Journal of Biophilic Design - Issue 2: The Home

Welcome to the second edition of The Journal of Biophilic Design. What do you love most about your Home? Is it the entrance area as you come in? Could it be the windows that frame your views to the world outside? Is your bathroom a haven? Do your plants make you happy? Does your kitchen table hold happy family memories? What about your home “office”, does it help you do your best work?

You are lucky if you can answer yes to all those questions; if you do, it is likely that you are a designer working with Biophilic Design! But if, like the majority of us, at least with one or two of these (probably more!) you’re thinking, you know, I could do something better with these spaces, I’m just not sure what.

First of all, I suggest, that you take a page turn through this opening specialised section on the Home. Oliver Heath’s opening essay perfectly sums up why designing happy, healthy homes using Biophilic Design is incredibly important, especially right now. Then scan the beautiful images from the case studies and delve deeper into the rationales behind the designs. One thing that stands out is how nature informs each space. When you’re reading, consider how bringing in views, materials, natural light, scents, textures, colours, space, zones, and harmony which echo nature and nature’s design create beautiful spaces you WANT to be in.

If you then turn to our pages on the Science Behind Biophilic Design, you’ll learn a bit more about why nature and the patterns of nature make such a positive impact on our physical and mental health.

Let us know about the changes you make. Thank you for supporting what I feel is one of the most beautiful, inspiring, positive design practices, Biophilic Design. I love it because it not only helps us as humans flourish in our lives, maintain happy and healthy jobs, enjoy family life, and supports our creativity and focus too but it is also kind to our planet too. There is no planet B, as they say, but, you know what, there is no second you either.

We all love our homes, it is where we should feel safe and cosy, it should afford us space to do all the things we want to do alone or with our families and friends. With more and more people working from home, let’s start creating inspiring havens to live, work and flourish in, I hope this issue, with Case Studies, interviews and science will serve to act as an inspirational springboard.

If you are designing with biophilia at the heart of what you do, thank you for making the environments you create, the lives you improve and the planet happier and healthier. If you have just started on your Biophilic Design journey, then welcome to the movement, together we can make the world a better place to live, work and flourish in.

One of the most exciting aspects of Biophilic Design is that it is based on Science. There is so much research on how and why this wonderfully simple design process has such a phenomenal impact on us. In this regular section, our ‘resident’ Environmental Psychologist Dr Sally Augustin shares thoughts distilled from piles and piles of research, presenting results, suggestions and further reading for you to delve into each month. Plus, there will be an amazing search facility on our main website too we are hoping in 2023, where you can further drill down into academic research, news, case studies and more to learn from (and also, if you are a designer, help collate research to aid your explanation to the client why they need Biophilic Design solutions).

If you are an experienced expert on a certain aspect of Biophilic Design, or on how human physiology is impacted by their environment, please get in touch. We are also aiming to co-host a symposium with thought leaders in the not too distant.