In order to have a healthy, satisfied and fulfilled life humans cannot live apart or alienated from the environment from which we evolved.
In order to have a healthy, satisfied and fulfilled life humans cannot live apart or alienated from the environment from which we evolved.
biophilic design
The hypothesis behind biophilic design proposes that humans have an innate love of nature. We long for it and we need to connect with it. It is essential to our physical wellbeing and to our mental health.
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 has restorative, healing effects.
Simply put, we come from nature and we need to experience nature to live happier lives.
Nature remains our magic well:
the more we draw from its nourishing
waters, the more we sustain the human
body, mind and spirit.
Nature remains our magic well: the more we draw from its nourishing waters, the more we sustain the human body, mind and spirit.
Biophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment through the use of direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions.
We are not just talking about decoration or aesthetics. We are speaking about conditions that affect human well-being. Well-being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity. It includes having good mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, and ability to manage stress.
A 2015 report by Human Spaces found that workers with access to natural light and greenery reported a 13% higher level of well-being. Rather bleakly, the report also revealed that 42% of workers had no access to natural light in their workspaces, 55% no greenery and 7% had no windows.
Studies have also consistently shown that patients in hospital rooms with views to nature have dramatically shorter recovery times, suer less depression, and dramatically less need for pain medication, than patients in rooms with either no windows or windows that look onto non-natural settings like walls or parking lots.
There literally has been more
research done on tigers in cages
than on people in buildings.
There literally has been more research done on tigers in cages than on people in buildings.
