habitable buildings

The biophilia hypothesis maintains that humans have a built-in affinity for natural things, feeding our desire for keeping pets, climbing mountains, hiking in forests, and being where we can enjoy natural views. This attraction can explain why we like keeping plants in our homes and places of work, and presents an opportunity for architects and engineers to address the social aspects of sustainability at the same time as energy and health issues, through building design.

Having the right plants inside can directly improve air quality, but biophilia suggests that a whole range of design features could improve well-being through exposure to natural elements. In an introduction to biophilia in the Rocky Mountain Institute Newsletter of Spring 2004 [962 KB PDF], Corey Griffin writes:

Today, the technology and knowledge exists to create a building that touches the earth lightly during both construction and day-to-day operations. However, what has been often neglected by creators of low-impact “green” buildings is the need for spaces to be habitable. Occupants of built environments don’t want simply to work, play, eat, or sleep in a functional building. They want to be inspired, invigorated, comforted, and reassured by their surroundings. They want spaces that will make them more productive and healthy, and they want spaces in which they love to be—spaces that, as RMI’s Amory Lovins puts it, create “delight when entered, pleasure when occupied, and regret when departed.”

Biophilic design elements to achieve this could include:

• the use of dynamic and diffuse daylight,
• the ability to have frequent, spontaneous and repeated contact with nature throughout and between buildings,
• the use of local, natural materials,
• a connection between interior and exterior surfaces,
• natural ventilation,
• a direct physical connection to nature from interior spaces, and
• direct visual access to nature from interior spaces.

Griffin also mentions previous work on the hypothesis that provides some motivation for society's choices of landscape design and urban configuration, suggesting a link with our ancestral needs for food, shelter and places to explore. Perhaps our strong tendency towards urban sprawl is an instinctive response to the unnatural aspects of the concrete-and-steel urban jungle. If so, it's vital that attempts to increase urban density to support various aspects of sustainability should incorporate biophilic design elements, lest we become like caged tigers, sapped of life and spirit. OK, I'm being dramatic, but if we need that natural connection to be happier, healthier people, then we damn well better incorporate it in our sustainable cities of the future.

[Update on 3 Dec 2007: BLDGBLOG shows us the air brain, a high-tech version of "plant filters" to clean the air inside buildings. Nice and neat and... sanitized. Not at all like going out in the garden and getting your hands dirty.]