Journal of Biophilic Design - Issue 1: The Workplace

How do we create an office that people are going to love to come to? During the Covid pandemic most of us worked from home and now Lockdown is easing, we are looking at a hybrid workplace solution. Thing is, the office is a place where people come together to collaborate. How do you design a space that people are going to want to come back to? People also need contact, but also comfort.

in this issue of the Journal of Biophilic Design you will learn many architectural, urban and interior design tips all based on science, to transform your office to create the best environment to help you focus, be creative, stay calm, feel rested and be productive! You will learn how to move your furniture around to create a prospect and refuge scenario to help you get more done, how wood grain helps you feel more comfortable, why views of natural elements, and views of nature are important, why you need natural light to enhance our circadian rhythm, how to change the soundscape and scentscape in your offices and homes to help keep everyone happy and relaxed and able to focus!

Working with what you've got or almost what you've got, you can transform your space to make your space the best it can be. We essentially have the same make up as our early ancestors and by keeping that in mind, we can use that knowledge to improve our working environments.

Many of us have not been in our Workplaces for over a year now as a result of “Lockdown” and we’ve got an opportunity RIGHT NOW to improve those spaces we work in. Human centric Biophilic Design is key to creating happier, healthier, more productive and creative workplaces. It can also help us landscape offices to zone areas for our staff to focus and also spaces where we can have downtime. From an evolutionary psychology point of view, we have innate preferences and an affinity to nature. We evolved to survive and live outside in nature. When we consider the “office” has been around for 100 years, but our brain hasn’t caught up yet!

There are many aspects of workplace design that benefit from Biophilic Design Studies have shown that plants energise us, enhance our creativity, good natural daylight, natural ventilation, having a varied temperature (not set like it is in many offices), sounds of nature (like leaves rustling or waves lapping at the shoreline). Actually sound is an important aspect. As humans we don’t like complete quiet because in the natural world, silence = danger (fire, predator, bad weather coming).

How do we go about creating collaborative spaces? A simple solution is break up big expanses of open plan offices with planting as it also will give the feeling of comfort, improved acoustics, privacy. Physical separation that most of us have felt during this period of Lockdown and isolation can be softened in the workplace if we carve up the office plan to support physical distancing for psychological and physical safety.

Covered in this issue: Acoustics, circadian rhythms, sustainability, helping companies reach net zero targets, connecting yourself back to nature, plants at work, new research, news, NHS campaign, science behind Biophilic Design, environmental psychology, materials, architecture, book reviews and recommendations, sound, tree planting, living walls, ecology, hardwoods and trees, ergonomics. wellbeing and more.