Journal of Biophilic Design

How does a passion for biophilic design, which stems from a desire to improve an architect and designer’s own health, lead to the design of a major new healthcare building? For Steven Edge, founder of Salvage Sustainable Design, his personal interest in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) expanded into advocacy of Biophilic Design in buildings. We catch up with and discuss his recent project, commis...

" I love this term biophilia, because it's this, in a sense, it's a love of nature in a word, isn't it? And I had this beautiful description recently of what it actually means to love something or to love someone. In very plain terms, it means to include that person or that thing's interests as one's own ." Jojo Mehta, Co-founder, Stop Ecocide International. For me Biophilic Design has the potenti...

How can Biophilic Design be used to create happier and healthier environments? Ben Channon is an architect, author, TEDx speaker and mental wellbeing advocate, and is well known as a thought leader in designing for happiness and wellbeing. As a Director at the wellbeing design consultancy Ekkist, he helps clients and design teams to create healthier places, and researches how buildings and urban d...

Have you got a copy of the Journal? You can purchase a copy directly from us at the journalofbiophilicdesign.com or Amazon. If you like our podcast and would like to support us in some way, you can buy us a coffee if you’d like to, thank you x Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.  Did you know our podcast is a...

There is strong evidence that strong green environments can improve educational outcomes as well as improving focus and concentration restoration levels, and for Nicholas Artherton, a chartered Landscape Architect and qualified Urban designer, Biophilic Design is a core tenet to create connections with natural elements and outdoor spaces through diversity, movement and multi-sensory interactions.&...

Andrew Waugh is an architect with a passion for using sustainable materials in construction projects.  His practice, Waugh Thistleton Architects, is a London based architectural practice producing thoughtful and sustainable projects both locally and internationally. The practice is a world leader in engineered timber and pioneer in the field of tall timber buildings.  Of particular...

Did you know for every £1 you spend on even simple Biophilic Design enhancements, you could get £2.70 back? So reveals the new research conducted by Joyce Chan Shoof Architect and Sustainability Lead at the UK Parliament. Using a scientific approach with control environments, adding biophilic design elements to test the effect and then removing them to further test the effect of their absence, Joy...

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries and this fact is yet another reason we need more Biophilic Design included into urban planning, architecture, design, and every environmental facet of city and town life. Robert Delius, Associate Director, Architect and Head of Sustainability at Stride Treglown is doing just that. Aiming to maximise biodiversity through design, Robert has a passi...

Robert Gardner is CEO and Co-Founder of Rebalance Earth. With over 20 years of experience in the financial industry, he has a unique expertise in sustainability, pensions, and wealth management and believes that money can be a force for good. Rebalance Earth, is a fund manager that redirects the flow of private capital to protect and restore Nature.  Their mission is to drive the transition t...

The British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) is the only professional institute for interior designers in the UK. Our growing membership represents both the commercial and residential sectors, from heritage to cutting edge. In addition to rigorous entry requirements which assess training, experience and professionalism, they require our members to continue their professional development th...

Steve Tonkin is the Dark Sky Advisor to Cranborne Chase National Landscape, in Wiltshire.  Cranborne Chase is a designate Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that, since 2019, has been recognised as an International Dark Sky Reserve. Steve can pinpoint 4 October 1957 as the first became aware of dark skies.  His family were, at the time, living 8 miles outside Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and his f...

Morgan Taylor leads the biodiversity side of Greengage, a multidisciplinary environmental consultancy who cover everything from energy and carbon assessments, sustainability, health, wellbeing, socio-economic assessment, and EIA management as well as the whole gamut of biodiversity assessment through to planning.  As designers, architects, or planners, we all need to be mindful of the impact...

We speak with Marco Gastoldi, interior designer and Associate at Gensler, who in collaboration with some amazing partners have created the theme of the Workspace Design Show in London this year. The Theme is “Bloom”, and we speak in this podcast about the growing awareness of Biophilic Design, how it has environmental and psychological benefits, that it is based on science, neuroscience and also t...

