Connecting with nature through design
Biophilic design describes the benefits our health and wellbeing experience when our built environment is better connected with the natural world.
Biophilic design encourages internal and external spaces to merge and flow, softening boundaries and encouraging interaction with nature in controlled and sheltered environments. Source: Wardian London.
The concept was coined in the 1960s, but its genesis can be traced farther back. Working in the mid twentieth-century, Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture deliberately connected nature with design. His buildings seem to flow into landscapes of trees, mid-western prairies, boulders, even waterfalls. His use of cantilever roofs, floor to ceiling windows and sliding screens beautifully connect us with the natural world.
Cultural design traditions such as Japanese Zen, Shou Sugi Ban and wabi-sabi have long sought to place nature at the centre of the human experience.
Today, their principles are explored by the likes of Tadao Ando, WOHA and Chen-Tien Chu. These architects employ a range of design techniques, from exterior courtyards and landscapes flowing to internal rooms to simple methods for increasing indoor plants for air and living quality as well as visual impact.
These strategies are being used in a range of design techniques from exterior courtyards and landscapes flowing to internal rooms to simple methods for increasing indoor plants for air and living quality as well as visual impact.
L: A carefully selected garden softens the entrance to this coast home.
R: External walls slide away to allow a leafy courtyard to feature in this living room’s interior design scheme.
Working in Australia and on the Central Coast gives Celsius an abundance of opportunities to explore biophilic design connections.
Our diversity of landscapes and exciting coastlines connect our clients with beautiful sites and localities. Our Mid North Coast Tiny House is designed as a hillside pavilion from which to take in the surrounding natural bushland of this region.
Our North Sydney and Avoca projects demonstrate how these themes can be transposed into more urban settings, creating terraced landscapes and sheltered rejuvenating spaces that enhance their occupants’ wellbeing through nature connection.
