Biophilic Interior Design: What It Is and How to Incorporate It Into Your Home

Spending time in nature has been shown to reduce negative feelings like stress, anger and anxiety while simultaneously helping us feel happier and calmer. However, 90 percent of our lives are spent indoors!

So how can we connect with nature when we don’t have the time to do so?

The answer? Biophilic interior design. 

While biophilic design can trace its origins to the 1980s, it’s recently exploded in popularity in architecture and interior design.

Let’s look at what biophilic design is, why it’s so popular and how you can implement this design trend into your home or office.

What Is Biophilic Design?

The term “biophilia” was originally coined by the biologist Edward O. Wilson in the 1980s. Biophilia literally means “love of nature” with Wilson defining biophilia as a philosophy as, “the innate tendency [of humans] to focus on life and life-like processes.” 

Wilson and many others, believes that humans have an innate desire to be in and connected with the natural world, but we’ve lost that in the modern era with urbanization. Not only that, but many people aren’t able to get outside or experience nature in their free time. In fact, about half of Americans say they spend time in nature once a month or less. It’s hard to believe!

Biophilic design takes this idea of focusing on nature and the world surrounding us and brings it into the design process. It emphasizes design elements that create rooms and environments that reconnect us to nature. 

Simply put, biophilic design creates spaces that bring nature inside in a variety of ways so people within those spaces feel that connection to nature.

Why Is It So Popular?

Perhaps the most obvious reason biophilic design is so popular is because of something I already mentioned: people aren’t getting to experience nature in their everyday lives. 

Creating rooms and spaces that reconnect us with nature every time we’re there could be the most practical way for many of us to maintain that connection with the Great Outdoors.

One scientific study showed that a big reason for the modern disconnect with nature has to do with both work and home environments. The study explains that “places where [people] work, live and go to school generally do not encourage contact with the natural world and because myriad competing priorities and activities push experiences in nature to the side.”

This combined with the fact that the majority of people live in urban areas has greatly reduced everyone’s overall connection to nature. Free time isn’t dedicated to that connection either with most Americans getting outside for only 3-5 hours weekly.

The solution? Bring nature to where the people are: indoors. This allows people to have a connection with nature even if they can’t get outside. 

Biophilic design elements can also have a great positive impact that aids in the trend’s popularity. Indoor plants reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety and significantly improve air quality. Not only that, but biophilic design can also increase productivity and creativity.

Biophilic Interior Design Tips

Let’s look at some simple ways that you can get biophilic design into your home or at the office.

Plants & Greenery

Perhaps the most obvious method is adding plants and greenery inside. This doesn’t just mean a single potted plant, though.

Biophilic design is about creating a cohesive natural environment inside. A few single or isolated plants scattered around the home, therefore, is not biophilic design since it doesn’t create an immersive natural experience. 

Add various plants around the room and home so you can see greenery wherever you go. This serves to reinforce the connection to nature at all times and can boost the natural benefits of being closer to nature. 

Because you want the experience to be immersive and flow naturally, pick plants that fit with the architecture and style of the home. Vines or hanging plants are great to create the feeling of movement and growth. Flowers add great pops of color naturally throughout the home and can be chosen to match almost any interior paint color scheme. 

Natural Materials

Deepen the connection to nature by choosing natural materials and decor. I highly recommend using natural wood either for flooring, furniture, or simply wooden patterns. 

Other great natural materials to use include:

• Bamboo
• Reclaimed wood
• Wool
• Cotton
• Shells 
• Rattan
• Natural stone

The advantage of using natural materials like these is that they literally come directly from nature. Man-made materials often look uniform and, well, man-made. This uniformity and artificial quality can shatter a biophilic design concept. 

Natural stone, wood and other materials are all going to be unique: different grains, textures, knots, blemishes and designs will vary amongst each of the materials. This creates a realistic natural setting and a feeling of rustic warmth that you would actually see outside. 

Textures, Patterns and Shapes

Speaking of textures, I suggest using a variety of textures throughout the space. Think about the last time you went for a walk in the woods and all of the textures, patterns and shapes you saw!

There are the fluttering leaves, knobby tree bark, coarse dirt, smooth rocks eroded with time, a babbling creek, swirling vines, jagged tree branches…the list goes on. 

The wide variety of textures, patterns and shapes should be mimicked in biophilic design. This doesn’t mean you have to go overboard with decorations, plants and other items.

What it does mean is to avoid too much uniformity since that’s something almost never seen in nature. It also means to try incorporating various textures to better replicate nature. This could be done with a knobby quilt on top of a smooth sofa, a plant with curly leaves on a natural granite countertop, chairs made of bumpy reclaimed wood paired with a smooth green table cloth, etc.

You can also mimic patterns & textures seen in nature for great biophilic integration as well: honeycomb patterned tiles, curved vine-like lines on a rug, frayed edges on curtains or blankets and more.

Color & Natural Light

Colors not often seen in nature like neons or artificial metallics or color-dyed wood, won’t fit in well with a space focused on biophilic design. That doesn’t mean bright or varied colors aren’t allowed.

As a color expert I find myself noticing this quite often: Some of the boldest and brightest colors come directly from nature! Think of bright pink-yellow-orange sunsets, yellow flowers, bright green pollen and teal ocean water. 

Minimalistic design with just green and white looks clean and can work for biophilic design, but when’s the last time you saw only two colors when you took a walk on the beach or went camping in the woods? Nature is filled with a wide variety of colors and shades, so try to get that variety into your space.

Natural light is another factor that can add great depth and reality to a natural space. Skylights and unobstructed windows are great options if you have them available to you.

Implementing Biophilic Interior Design in Your Space

Biophilic interior design is about more than adding a few plants to your space. It’s about nurturing our innate need to be close to nature and bring us back to our natural roots (no pun intended).

I’d love to hear how you’re bringing nature back indoors. Leave me a comment below with your thoughts or questions and don’t hesitate to contact me for more color consultant advice, biophilic design info, or anything else on your mind!