joy of the unexplored.
A biophilic house or apartment is therefore designed with this in mind: spaces you can retreat to, such as a cosy reading corner, and areas where you seek adventure, such as a hanging chair or a view across a vast, expansive landscape.
The key is to acknowledge your need for nature and simply allow yourself to be inspired by it within your interior.
Your turn
How have you worked biophilic design into your home? Tell us in the Comments, like this story, save the images for inspiration and join the conversation.
More
Take more inspiration from environmentally friendly approaches to your home design with this article: What’s New in Sustainable Design in 2023?
How have you worked biophilic design into your home? Tell us in the Comments, like this story, save the images for inspiration and join the conversation.
More
Take more inspiration from environmentally friendly approaches to your home design with this article: What’s New in Sustainable Design in 2023?
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Biologists and psychologists began studying biophilia in the mid-20th century, developing a scientific theory to articulate humans’ innate affinity with nature and living beings. It was after this that practical models started to emerge, such as the 14 Patterns, published by Terrapin Bright Green, or the frameworks currently being trialled at the Laboratorio di Ecologia Affettiva at the Università della Valle d’Aosta in Italy.
Our goal is to now apply these biophilic theories to architecture and urban planning. The idea that we need nature in design couldn’t be more relevant to modern living, as Covid-19 showed us when it plunged the world into lockdown.