The Benefits of Biophilic Design
For the month of April we’ve put a special focus on projects and discussions around Design & Planet in alignment with our 2024 Autumn Conversations events. The author of this article, Miranda Brown, will be one of our featured speakers at the upcoming Ōtautahi Autumn Conversations event on 15 April.
Evidence based research on Biophilia and nature inspired art in the built environment for wellbeing and health benefits, in particular Health Care environments.
As humans we have integrated natures symbols and cultural narratives into our built environment and earliest human structures including represenations of animals and plants to give symbolic meaning, share stories and connect people to place.
The fact that across all cultures nature themes exist in historic buildings suggests that biophilic design is not a new phenominon but rather a natural expression of an intuitive culture that understands natures principles and the human need to incorporate nature in the urban environment to maintain a vibrant and healthy life.
Biophia ‘human beings innate love of life’
The word biophilia originates from the Greek, ‘philia’ meaning ‘love of’. It literally means a love of life or living things. E.O. Wilson coined the phrase Biophilia in 1960’S.
Biophilic Design is the process of designing for people in relationship to place by integrating nature into the built environment to enhance human nature connection and creativity while nurturing the local ecosystem.
In biophilic spaces patients recover more quickly, students learn better, retail sales are higher, workplace productivity goes up, and absenteeism goes down.
Sometimes the differences are up to 15 or 20%
Samson Corporation Workplace – site specific
Visual art in hospitals: case studies and review of the evidence
Journal for the royal society for medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996524/
Louise Lankston,1 Pearce Cusack,1 Chris Fremantle,2 and Chris Isles1 Author information
That the arts and sciences are seen as two contrasting disciplines, and indeed are defined as such, immediately presents challenges to a discussion of art in medicine, one of the foremost branches of science. There has, nevertheless, always been an awareness of the ‘art of medicine’ and a realization that health is influenced by a wide range of factors, many of which fall outside the conventional boundaries of medical science. As Kirsty Schirmer, Policy Officer of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, argues, ‘broader determinants impact on health and … often art acknowledges these determinants where science cannot’.1
There is moreover increasing evidence that the display of visual art, especially images of nature, can have positive effects on health outcomes, including shorter length of stay in hospital, increased pain tolerance and decreased anxiety.2–5
Visual images, which might be more easily incorporated into healthcare settings than videos or window views have also been studied. Levels of depression and anxiety tended to be lower in patients undergoing chemotherapy who were exposed to visual art than in patients not exposed to visual art.5
Nature themes were studied by Diette and colleagues in a randomized controlled trial of patients undergoing flexible bronchoscopy. They found that pain control was significantly better in the intervention group than in controls.4
Ulrich investigated the effects on patients recovering from open heart surgery of exposure to one of the following: an image of nature, an abstract image or no image. Patients exposed to the nature image experienced less postoperative anxiety than either of the other two groups. They were also significantly more likely to switch from strong analgesics to weaker painkillers during their recovery. Of note the patients exposed to an abstract image experienced more anxiety than those with no image.2
Impact of Visual Images on Health
A compelling body of evidence in place today argues for the role of nature images in visual art to improve the patient experience of healthcare through reduced stress, anxiety, and pain perception, and improved perception of quality of care (Hathorn & Nanda, 2008; Nanda, 2011; Ulrich, 2009).
‘The combination of bright colors, engaging themes, and nature content is consistently highly rated by pediatric patients.’
The biophilia effect doesn’t require real natural environments. Imagery of nature is enough to see the effect including visual design and nature inspired art
Based on research by Ulrich, summarized in Kellen 2005.
