The earliest humans had it tough. What with all of their scraping by, foraging for fruits and vegetables, killing the occasional mammoth for lunch, and not becoming the next meal of any lion or tiger or bear that happened to be wandering by.
The places where our ancestors could be comfortable for those challenging primordial aeons were very particular sorts of spots and, via an astounding collection of sensory memories, we continue to find the same types of areas very comfortable spaces to spend time today.
So comfortable, in fact, that even now our brains as well as our bodies feel good and work well when we’re in built spaces that share the core design elements of those long, long ago locations. Our stress levels fall, which helps our bodies feel good. As our moods get better and our comfort levels rise, we do a great job with analytical reasoning, creativity, and getting along with others, just for starters. We feel that we can achieve what we’ve set out to do, we have some power over the world that surrounds us, and we can mingle with others when we choose. Our minds can be refreshed by experiences we have in biophilic areas.
How can we generate biophilically designed spaces, ones that will do so many good things for our minds and our bodies?
“Biophilic design” sounds like it should be all about plants and gardening, and it is in part—but there’s a lot more to it than vegetation.
In the paragraphs to come, we’ll get into the nitty gritty, the literal how to of indoor biophilic design—there’ll be no extended passages about beauty and conserving the environment here—although how could we possibly be anti-beauty or against saving the planet?
If you’re an outdoor space designer/manager/doer type: Brains are brains, people are people, no matter where they are. The information we’ll cover is completely applicable in your work as well—with obvious modifications—for example, you’ll need to think about curving outdoor paths instead of indoor ones and you’ll be adding scents via actual....
