If you are looking for a practical guide to help you incorporate Biophilic design into your next project, Terrapin Bright Green’s 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design may just fit the bill.

Terrapin Bright Green is an environmental consulting and strategic planning firm based in northern America with experience integrating Biophilic design into hospitality, residential and educational facilities across the globe.

Their free online guide 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design connects the research on Biophilic responses to practical design applications to enhance health and well-being outcomes for individuals and society more broadly.

If you are struggling to sell the benefits of Biophilic design to your clients, this guide may just help you out.

This very practical reference includes design strategies and interventions based on 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design, which the authors organise into three categories: Nature in the Space, Natural Analogues, and Nature of the Space as follows:

14 Patterns of Biophilic Design

Nature in the Space Patterns

1. Visual Connection with Nature
2. Non-Visual Connection with Nature
3. Non-Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli
4. Thermal and Airflow Variability
5. Presence of Water
6. Dynamic and Diffuse Light
7. Connection with Natural System

Natural Analogues Patterns

8. Biomorphic Forms and Patterns
9. Material Connection with Nature
10. Complexity and Order

Nature of the Space Patterns

11. Prospect
12. Refuge
13. Mystery
14. Risk/Peril

For each of the 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design, the authors have written a comprehensive summary in which they:

• Describe the experience that a user of a space designed to integrate this pattern should feel
• Explain the roots of the pattern by linking it to scientific research
• Outline key design considerations when working with the pattern
• Identify that pattern’s relation to other patterns of Biophilic design
• List example characteristics of the pattern (e.g., spatial attributes and common features) as they occur naturally or when simulated/constructed

Evidence based

One of the best things about 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design is that it is evidence-based. It includes a table summarising key research illustrating the functions of each of the fourteen patterns in supporting stress reduction, cognitive performance, emotion and mood enhancement and the human body.

Perfect for those busy interior plantscapers looking for some helpful advice on how to sell the benefits of Biophilic design to their clients.

Further reading

So, what are you waiting for? Check out 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design yourself for a little green inspiration.

You may also like to read another IPA article on Biophilic design, written by yours truly, and will be published in the March 2020 issue of Hort Journal Australia. In this article, I talk about Biophilic design with local experts: Dr Dominique Hes, formerly of the University of Melbourne, and Dr Jana Soderland. If you don’t already subscribe to Hort Journal now might be the perfect time!

 

Gabrielle Stannus / Inwardout Studio, Tasmania

IPA Board Member

Reference

Browning, W.D., Ryan, C.O., Clancy, J.O. (2014). 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design. New York: Terrapin Bright Green, LLC.