How do we design schools so not only children are inspired, teachers want to come to work, places are healthy, the building sustainable, the landscape regenerative, and supports biodiversity? The answer is Biophilic Design. De Verwondering is a primary school in the Netherlands, designed by architecture firm ORGA. The design won the 2023 Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award from Living Future...

Dr Leighton Phillips Director of Research, Innovation and University Partnerships for the NHS Wales, Honorary Professor Aberystwyth University, and director on the Hywel Dda University Health Board joins us to share how they are bringing in Biophilic Design into healthcare in South West Wales. Part of his role is about questioning what we want the future to look like.   Dr Phillips shares wit...

From designing a detailed picture of the New York Skyline in moss to how we need to design with biophilia for helping mitigate climate change this great podcast with Lily Turner explores how we are just starting to realise the very real benefits that Living walls can bring to our cities, and our work and healing spaces.   Lily Turner is an environmentalist, biophilic designer and living wall...

 Tying in with Issue 6, our Blue Mind edition of The Journal of Biophilic Design we speak with Nick Hounsfield, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer at The Wave in Bristol. The Wave is an inland Surfing destination. After working in the healthcare sector and realizing that not only one of the key aspects for people was that they were lonely but that they also were missing a connection to natur...

Building on an earlier conversation we had in 2020 with a co-founder of Skogluft, we speak today with Morten Kvam, CEO of Skogluft. Not only does it sound beautiful and uplifting, in Norwegian it means “Forest Air”. We talk about how plants are essential to have in the built environment and how the main founder of Skogluft Bjorn Virumdal was a mechanical engineer and realised that biological model...

Change is about people and when it comes to people, there is no formula and there is no one way, this is challenging and hard. For designers, architects, planners who are trying to convince people to do something different, to do something maybe that business has never done before, what tools do we need to help take our clients on that “change” journey with us? I was lucky to catch up with the Cha...

Are you an agent for change? What is the barrier to designing better? Sometimes it is the apparent complexity of legislation governing ecology, planning and design that prevents people from discovering the best way of doing something. Fortunately, there is a simple award scheme that helps developers, builders, planners and designers navigate the myriad of paperwork and advisory bodies. We speak wi...

When we design spaces, we need to consider how beautiful a place looks, how useful it is, is it fit for function and so on. We should also consider how the sensory elements of the space also stack up. In other podcasts and also in the Journal itself, we look at how our senses are impacted by sound, light, smell, even the haptic elements (those things we touch), smell (is the air fresh and clear) a...

Plants to the Rescue #PlantsatWorkWeek2023 An ambulance makes an appearance at the Oxford Business Park. Everyone is keen to know who’s in need of medical help without appearing too nosey. Watching from afar one person noted something wasn’t quite right – plants kept appearing, peeping out of the back of the ambulance and round the corners of the doors. Where was the patient? And what had happened...

A new pioneering research study proves that there is definitely a business case for introducing Biophilic Design into a Workplace. The findings of this study shows an incredible 200% increase in well-being and environmental value compared to a normal workspace! The research was carried out at PLP Offices over the course of 8 weeks. The researchers monitored the participants daily work during three...

Have you got a copy of our Cities issue of The Journal of Biophilic Design  (you can purchase a copy directly from us at the journalofbiophilicdesign.com or Amazon. To buy a copy of The Journal of Biophilic Design visit our website www.journalofbiophilicdesign.com or from Amazon. If you like our podcast and would like to support us in some way, you can buy us a coffee if you’d like to, thank...

It seems that in the 21st century we have even more challenges, from tackling climate change and biodiversity decline to an ageing population. Dr Wei Yang, influential thought-leader and a powerful advocate for climate action and nature-based solutions, advocates a people centric approach to community and environment. It is fundamental to create a balanced system for people, nature and society to...