Since the end of the Industrial Revolution, numerous people have started moving their lives outsides. And for the first time in history, more people live in megacities than in country areas. Trapped within towering edifices, things in large metropolitan megacities. We often miss the vital connection to nature that humans are used to. many studies have shown the physical and intellectual benefits of
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| Forbo Flooring References |
incorporating nature back into our day-to-day lives. And the biophilic design is helping to present the natural world to our constructed terrain. Biophilic design is really about bringing the conception of love of life to our constructed terrain. It's a design process that assumes people in nature are connected and not separate from each other. It's a design process that says that rather than coming by and veritably snappily coming up with a design idea that is maybe just based on the program or the function or the latest design trend, they take the time upfront in the project to understand the depth of that community, the culture, the place. They look for cues, they really observe precisely and they pay attention to all the nuances of that place.
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| City Wealth Hub, Singapore |
The design phase really starts before the pencil goes to paper. In fact, it starts before anyone's, even at the table. Because the design phase of biophilic design has to do with the site and the attributes of the site, you'll want to have stakeholders similar as designers, geography engineers, masterminds, chroniclers and naturalists, and biologists that can make sure that the site attributes are incorporated into the constructed terrain. We'll look beyond the site to the setting, the climate, and the bioregion as well so that if we've views of the mountains and could hear an adjoining stream, we keep those in mind. We catalog that as well in the end when the project is done. A metric of a successful project would be that those plants and creatures that enthrall the project site, predevelopment, can enthrall the site.
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| Indeed Tokyo Office, Designed By Specht Architects |
Regarding materials again that starts on site as well. You will see the stone, you'll see the substrate there, you'll see soil, you'll see the plants, and ideally, the animals there too, if you haven't scared them off. But you will catch colors, and textures and some of these materials can be incorporated into the architecture from a foundation standpoint, a surface standpoint, from a pattern standpoint as well.
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Super Low Energy (SLE) resort in the backyard of its National Singapore Zoo. |
So you'll want to incorporate these textures and these colors and these patterns that you see on-site into the building itself. The materials that the structure is built out of reinforcing the connection to place.
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| Wunder Studio On Office Snaps |
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| Terra Design- Staff |
The entrance door and hanging roof are very vital in the design, it's an imposing element, and architectural item, and it guides you to the entrance of the building, guides you through the building, and then defines the spaces inside the building, too. In particular, the roof overhangs were designed in a manner that allows us to capture as much of the winter sun as possible and flood that through the building, warming the concrete floor, and putting smiles on
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| Ceiling Garden |
occupants' faces in the dead of winter. But in the summertime, those same overhangs prevent direct sunlight from hitting the glazing of desert rain. It's almost as if we're sitting beneath a shade tree. In the summertime, a gentle breeze is blowing through even again.
From a design perspective, I often use the term authentic when we speak of materials. So while from an authenticity standpoint, we would encourage the use of real wood, not a substitute wood or artificial wood, and that's another way the materials can connect the occupants and the visitors to the place.
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| Lemon Restaurants, Rashed Abdullah |
In designs such as the Lemon Restaurants and Rashed Abdullah, biophilic design is used to celebrate the plants and crafts of indigenous peoples. Using materials and labor from the site can be a great way to reinforce the connections between people and places. During this design process, should have to engage several different consultants, from biologists to ecologists, as well as archaeologists and First Nations consultants.
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| Lemon Restaurants, Rashed Abdullah |
For a good biophilic design, Architects should work very closely with Permaculture consultants and landscape architects. As a collaborative group, they came up with a strategy for rewilding the ecosystem. One of the critical aspects of this design process was really exploring biophilia and what biophilia meant to the site. This design engaged in multiple biophilia charrettes, and what they really discovered is that biofuels should be realistic about the human senses. The waste of trees like logs was repurposed as part of the architecture, and located those columns inspired by how the trees face the direction of the sun at a specific angle to mimic nature. And to me, that's one of the strongest biophilic elements in the design of the building.
