{"id":119890,"date":"2025-11-09T21:41:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T02:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/?post_type=metro_viewpoint&p=119890"},"modified":"2025-11-09T22:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:21:13","slug":"what-is-and-is-not-biophilic-design","status":"publish","type":"metro_viewpoint","link":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/viewpoints\/what-is-and-is-not-biophilic-design\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is and Is Not Biophilic Design?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n

The renowned social ecologist Stephen Kellert (1943-2016) pioneered the theory of Biophilia and developed the idea of Biophilic Design in the 1980s. He wrote this article for METROPOLIS in 2015 to clarify the core tenets of biophilic design. This page has been updated to mark the 10th anniversary of its original publication, and now includes links to project case studies, product solutions, and inputs from experts on What’s Next in Biophilic Design.<\/em> (Illustrations by Nolan Pelletier)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/strong>
Introduction

Five Conditions for Effective Biophilic Design<\/a>
01 Human Adaptation
02 Sustained Engagement
03 Integrated Interventions
04 Emotional Attachments
05 Positive Interactions

Three Impactful Applications of Biophilic Design<\/a>
01 Direct Experience of Nature
02 Indirect Experience of Nature
03 Experience of Space and Place<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s Next for Biophilic Design? (Coming Soon)<\/em>

Biophilic Design Exchange<\/a>
More Resources on Biophilic Design<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

INTRODUCTION<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Biophilic design 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 became biologically encoded to associate with natural features and processes. Rather than being vestigial \u2013 or relevant to a world that no longer exists \u2013 this need is thought to remain instrumental to people\u2019s physical and mental health, fitness, and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since today\u2019s \u201cnatural habitat\u201d 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 modern buildings and cities. Thus, the fundamental goal of biophilic design is to create good habitat for people as biological organisms inhabiting modern structures, landscapes, and communities. Accomplishing this objective depends on meeting certain conditions. First, because biophilia is essentially about evolved human tendencies, biophilic design focuses on those aspects of nature that, over evolutionary time, have contributed to our health and wellbeing. Let us be clear on this point: Any occurrence of nature in the built environment cannot be called biophilic design if it has no bearing on our species\u2019 inborn tendencies that have advanced our fitness and survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 habitats or microorganisms or alien or extinct species or other obscure aspects of nature are largely irrelevant as aspects of biophilic design because they offer little if anything in the way of sustained benefits to people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>“Let us be clear on this point:<\/strong> Any occurrence of nature in the built environment cannot be called biophilic design if it has no bearing on our species\u2019 inborn tendencies that have advanced our fitness and survival.”<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is important to realize that biophilic design is more than just a new way to make people more efficient by applying an innovative technical tool. The successful application of biophilic design fundamentally depends on adopting a new consciousness toward nature, recognizing how much our physical and mental wellbeing continues to rely on the quality of our connections to the world beyond ourselves of which we still remain a part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another distinguishing feature of biophilic design is its emphasis on the overall setting or habitat and NOT a single or isolated occurrence of nature. All organisms exist within connected and related environments bound together as integrated wholes or ecosystems. When the habitat functions in the best interests of the organism, the ecosystem performs at a level greater than the sum of its individual parts. By contrast, habitats comprised of disconnected and unrelated elements provide few benefits to its constituents and may even harm individual members. Thus, simply inserting an object of nature into a human built environment, if unrelated or at variance with other more dominant characteristics of the setting, exerts little positive impact on the health and performance of the people who occupy these spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>“Simply inserting<\/strong> an object of nature into a human built environment…exerts little positive impact on the health and performance of the people who occupy these spaces.”<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

The effectiveness of biophilic design depends on interventions that are connected, complementary, and integrated within the overall environment rather than being isolated or transient. A third distinctive feature of biophilic design is its emphasis on engaging with and repeated contact with nature. Biophilia can be described as a \u201cweak\u201d rather than \u201chard-wired\u201d biological tendency that, like much of what makes us human, must be learned and experienced to become fully functional. Although we may be biologically inclined to affiliate with nature, for this contact to be useful, it must be nurtured through repeated and reinforcing experience. The benefits of biophilic design depend on engaging contact with nature rather than occasional, exceptional, or ephemeral experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These distinctive characteristics yield a set of five conditions for the effective practice of biophilic design (below). Each underscores what is and IS NOT biophilic design.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n