Enhancing Office Spaces with Biophilic Design: A Detailed Report

This report delves into the principles of biophilic design and its application in enhancing office spaces. It begins by defining biophilic design as the integration of natural elements and processes into the built environment, emphasizing its positive impact on human well-being, including reduced stress and increased productivity. The report explores the dimensions of biophilic design, categorizing them into place-based and organic design approaches, with a focus on organic design techniques for office space enhancement. A comprehensive literature review supports the study, followed by case studies showcasing successful implementations of biophilic design, such as the WWF Living Planet Centre and The ByggVesta. The discussions highlight the benefits of balancing artificial and natural environments, emphasizing the general advantages of biophilic office design, including improved air quality, reduced absenteeism, and enhanced employee satisfaction. The report also touches upon secondary applications of biophilic design and future goals in office design, concluding with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for integrating biophilic principles into modern workplaces.

ENHANCING THE OFFICE SPACE THROUGH BIOPHILIC DESIGN
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ABSTRACT
The initiatives of biophilic design responses to the office crises have been very effective hence
need to consider. The technology has been developed to assist in the implementation, design and
monitor the environmental benefits in relation to the office structure before translation into the
quantifiable benefits economically. Human life is generally surrounded by the natural
environment. It is however regrettable that continuous development of Offices particularly in
Urban Areas which are poorly designed has managed to isolate man from nature. Experiencing
positive qualities of nature as well as other unique spaces including offices can actually be an
amazing experience. Human beings tend to enjoy the relaxing and aesthetic characteristics which
are created by any design work. Research work has demonstrated on several occasions that
people tend to gravitate towards those types of the environment with a combination of the
following features. In this particular study, a lot of emphasis has been laid on the manner in
which the office space be enhanced through biophilic design while considering few case studies
on the subject.
Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
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Biophilic Design Enhancement of the Workplace....................................................................................4
Biophilic design Dimensions...................................................................................................................8
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.........................................................................................................................9
Overall question of the research..............................................................................................................9
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................9
RESEARCH METHODS..........................................................................................................................13
CASE STUDIES............................................................................................................................................14
Case study 1...........................................................................................................................................14
WWF LIVING PLANET CENTRE – WOKING, UK...................................................................................14
Impacts..............................................................................................................................................14
Statement from the occupants..........................................................................................................15
Biophilic Features of the Design........................................................................................................15
Second Case study.................................................................................................................................17
THE BYGGVESTA –STOCHHOLM............................................................................................................17
The features of the biophilic design......................................................................................................19
DISCUSSIONS.........................................................................................................................................22
BALANCING OF BOTH ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS..............................24
General Benefits of the Biophilic Office Design...................................................................................25
Secondary Application of biophilic design in office facility rehabilitation............................................32
Future goals of Biophilic Design of the offices.................................................................................33
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................34
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................................................36
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INTRODUCTION
As the evolution of the workplace continues, principles of the biophilic design have started
gaining importance. This is because the advantages such as reduced stresses among the staff and
subsequent reduced cases of absenteeism among the workers have become so difficult to
completely ignore. The role of natural environment in the development and growth of human has
been very important factor since time immemorial. However, this critical factor has been
unappreciated and underutilized in the present urban society of the modern world. Biophilic
design which is also refered to as biophilia is the inherent inclination of human to effectively
affiliate with the natural processes and systems (Gray and Birrell 2014). This kind of affinity
became encoded biologically in the enhancement of human emotional, physical and intellectual
fitness in the course of the evolution process as influenced by the context of natural surrounding
which human body and mind developed in.
Biophilic Design Enhancement of the Workplace
For sure it is not wrong to present that a lot of time is spent by individuals indoors currently. A
lot of studies that have been conducted present that approximately 90% of the time is mostly
spent by individuals inside with around 1000 office workers as the recent survey present indicate
around 30% of the total spending less than 15 minutes in accessing outdoor especially on
working days. The only percentage that can access the outdoor environment is only around 13%
per day and only 26% of the population manages to access the outdoor environment for an hour
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every day. This compared to the number of the prison inmate, it is quite lower since they access
the external environment for a period of one hour. In America, a lot of hours, more than 40 hours
is spent by the office workers in the office in every week, this compiles on the total amount of
time taken by individuals indoors rather than visiting the natural environmental nature.
Various employers such as Amazon has significantly implemented the concept of indoor nature
by including dramatic features such as a greenhouse of glass doomed to the headquarters of their
company. This showed that the company could averagely enjoy from the advantages of biophilic
design in a simple way. The Applied Journal of Experimental Psychology research
2014presented that plants when used within the building boost on the feelings of the individuals
within the room by around 40%. According to various studies that have been conducted, it has
been realized that use of biophilic elements at places of work is capable of enhancing the
production and also discourage absenteeism of the workers. These are the pair of factors that
greatly influence the performance of the company based on the costs of operation signified by
human resources.
