![]() Those working in a windowless or dark environment can typically mimic natural light by incorporate a variety of lighting levels throughout the workday.Īdding an indirect experience with nature through earth tones can also have an array of positive psychological and physiological effects – as long as the colours represent what Söderlund calls “healthy nature”. Natural light supports the circadian rhythms of the body, which regulate our sleep-wake cycle, as well as hormones. In a months-long study conducted in two large commercial offices in the UK and The Netherlands, data showed that ‘green’ offices with plants made staff 15% more productive than ‘lean’ designs stripped of greenery.īeyond adding greenery, Söderlund says that there are several other simple additions for optimising a home office, including light and colour. Houseplants may be the most obvious starting point – though claims about their supposed air-purifying abilities are more hype than reality. “A lot of it is common sense because we’re innately and evolutionarily hardwired to respond to nature. “It’s about bringing nature in all its forms – including patterns, materials, shapes, spaces, smells, sights and sounds – into urban design on varying scales,” she explains. ![]() The term ‘biophilic design’ didn’t gain prominence until the early 2000s as a way of intentionally fostering human-nature connections within manufactured environments, according to Perth-based scholar Jana Söderlund, author of The Emergence of Biophilic Design. German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm first coined the term ‘biophilia’ in the 1960s to describe our instinctive tendency to seek connections with nature. To get the best results, however, fashionable houseplants are merely the first step in a more holistic multisensory approach. ![]() ![]() An increasing body of evidence shows that incorporating nature can help with things like decreasing stress and increasing productivity, creativity and attention span. Thanks to the pandemic, millions of people now have the chance to create a work environment with their own wellbeing in mind. Biophilic design was a major office trend in the years leading up to 2020, when Amazon introduced spherical conservatories to its Seattle headquarters Microsoft debuted treehouse conference rooms in nearby Redmond, Washington and Facebook created a 3.6-acre rooftop garden at its Silicon Valley hub.ĭue to Covid-19, most of these offices are now closed – as are many around the globe – but that hasn’t stopped remote workers from bringing the concept back home with them. Now, many like Morgan see them as a necessary tool in fostering optimal work-from-home conditions.Įxperts say this desire to fill indoor environments with objects from the outdoors ties in to the growing movement toward ‘biophilic design’, which is a concept used to increase wellbeing through both direct and indirect exposure to nature. “If I’m going to be spending my entire existence in a 450-square-foot studio apartment, then it’s got to be a sanctuary for me where I can be productive, take a break and find peace.”įuelled by a boom in so-called ‘ plantfluencers’ on Instagram, houseplant sales were skyrocketing among US millennials even before the pandemic, with a nearly 50% rise in sales between 20, according to the National Gardening Association. “I really didn’t see it as frivolous,” she explains of her 25 newly-purchased plants. It was the first time in years that the 36-year-old had settled in one place for more than a few weeks, so she turned to houseplants to give her apartment a sense of serenity she often found on her adventures abroad. When the pandemic padlocked international borders earlier this year, MaSovaida Morgan traded her itinerant life as a travel writer for a steady gig working remotely in Washington, DC for a tech company based in Silicon Valley.
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