The Health Benefits of Biophilic Design
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Warner Tidwell
Business 507H | Carol Hee
April 28, 2017
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On my honor, I pledge I have neither given nor received improper aid on this paper, nor did I plagiarize any work.
Warner Tidwell
Abstract
Biophilic design is a design philosophy that encourages the use of natural systems and processes in the design of the built environment. Biophilic design is based on the Biophilia hypothesis, which proposes that humans have an innate connection with the natural world and that exposure to the natural world is therefore important for human wellbeing. However, human interaction with nature is often lacking in modern day societies due to societal trends such as urbanization, building design, and lifestyle. The idea behind Biophilic design then is to incorporate natural features and systems into the built environment in order to provide human beings with their much-needed exposure to nature. This paper looks into the health benefits of biophilic design and incorporating nature into our modern lives, and also the necessity to reenter the natural ecosystem for the sake of our long-term health. Studies from Dr. Roger Ulrich, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, and Quing Li all demonstrate these benefits. Finally, as an application to the workplace, a study conducted in Australia demonstrates the positive implications of biophilic design element in the workplace for cognitive, social, psychological and physical health for workers, as well as productivity.
Introduction
As cites grow vertically, aspects of the horizontal natural world are continually lost. Modernity’s technology enables great innovation, but innate needs are being forgotten in the process. Our lifestyles are constantly changing, and long work hours, sedentary behavior, poor eating choices, and other forces have plunged Americans into an obese, mentally ill, and stressed society (Shah). Government officials, employers, and even architects are now picking up the slack and enforcing new policies that prioritize overall wellbeing, and sustainable design should not be left out. There are many theories that support emulating and incoprating nature into architecture, and biophilic design is at the forefront. Design is crucial to humans, not only for aesthetic purposes, but also for physciological consquences that affect behavior. Many studies support the importance of natural light, green building, and biophilic design. Not only are there environmental benefits, but there are also short and long term consequences on individuals health, and therefore society’s (Ryan). Therefore—in order to increase work productivity, happiness, and health—employees and employers both must understand biophilic design and the significant impact it has on society.
What is Biophilic Design?
The concept of biophilic design derives from the realization that humans have spent the greater part of history developing alongside nature (Kellert 21). It is not until recently that humans have begun distancing themselves from the natural world vis urban forms and technology. E. O. Wilson, ‘father of biophilic design,’ proclaims that: “most of our emotional, problem-solving, critical thinking, and constructive abilities continue to reflect skills and aptitudes learned in close association with natural systems and processes that remain crucial in human health, maturation, and productivity” (Kellert 22). The biological human is further connected to the natural world because we share similar biological characteristics and needs. Wilson asserts that, “we need contact with nature and with the complex geometry of natural forms just as much as we require nutrients and air for our metabolism” (Kellert 63). The more we have distanced ourselves from the natural world through technology and the built environment, the more people have lost that awareness.
Why is Biophilic Design Necessary?
As cities continue to progress, we have continually enclosed ourselves in the built environment and further cut ourselves off from nature. In Elizabeth Gilbert’s biography of Eustace Conway, The Last American Man, Conway’s understanding of humans’ lifestyles is summed up as a world of boxes. We wake up in a box, we get our food out of a cold box, we then drive to work in a box, we stare into a box all day, we watch the news from a box, and return to our box (Gilbert 2003). However, in the natural world, seldom few creations are box-like, and hard edges are few and far between, so there is a disconnect in the world humans have built. Conway explains the circular style of the natural world:
I live in nature where everything is connected, circular. The seasons are circular. The planet is circular, and so is the planet around the sun. The course of water over the Earth is circular coming down from the sky and circulating through the world to spread life and then evaporating up again. The life cycles of plans and animals are circular. The ancient people understood that our world is a circle, but we modern people have lost sight of that. I don’t live inside building because buildings are dead places where nothing grows, where water doesn’t flow, and where life stops (Gilbert 52).
The modern architecture movement of the 20th century distanced our building design from the natural world to an even greater extent because it focused on creating building devoid of ornate detail (Kellert 31). Buildings created during this time period are many of the high-rise skyscrapers that form the skylines of our cities. The International Style, popular in the 1920s and 1930s, completely ignored the cultural an environmental context in which the buildings were located, which hindered city’s unique identities (Kellert 30).
Environmental Psychologist and prolific author, Robert Sommer detailed the problems of the formalism architectural trend, which regarded building more as form and less as human habitats. In his book, Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design, Sommer explains the influence of urban design on man. He states, “Man will adapt to hydrocarbons in the air, detergents in the water, crime in the streets, and crowded recreational areas. Good design becomes a meaningless tautology if we consider that man will be reshaped to fit whatever environment he creates. The long-range question is not so much what sort of environment we want, but what sort of man we want” (Sommer). It seems we humans are reaching a point of divergence in which we can either direction our attention back to the natural world, or turn towards a more technologically centered future.
