HOT TAKE: Potted plants are my generation’s gold-framed horse or dolphin paintings. In the 90s every house, restaurant, and GP clinic had a dolphin print to make us feel something or just to fill a blank space. We now fill those blank spaces on our walls (and dare I say our hearts…) with plants. This phenomenon led me to think more about the plants and trees in our spaces. At first, I thought it was a COVID thing or a broke millennial thing but the perseverance of potted plants has left me wondering if it’s part of a much bigger movement.
Coincidentally or not, biophilic design is all the rage in the design world. While I had heard of hydrophilic (usually regarding chemical properties), biophilic was new to me. As a biology-loving design aesthetic, biophilic home design influences the design of a building and its interiors using plants.
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However biophilic design is SO MUCH more than the trees in our spaces and is not a modern concept. The word “Biophilia” was first introduced by a psychoanalyst named Erich Fromm who described biophilia as the “passionate love of life and of all that is alive…whether in a person, a plant, an idea, or a social group” in his book The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness in 1973. Biophilia seems to be more of a way of life or philosophy than just an art movement or a materialistic trend. Biophilic design is about being alive, feeling alive, being with live plants, and socialising with other live human beings. Using elements of plant life, biophilic design should enhance one’s connection with nature, encouraging people to position nature as central to their lives. In a biophilic-inspired space, people should feel calmer, inspired, and connected to the natural world. When making design choices as an architect and/or interior designer, biophilic design includes examples of:
Direct nature: Potted plants, the overall incorporation of trees in our space indoors. The best and most extreme example of this kind of integration was a huge tree trunk used as a staircase in the center of their home. V cool.
Indirect nature: Wide windows to look outside into nature, naturally occurring fibers/woods used as materials for flooring, furniture, and also biophilic art.
Space conditions: There are more abstract ways to include trees in our spaces. Space, broadly speaking, should celebrate the environment and the people in it. This can be interpreted in 1000 different ways. You could start with soundscape considerations such as blocking out road noise with good wall insulation to support a low-stimulus environment. You might deliberately amplify nature sounds indoors with windows or room placement - you could also do this with natural light (skylights etc). Speaking of light, lean into low soft light such as lamps, and candles rather than strong central lights. Colour choice is important too, biophilic heads tend to stick to natural earthy tones reminiscent of nature.
Place conditions: Deciding where you live is an important biophilic decision too. You could position yourself near nature or somewhere that inspires you or means something to you.
My question is: why do we care so much about biophilic design now? I think the answer is, as it always is these days, late-stage capitalism. We have been displaced and disconnected from nature courtesy of capitalism and now we would like to build that connection again. Capitalism meant that we were overworked in uninspiring drab offices often with no windows and many of us still do. Capitalistic ventures have also destroyed much of the environment due to overconsumption and we now live every day with issues related to global warming. Now that we are in a late stage capitalist phase economically expedited by COVID, many people yearn and demand a more humanist and environmentally engaged way of life.
Biophilic design is the answer to a lot of current issues and amazingly, there is research to back this movement up. There is new neurological research about the concept of neuro-aesthetics, a field of experimental science that aims to combine (neuro-)psychological research with aesthetics. Neuro-aesthetics investigates the "perception, production, and response to art, as well as interactions with objects and scenes that evoke an intense feeling, often of pleasure." One of those ‘scenes’ is nature. We have always in a way known this, and that is why retreats, for example, have often sat in rural spaces. There is also research underway exploring the beneficial effects of green spaces at work and home. WHO have calculated how much green you need to have in your life to lead a happy healthy life - a minimum of 9m2,but ideally 50m2, of green space per individual. In short, green spaces are a need, not a want.
I love biophilic design myself and think that biophilic elements can work well with other aesthetics such as minimalism and maximalism. Biophilic design is also beautiful, check out these examples:
I look forward to seeing how this influences not just our homes and workplaces but also our lives in the future. I also will keep pondering the economic, social and cultural significance of horse and dolphin painting. For now, I will go back to tending my forty-nine million pot plants, like the proper millennial that I am.
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