2.5 BENEFITS OF BIOPHILIC DESIGN

One of the main draws of the practice of biophilic design is the health benefit that it promotes for its users. It is known to have positive effects on human cognitive, psychological, and physiological health and it is believed that these results are seen in humans due to the environmental connection that is facilitated through the design practices. Cognitive responses are seen when strong connections with nature provide opportunities for mental restoration, psychological benefits are mostly learned or hereditary and are affected most by past experiences, cultural constructs, and social norms, and physiological responses are a result of environmental stressors implemented through design.77 Generally, the design practice is known to help manage and reduce stress, increase cognitive performance and productivity, and improve mood and overall well-being. 78 Specifically, the wellness benefits of biophilic design can be seen in relation to different practices, such as in the following:

● Visual Connection with Nature helps lower blood pressure and heart rate, improves mental engagement and attentiveness, positively impacts attitude and overall happiness 79

● Non-Visual Connection with Nature helps reduce systolic blood pressure and stress hormones, positively impacts cognitive performance, perceived improvements in mental health and tranquility 80

● Non-Rhythmic Sensory Stimuli positively impacts heart rate, systolic blood pressure and sympathetic nervous system activity, observed and quantified behavioral measures of attention and exploration 81

● Light helps reduce headache symptoms, speeds up problem-solving, reduces length of hospital stays, increases mental function and memory recall, improves testing scores 82

● Water helps to reduce stress, increases feelings of tranquility, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, improves concentration and memory restoration, enhances perception and psychological responsiveness, observed preferences and positive emotional responses 83

● Air helps reduce headache symptoms, helps reduce sickness absences and doctor visits, improves testing scores 84

● Thermal Variability positively impacts comfort, well-being, and productivity, positively impacts concentration, improves perception of temporal and spatial pleasure 85

● Sound helps reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure, increases short-term memory 86

● Smell helps increase working memory, reduces pain, reduces mental stress 87

● Immersion helps increase test proficiency, reduces aggression and violent crimes 88

● Connection with Natural Systems enhances positive health responses, shifted perception of environment 89

● Biomorphic Forms & Patterns view preferences 90

● Material Connection with Nature helps decrease diastolic blood pressure, improves creative performance, improves comfort 91

● Prospect helps reduce stress, reduces boredom, irritation & fatigue, improves comfort and perceived safety 92

● Refuge helps improve concentration, attention, and perception of safety 93

● Complexity & Order positively impacts perceptual and physiological stress responses, visual preferences 94

● Risk & Peril results in strong dopamine or pleasure responses 95

● Mystery induces a strong pleasure response 96

These are just some of the benefits resulting from the practice of biophilic design, and still, there are many more than what is able to be listed in this document. From this list, however, we can deduce just how beneficial this design practice can be for its human inhabitants. Just the presence of water in a project can help to reduce stress, lower heart rate and blood pressure, improve concentration and memory, and elicit positive emotional responses. This is why we need to place an emphasis on biophilic design in the residential setting: this practice will have profound effects on our wellness if it is implemented in our homes.