Components of Biophilic Design
Yale Professor in the University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Stephen R. Kellert, explains in his essay, “Dimensions, Elements, and Attributes of Biophilic Design” that there are twelve biophilic design elements that are characteristics of the natural world: color, water, air, sunlight, plants, animals, natural materials, views and vistas, façade greening, geology and landscapes, habitat and ecosystems, and fire (Kellert 6-8). Many of these features elicit positive emotions for fairly intuitive reasons. Yet, our obvious past connection to these elements often becomes forgotten once the elements are no longer necessary for survival in our highly-developed culture. However, there are countless research studies that present findings that demonstrate health benefits that result from urban settings that incorporate the natural ecosystem into the design. There is linkage between human exposure to nature and people’s psychophysiological stress recovery and attention restoration. Therefore, it is crucial that employers understand and employ these design techniques that lower stress levels and heighten productivity. Proponents such as Almusaed and Asaad advocate that buildings should be designed to incorporate the following design principles: (1) energy, activity and thermal comfort; (2) indoor/outdoor nature contact; (3) functional light and airy spaces; and (4) green building elements and energy saving components.
Health Benefits from Nature
The majority of the world’s population is now living in urban settings, and as a result, more and more people are becoming disconnected from nature and are instead surrounded by honking horns, towering skyscrapers, and cement. Short term stressors have shown to benefit the body through temporarily increased heart rate and stress hormone levels (Kellert). Chronic stress, however, created by stimulus in cities and fast-paced work environments can have harmful long-term effects on the body’s response systems, according to the American Psychological Association.
Chronic stress has shown to dramatically affect the body’s nervous system. Stressful situations trigger the sympathetic nervous system to release adrenalin and cortisol through the adrenal glands, resulting in a faster heartbeat, respiration rate, blood vessel dilation, and digestive processing change. If the body resides in a chronic state of stress, the body becomes extremely drained. Not only that, but stress results in muscle contraction as the body’s means of protection from injury. Prolonged stress can trigger migraines and muscle tension headaches (“Stress Effects on the Body”). Fortunately, exposure to nature can reduce stress responses and aid in re-establishing equilibrium in the body.
Dr. Roger Ulrich, a professor in the Department of Architecture and Center for Healthcare Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology, is the most frequently cited researcher in evidence-based healthcare design. His studies, beginning in the 1970s, on the healing power of nature have been groundbreaking within the healthcare field. Ulrich’s work has influenced many further psychological studies on areas beyond the hospital walls from landscape design to workplace environments. One of Dr. Ulrich’s most notable studies compared recovery rates of abdominal surgery patients with and without a view to nature out their hospital room windows. Patients with a view of nature instead of a brick wall had faster recovery times, needed less pain medicine, and experienced less nausea (Kellert 94).
A related study by Ulrich tested brain electrical activity, blood pressure, heart activity, and muscle tension of patients viewing nature. Results revealed notable changes in psychological restoration in as little as three minutes of exposure (Kellert 91). Not only is this applicable to patients, but these results have ramifications for the workforce. The healing component of incorporating green design and natural elements into an office space can induce many positive personal results for employees, and productivity as a whole.
Learning from the Japenese
Asian cultures are known to culturally prioritize these concepts, and Japan is spending the most money on studying health benefits from direct exposure to nature. The Japanese have always valued walking in nature as a form of preventative medicine through their practice of shinrin-yoku or ‘tree bathing’ (Williams). Researchers in Japan have recently begun meticulously analyzing the science behind the restorative effects of shinrin-yoku.
Starting in 2004, physiological anthropologist and vice director of Japan’s Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Yoshifumi Miyazaki, began studying research participants in the woods by testing their vital signs in attempt to note nature-inspired health benefits through biological markers. Participants also placed a cotton cylinder in their mouths before the hike, which was removed after a minute and placed in test tubes (Park, 2007). The purpose of the samples was to test the initial salivary cortisol levels in each participant preceding the hike, as a stress indicator.
Miyazaki also tested the cortisol levels and vitals of participants walking in urban settings for comparison. Results of 600 participants showed that cortisol levels were 12.4 lower in participants who walked in the forest, the sympathetic nerve activity was 7% lower, and blood pressure was 1.4% lower (Park). These research findings helped promote the creation of Japan’s 48 official Forest Therapy Trails which are walked by up to 5 billion visitors each year (Williams).