Burwood Hospital curtain design
The Economics of Biophilic Design
Reference: Terrapin whitepaper
http://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/The-Economics-of Biophilia_Terrapin-Bright-Green-2012e.pdf
‘We believe that incorporating nature into the built environment is not just a luxury, but a sound economic investment in health and productivity, based on wellresearched neurological and physiological evidence. In this paper, we will share several examples of small investments involving very low or no up-front cost, such as providing employees access to plants, natural views, daylight, and other biophilic design elements. These measures provide very healthy returns. Integrating quality daylighting schemes into an office space can save over $2,000 per employee per year in office costs, whereas over $93 million could be saved annually in healthcare costs as a result of providing patients with views to nature
One of the many components of biophilia’s influence is the connection that humans have with certain fractal patterns that appear commonly in the natural world. Fractal patterns found in nature can positively affect human neural activity and parasympathetic system mechanisms.
Test results showed that subjects were more wakefully relaxed when exposed to natural landscapes with the study concluding that in environments with many stimuli and patterns, the patterns that are most likely to hold our attention and induce a relaxed response are fractal patterns commonly found in nature (Hagerhall, 2008).
Daylighting harnesses the power of biophilia. Daylight affects both our eye functions and our inherent circadian rhythms. When there is an imbalance of serotonin and melatonin in our bodies, our sleep-wake pattern is disturbed, which in turn inhibits our neurological and immune system functions.
Sunlight on a clear day is 500 to 1,000 times greater than artificial lighting (Boyce, 2010).
This is an important consideration while designing indoor environments to incorporate more natural light. These explanations of nervous system activity in mankind provide some of the fundamental physiological value of biophilia.
Over fifty studies have been published that associate biophilic elements as primary influences for faster recovery rates for patients, decreased dependency on medication, reduced staff and family stress, and improved emotional wellness as a result of natural daylighting and views to nature. In 1984, Roger Ulrich pioneered a seminal study to measure the influence of natural and urban sceneries on patients recovering from gallbladder surgery. Some patients were provided with views to nature, whereas others looked at brick walls. With all other variables equal, his findings revealed accelerated recovery rates and reduced stress for the patients who had views of nature. On average, patients whose windows overlooked a scene of nature were released after 7.96 days, compared with the 8.71 days it took for patients whose views were of the hospital’s exterior walls to recover sufficiently to be released—a decrease of 8.5% (Ulrich, 1984).’
References
Creative New Zealand: Arts in health: a review of the medical literature
https://www.creativenz.govt.nz/assets/ckeditor/attachments/1058/the_arts_in_health_evidence_from_the_in ternational_literature.pdf?1411611918
Living Futures Institute
Biophilia & Healing Environments: Healthy Principles for Designing the Built World. Salingaros, Nikos & Ryan, Catherine. 2015. Terrapin Bright Green & Metropolis Magazine. https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/biophilia-healing-environments/.
“Inducing physiological stress recovery with sounds of nature in a virtual reality forest — Results from a pilot study.”
Annerstedt, Matilda, Peter Jönsson, Mattias Wallergård, Gerd Johansson, Björn Karlson, Patrik Grahn, Åse Marie Hansen, and Peter Währborg. Physiology & Behavior 118 (May 2013): 240-50. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2013.05.023.
“Workplace Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings.”
Baicker, K., D. Cutler, and Z. Song. Health Affairs 29, no. 2 (February 2010): 304-11.
doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2009.0626.
“The influence of school architecture on academic achievement.”
Tanner, C. Kenneth. Journal of Educational Administration 38, no. 4 (February 2000): 309-30. doi:10.1108/09578230010373598.
About the Author:
Bio: Miranda Brown has been a leader in the sustainable design movement for the past two decades and is driven by regenerative principles that look after nature and all life.“ Essentially my practice is all about connecting people to the beauty of nature to enhance wellbeing and to inspire people to look after our natural world. Research shows us that when people are connected to their place they look after that place. Our role is to be the Kaitiaki, guardians of the creatures, the air, earth, water and life force – the mauri ” Miranda’s unique art and biophilic design work is integrated into projects and the built environment where she connects people to nature through creative community engagement, site specific art commissions, biophilic consultation and her interiors range of textiles and wallpapers. Her portfolio includes commercial and residential projects, workplace, health and hospitals, aged care, hotels and public spaces. View www.mirandabrown.co.nz