Biophilic Office Design can be defined as the increasing or growing trend of bringing together
the outdoors indoors or specifically into the place of work. It is a misconception to believe that
biophilic design translates into addition of lots of plant shrubbery and plant life in the set of the
building. It is actually more complicated than that. One of the sustainable solutions identified by
the interior designers and architects to the unfortunate design of the built environment in the
current set up is Biophilic Design. In some suggestions, it is believed that it is simply a label
which focuses on tying together some of the progressive trends of the office design and in fact
putting some of the things in the right standards-creation of a workplace that every staff will
enjoy working.
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Each and every individual has a fundamental requirement to access the green spaces and the
nature as well. The term biophilia as portrayed by a scholar highlights innate linkage to natural
processes and nature. The concept of biophilia design has however been adopted to help
minimize the influence of the distinction through indoors implementation of natural elements to
presume the outdoor space. In the past few years, there has been a steady trend in the growth of
this concept as observed in the portrayed by the various signs showing the verge of meeting the
objective of installing biophilic design elements in modern offices but not only the applied idea
of office designers
It has served to potentially solved problems where natural system degradation has led to the
increased separation between the natural environment and human. This process of design has
been termed as "Restorative Environmental Design". This is because of its unique approach of
the design which focuses on both the strategy of low environmental impact which mitigates and
minimizes the adverse effects on the natural environment. It is also known to embrace a biophilic
design or positive environmental impact approach which promotes beneficial contact between
nature and people in modern landscapes and buildings.
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Figure 1: Casual meting area with the visual access to the outdoor (Smith 2013)
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Biophilic design Dimensions
There is a specific breakdown of the biophilic design. This breakdown has been done into two
categories which can potentially generate different solutions of the design. Every category
effectively demonstrates its relationship or connection with the natural environment.
The place based designed which is also known as vernacular design refers to the landscapes or
buildings which are cable of creating an attachment to the place through connection of ecology,
history, culture among others within the context of geographical location. Organic design on the
other hand uses shapes and forms in both landscapes and buildings which indirectly, directly or
symbolically represent those within the natural environment. It is also refered to as naturalistic
design. This particular project or dissertation focuses on the use of techniques of organic design
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on enhancing the Office space through Biophilic Design. It will be an effective approach of
creating harmonious relationship with nature.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Overall question of the research
In what ways can the office space be enhanced through biophilic design?
LITERATURE REVIEW
From the term utilized, biophilia has been used to refer to the love of life which is very beneficial
in the psyche of human in his quest for the spiritual fulfillment as well as ‘wholeness’. Through
review of the literature of the early biophilic design and biophilia confirmed the concept of this
kind of the design as new social movement which has been under the driver of the collection
with the objective of reconnecting nature to people particularly in the urban centres and by
extension to the offices.
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Figure 2: Low rise concept in Bibliophilic (Grinde & Patil 2009)
The most effective ways in which the two factors, discouraging absenteeism and improving on
the productivity of the company can be attained is through increasing the number of potted plants
(large in size) to the floor plan and others (smaller in size) at the file cabinets and at top desks,
however the real biophilic design extends further than only siting plants in the entire room in
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some given manner. In order to implement this concept fully, biophilic designer need to come up
with different plants of different textures and heights, distribute the plants in the entire building
while putting other together to presume the random nature of occurrence of plants within the
environment. A part from the potted plants, the idea of other creative ways has been borrowed to
limit the extent of nature in homes and offices not necessarily stretching on the desktop space
and the floor. The idea of hanging plants has also assisted in the addition of plants of different
heights, and it has been observed that most individuals are in attempt to use moss walls, portable
dividers and living green walls presenting plants as the significant section for the structure of an
office. But other than live plants, feeling of nature within the place of work can be enhanced by
other features of design like imaginative use of light and shading, the art of nature and also the
effects of subtle sound and sweet scent.
Rather than the constructive psychological effects that facilitate the interest development in
biophilic design, use of plants as part of office décor is linked to various advantages. Plants when
properly installed within the structural layout of the office plays different roles like reduction of
noise effects within the building and at the same time improve the quality of air inside the room.
This is of great help to modern offices appealing to be collaborative and busy. Following the
progress of green wall technology, effective filter systems for the indoor air (other directly
connect to the HVAC setup of the building), perform the function of a bio filter to limit the
possible effects on the quality of air.
Potted plants when strategically placed close to the openings of the room such as doors and
windows are in a place to offer cooling to the internal space as they provide shadow. The living
green walls also act as insulators that prevent excess heating of the room during summer seasons
and at the same time prevent heat loss from the room during winter seasons. For an office
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building to operate to the standards of attaining a LEED of WELL certificate for building, the
elements of biophilic is a factor of consideration and implementation of such is likely to add onto
the total score for the qualification.
Figure 3: The living green surfaces (Raanaas et al 2011)
Despite the fact that many offices strive to adopt the technique of biophilic design to improve the
quality of workplace, there are however advancements in technology that will come up with
other techniques that appeal to be better in the future. The currently applied uses of living green
walls such as adding materials other than plants, arrangements and plant color experimentation
are capable of supplementing the anterooms and the conference rooms with branded elements,
portraying a nice and attractive picture for the millennial workforce and a great view between a
sustainable design and the brand. Most of the companies that cannot afford to implement the
ancient living green walls in office buildings on reasons like costs of the required materials,
efficient irrigation inadequacy and also lack of enough lighting condition greatly focus on moss
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