The next logical research question was: what other unknown benefits is the body experiencing while in nature? And how far outside the urban realm must one go to experience increased health benefits? Researcher Quing Li from the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo found through his research that walks in the forest significantly increase Natural Killer cells that help virally infected cells, and most notably, to destroy cancer cells (Li). Quing Li studied the blood tests of 40 business men whom he took on a morning and afternoon hike in the forest three days in a row. Results showed that Natural Killer cells increased 40% and remained at 15% higher than their original level a month following the experiment. Participants walking in the urban context were used as a control their NK levels failed to change.
The researchers acknowledged that not every city-dweller has the luxury of being able to hike in a forest three times a week. Therefore, they also studied NK levels of people who walked in urban parks. Studies showed that even after spending one day at a park, a person benefited from increased NK levels for seven days flowing. Li wondered what could be causing such dramatic benefits, and surprisingly, he found that it was not visual or auditory by instead an olfactory element. The phytonicides (scents) emitted by many of the trees in the forest, for example the strong-smelling tree oil from an evergreen, were contributing to NK cell growth (Li). Given Li’s findings, landscape architects and urban designers who seek to create healing places within urban environments must be sure to account for all the senses, not just visual appeal.
Biophilic Designed Office Spaces: The Effect of One Plant
Although much research on restorative environments has focused on the visual sense, recent research in the field of restorative environments has yielded a shift from the visual sense to the auditory sense and olfactory senses. This shift supports Kellert and Calabrese’s statement that the experience of nature is multisensory. Part of the complexity of Biophilic design is that although much research has been done on the individual elements of Biophilic design, the combinations of elements has received little attention in research. The first long-term study on a Biophilic-designed space is currently underway in Australia. The study looks at natural light, plants, natural ventilation, prospect and views, use of non-synthetic materials, recycled materials, and an open-plan workspace. The space that is being studied is a work-site construction office and the first paper of the two-year study was published using three months of data. The preliminary results after three months indicate that the various benefits of Biophilic design are absolutely evident, including: reduced stress, improved productivity, and improved wellbeing (Gray).
Nature writer Wendell Berry coined the term "non-place" to refer to those settings lacking vitality and organic connectedness. These "dead" places constitute an ever-increasing proportion of our daily lives, and research has now examined the mitigating effects of plant presence on negative mood states (Gray). This research was the first empirical study to use internationally validated psychological measures for assessing the potential benefits of indoor plants. The presence of plants correlated positively with worker productivity, as well as large reductions in negative mood states and levels of stress among building occupants. Potted plants are proven to heighten indoor air quality for building occupants, but of particular interest, revealed that just one plant within the workspace can significantly enhance staff morale and simultaneously promote well-being and improve performance (Gray).
The impact of biophilic design elements was viewed as a compenent in increasing social capability and improving workplace relations. Not only had the extra spaciousness of the working environment been noticed, but also the more "functional light and airy spaces" had changed the dynamics. Several workers referred to the "softer feel" of the place, and one also identified the "softening interactions" that now took place in the site office. From natural lighting, furniture made with natural materials, white painted walls, and recycled carpet, to open windows and hearing bird sounds, all of the workers delineated different positive attributes of the unusual biophilic workspace. The workplace was enhanced from various perspectives. Early accounts from the qualitative interviews also suggest that this space increases social capacity and collaboration, and may lead to gains in productivity that we are exploring in the longer research project (Gray).
Conclusion
Populations have been migrating from rural to urban areas over the past 50 years. Global urban population rates have risen by 20% since 1961, and they are expected to continue to rise by 1.84% every year for the next five years (Urban Population Growth 2015). This influx of people to urban environments has necessitated the expansion of urban infrastructure including more buildings, sidewalks, highways, and parking lots. While increases in infrastructure are necessary to accommodate influxes of people to urban areas, they also bring consequences that can lead to degrading the quality of life. If populations continue to increase as they are projected to, then in the decades to come, much of the existing infrastructure in developed countries around the world, will need to be be redesigned to best support overall wellbeing. Biophilic design should mitigate the threats of urbanization by continuing to emulate the natural landscape of our planet and thus aid healthy lifestyles.
Technology continues to change the world as we know it, and the innovation is ignites is not mutually exclusive with sustainability. Biophilic design, in essence, is the natural world imitated in a high-tech manner. However, it does require studying how exactly the human benefits from nature’s design (Birkeland). The research from above shows the tangible ways in which nature can heal, and therefore is necessary to incorporate into modern design. There is already a movement around green building; however, advocates should not only support the energy-efficient and cost-reduction of sustainable design, but must also emphasis the health benefits and the long-term effects for society. In the workplace, biophilic design demonstrates building excellence, corporate social responsibility, and future-conscious behavior—it highlights a competitive asset when corpoations are recognized for these priorities. Biophilic design responds to Eustace Conway’s call to get out of the boxes society creates and sends us back into the natural world.
Works Cited
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