Abstract
As human beings have detached themselves from natural environments by spending most of their time indoors, they have also distanced themselves from the positive experiences that nature provides. Sick building syndrome, nature deficit disorder amongst others, are examples of the impact of separating the built environment from nature. Biophilia is an innate affiliation to nature which stems from our evolutionary history, vital for sustaining health and wellbeing. Biophilic concepts have been explored from biophilic cities to biophilic hospitals. However, existing biophilic research is fragmented. In the last few decades, energy efficiency and carbon emissions have increased in importance for low environmental impact design, nonetheless, there is a need for more research in biophilic buildings which are beneficial to our health and wellbeing as well as causing less harm to the environment. This paper aims to investigate the application of biophilia in building design practices for improved health and wellbeing. Firstly, biophilic theoretical frameworks developed by leading biophilic experts have been examined and compared to health and wellness performance certifications such as WELL Building and Living Building Challenge (LBC) standards. Finally, a holistic biophilic framework inspired by Kellert and Calabrese has been elaborated to assess the biophilic features in the built environment. Multiple explorative case studies were employed for this paper, the findings revealed that the biophilic applications linked to direct experiences of nature were implemented inefficiently and lacked a holistic approach to improve health and wellbeing. The authors argue that biophilia needs to be included holistically to maximise the benefits of nature’s experiences.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beatley T (2011) Biophilic cities: integrating nature into urban design and planning. Island Press, Washington
Beatley T, Newman P (2013) Biophilic cities are sustainable, resilient cities, vol 5, p 8. Available at: about:blank Accessed 19 Aug 2018, pp 3328–3345, p 3333
Beatley T (2018) Our mission. Available at http://biophiliccities.org/about/. Accessed 27 Aug 2018, p 1
Behling S (2016) Architecture and the science of the senses. Available at about:blank. Accessed 19 Aug 2018
Biophilic Cities (2018) Singapore. Available at about:blank. Accessed 27 Sept 2018, p 1
BREEAM (2018a) Assessing health and wellbeing in buildings. Available at about:blank. Accessed 12 Sept 2018, pp 2, 18
BREEAM (2018b) BREEAM UK new construction. Available at about:blank. Accessed 15 Sept 2018, pp 72–126
Browning WD et al (2014) 14 patterns of biophilic design, improving health and well-being in the built environment. Terrapin Bright Green, New York
European Commission (2018) Energy efficiency-building. Available at about:blank. Accessed 12 Oct 2018
Farr D (2011) Sustainable urbanism: urban design with nature. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Fromm E (1973) The anatomy of human destructiveness. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, pp 365–366
Green Pulse (2018) Healing through nature Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. Available at about:blank Accessed 4 Sept 2018, pp 5–7
Kaplan R, Kaplan S (1989) The experience of nature: a psychological perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Kellert S (1997) Kinship to mastery: biophilia in human evolution and development. Island Press, Washington DC
Kellert S (2012) Birthright: people and nature in the modern world. Yale University Press, New Haven
Kellert S, Calabrese E (2015) Chart 1: Biophilic framework. Table 2: Biophilic framework. the practice of biophilic design. Available at about:blank. Accessed 23 Aug 2018, p. 3, 6, 6–7, 6–20
Kellert S et al (eds) (2008) Biophilic design: the theory, science, and practice of bringing buildings to life. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Kellert S, Heerwagen J (2007) Nature and healing: the science, theory, and promise of biophilic design. In: Guenther R, Vittori G (eds) Sustainable Healthcare Architecture. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Kellert S, Wilson EO (eds) (1993) The biophilia hypothesis. Island Press, Washington, DC
Klepeis NE (2001) The national human activity pattern survey (NHAPS). Available at: about:blank. Accessed 9 Oct 2018
Living Building Challenge (2018) Biophilic design guidebook. Available from about:blank—the-guidebook. Accessed 8 Sept 2019, p 11
Louv R (2012) The nature principle: reconnecting with life in a virtual age. Algonquin Press, Chapel Hill
Marcus CM, Sachs NA (2014) Therapeutic landscapes: an evidence-based approach to designing healing gardens and restorative outdoor spaces. John Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Ministry of Housing, Local Communities and Local Government (2018) The national planning policy framework. Available at about:blank. Accessed 15 Sept 2018, p 27
Obrecht TP et al (2019) Comparison of health and wellbeing aspects in building certification schemes. Available at about:blank. Accessed 15 Sept 2019, p 5
RIBA (2018) RIBA national award winners. Available at about:blank. Accessed 7 Sept 2018, p 1
Steinberg E (2015) Healing spaces: the science of place and wellbeing. Available at about:blank. Accessed 29 Aug 2018
Terrapin Bright Green (2015) Biophilic design patterns and biological responses. Available from about:blank. Accessed 23 July 2018, p 1
Thomas C (2019) Table 1: Summary of biophilic measures in WELL and LBC
Ulrich R (1993) Biophilia, biphobia and natural landscapes. In: Kellert S, Wilson E (eds) The biophilia hypothesis. Island Press, Washington DC, pp 2–137
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2018) 68% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, says UN. Available at about:blank. Accessed 9 Oct 2018
Wells N, Rollings K (2012) The natural environment: influences on human health and function. In: Clayton S (ed) The Oxford handbook of environmental and conservation psychology. Oxford University Press, London
Wilson EO (1984) Biophilia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, p 85
Wilson EO (1986) Biophilia: the human bond with other species. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Wilson EO (1993) Biophilia and the conservation ethic. The biophilia hypothesis. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp, 31–41
Xue F et al (2019) Incorporating biophilia into green building rating tools for promoting health and wellbeing. Available at about:blank. Accessed 15 Sept 2019, p 1
Xing Y, Brewer M, El-Gharabawy H, Griffith G, Jones P (2018) Growing and testing mycelium bricks as building insulation materials. IOP Conference Series: Earth Environ Sci 121(2):022032
Xing Y, Jones P, Bosch M, Donnison I, Spear M, Ormondroyd G (2018) Exploring design principles of biological and living building envelopes: what can we learn from plant cell walls? Intell Build Int 10(2):78–102
Acknowledgements
We thank you for contributions from Xiaoying Ding for providing feedback on the biophilic design framework and case studies.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendices
Appendix 1: Terrapin Bright Green’s 14 Biophilic Patterns and Health and Wellbeing Outcomes
See Fig. 2.
Appendix 2: Biophilic Pathways to Urban Resilience
See Fig. 3.
Appendix 3: Biophilic framework Results—Investigator A
.
Appendix 4: Biophilic Framework Results—Investigator B
.
Appendix 5: Combined Results
See Table 3.
Appendix 6: Amended Framework From Focus Group
.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thomas, C., Xing, Y. (2021). To What Extent Is Biophilia Implemented in the Built Environment to Improve Health and Wellbeing?—State-of-the-Art Review and a Holistic Biophilic Design Framework. In: Howlett, R.J., Littlewood, J.R., Jain, L.C. (eds) Emerging Research in Sustainable Energy and Buildings for a Low-Carbon Future. Advances in Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8775-7_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8775-7_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-8774-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-8775-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)