AUTHOR
Dr Vanessa Champion,
Editor
Journal of Biophilic Design
Biophilia, as many of your readers know means the “love of life” and refers to our innate connection to nature, natural patterns and living systems. For instance, direct connection to plants and trees, water, fresh air, natural air flow, better acoustics and circadian lighting. The design principle essentially brings all these patterns into our built environment. Inside and out.
Evidence
It is quite possibly true that it is in the workplace that Biophilic Design can have the greatest impact. Bearing in mind, that the workplace isn’t just the traditional office as maybe we once knew it, but also collaborative spaces and quiet zones for focused work. It is also home or other places outside of the office. Hospitals, schools, care homes, laboratories, prisons, factories are all workplaces too.
From the thousands of pages of academic and white paper commercial research we KNOW that Biophilic Design gives us better outcomes in EVERY workplace. Biophilic Design increases staff creativity, productivity and accuracy, reduces presenteeism and absenteeism, and creates places people enjoy coming to. For instance research from Human Spaces showed that employees working in environments with natural elements reported a 15% increase in perceived well-being and a 6% increase in productivity and a study by Terrapin Bright Green found that cognitive function test scores improved by 61% in spaces with natural elements compared to those without. The World Green Building Council highlighted that biophilic design could reduce employee absenteeism by an average of 10%.
All this leads of course to improved financial outcomes for the corporations too. Terrapin Bright Green estimates that biophilic design can lead to a 3% increase in net revenue due to enhanced employee performance and reduced costs related to absenteeism and healthcare.
Stress
Here in the UK 70 million working days are lost each year due to mental ill-health, which costs Britain somewhere around £100 billion. Stress, depression and anxiety are key triggers. While we can’t do much about workload maybe, or external home or financial pressures, we know that improving the work “environment” with Biophilic Design really helps.
One of the major things Biophilic Design helps with is to REDUCE cortisol levels. Cortisol is that “fight-or-flight” hormone which affects nearly every organ and tissue in your body. Cortisol raises our heart rate which is great if there’s a tiger coming to eat us, because it prepares our defence mechanisms, but it’s not good for us if our levels of Cortisol stay high in our body. Too much of this flight-or-fight hormone in our bodies results in symptoms such as fatigue, weight-gain, backaches, headaches, anxiety and even tumours.
Biophilic Design
So, what can we do, and can we retrofit Biophilic Design? The good news is, yes. The presence of natural elements such as plants and natural light can reduce stress levels. A study by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan found that exposure to natural environments helps in recovery from mental fatigue, thereby reducing stress.
Plants please, first and foremost bring in plants!
If you’ve done that, or your boss thinks they are too expensive to maintain (which is bonkers because the return on investment far outweighs the expenditure on the upkeep), add these into your workplace:
- Natural Light, Window Views and Ventilation
Maximizing exposure to natural light can improve mood, reduce eye strain, and enhance overall productivity. Large windows, skylights, and open spaces can help increase natural light in the workplace. Have a look at your workplace, where are the windows, can you orientate the desks so that they are at right angles to the window, allowing natural light to pour onto their desks, can people take a break to look up (also known as ART, Attention Restoration Theory)? Improving airflow with natural ventilation can enhance air quality and reduce the buildup of indoor pollutants. Operable windows and well-designed HVAC systems can help maintain a fresh and comfortable indoor climate.
- Real or Virtual Views of Nature
Providing employees with views of nature, whether through windows or printed and digital representations, can reduce stress and improve cognitive clarity. If you are in inner cities or work in environments and buildings where you can’t have a window, we bring in Virtual Nature Windows (www.virtualnaturewalls.com ) to bring the beauty of nature directly into the workplace. These are large scale prints and artworks depicting natural scenes, landscapes, and organic forms can have a calming effect and enhance the aesthetic appeal of the workplace. Paintings, and sculptures that reflect nature are also good.
- Natural Materials and Colours
With sustainability being top of everyone’s list, as well as improving spaces for mental health, one of the best things you can do is to use natural materials like wood, stone, bamboo, and cork in furniture, flooring, and décor. Not only do these materials also help to reduce the environmental footprint of the office they will have a positive impact on your staff. Did you know, for instance, that if you work on a table with wood grain (like a pine or oak tabletop) you will focus more, be more creative and productive? Incorporating textures that mimic natural surfaces, such as rough stone, smooth wood, and soft fabrics add tactile variety to the space which also is good for our brains to function best. Working in a sterile, hard furniture, acoustically reflective and concrete or plastic office is not going to give you the return you want. Happiness comes from comfort. Happiness makes staff more productive. That’s really the bottom line.
All of these things will help improve employee wellbeing, while also going some way to reducing your energy consumption, so your ESG manager will thank you too.
For more information read one of their Journals specific to different workplaces and themes: www.journalofbiophilicdesign.com or listen to one of the over 100 podcasts on Spotify, Audible, iTunes, etc search for “Journal of Biophilic Design” or chat to someone from our networked consultancy.
References
Terrapin Bright Green, “The Economics of Biophilia.” Second Edition. 2023
Human Spaces, “The Global Impact of Biophilic Design in the Workplace.”
World Green Building Council, “Health, Wellbeing & Productivity in Offices.”
Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S. (1989). “The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective.”
The Journal of Biophilic Design, case studies and research, practical examples bridging the gap between research and real world case studies, plus practical advice on how to incorporate Biophilic Design into the workplace.