Cutting to the chase, if design does not focus on the aspects of the natural world that contribute to human health and productivity in the age-old struggle to be fit and survive, it’s not biophilic.

The use of natural materials like wood, and spaces which include natural geometrics such as fractals and curves, can be highly evocative and further satisfy biophilic design needs.

Biophilic architecture seeks to connect our inherent need to affiliate with nature in the modern built environment. An extension of the theory of biophilia, biophilic design recognizes that our species has evolved for more than 99% of its history in adaptive response to the natural world and not to human created or artificial forces. We all become biologically encoded to associate with natural features and processes. Rather than being vestigial- or relevant to a world that does no longer exist- this need is thought to remain instrumental to people’s physical and mental health, fitness, and wellbeing.

Since today’s ‘natural habitat’ is largely the built environment, where we now spend 90% of our time, biophilic design seeks to satisfy our innate need to affiliate with nature in the modern buildings and cities. Thus, the fundamental goal of biophilic design is to create good habitat for the people as the biological organisms inhabiting modern structures, landscapes, and communities. Accomplishing this particular objective entirely depends on meeting some conditions. First off, because biophilia is essentially about evolved human tendencies, biophilic design focuses on the aspects of nature which, over evolutionary time, have majorly contributed to our health and wellbeing. Any occurrence of nature in the built environment cannot be called biophilic design if it has no bearing on our species’ inborn tendencies that have advanced our fitness and survival.

Simply put, biophilic design focuses on those aspects of the natural world that have contributed to human health and productivity in the age old-struggle to be fit and survive. Thus, desert or deep-sea habits or microorganisms or alien or extinct species or other obscure aspects of nature are largely irrelevant as aspects of biophilic design as they offer little if anything in the way of sustained benefits to people.


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