Biophilia is the innate human attraction to nature and living systems. It has been shown to have positive effects on our health, well-being, and productivity. In this article, you will learn about the principles of biophilia in green building construction and how they can enhance your real estate development projects.
Green building construction is the practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings in a way that minimizes their environmental impact and maximizes their social and economic benefits. Green building construction aims to reduce energy consumption, water use, waste generation, and greenhouse gas emissions, while improving indoor air quality, comfort, and performance. Green building construction can also increase the value, marketability, and resilience of your properties.
Though green construction can help with energy efficiency, we must sometimes create a balance between green design and well-being design. For example, in the North Europe zone, lowering the cieling height with a full cover floor with insulation may cause end users to be dissatisfied with the space design. This will reduce the value of the property. While open void in public buildings produce significant energy waste, it improve design space.
Biophilia in green building construction means incorporating elements of nature and natural systems into your building design and operation, such as plants, natural light, views, water, materials, shapes, colors, sounds, and smells. This can offer many benefits for your real estate development projects, including enhancing the health and well-being of occupants by reducing stress and improving mood. It can also improve productivity and performance by increasing attention, creativity, collaboration, and satisfaction. Additionally, biophilia in green building construction can reduce operational costs and environmental impact while creating a distinctive identity for your buildings that appeals to your target market.
The principles of biophilia can be applied in many ways to green building construction, depending on the project goals, budget, site, and context. To get started, consider conducting a biophilic design assessment to identify existing and potential biophilic features. Then, define your biophilic design vision and objectives to align with your project vision and reflect the needs of occupants. Choose and implement appropriate biophilic design strategies to achieve this vision; these may include providing direct access to nature, incorporating natural elements into the building interiors and exteriors, mimicking natural patterns in architecture and furnishings, using natural light and ventilation, integrating natural sounds and smells, and encouraging human-nature interactions. Finally, monitor and evaluate the performance of your biophilic design solutions on occupants, users, and the environment; make adjustments as needed.
Biophilia in green building construction presents both challenges and opportunities. Common challenges include balancing the costs and benefits of biophilic design solutions, addressing potential risks and trade-offs, adapting to local climate, culture, and regulations, and engaging stakeholders. Opportunities include leveraging existing green building standards, collaborating with professionals and experts who specialize in biophilic design, innovating with new solutions, and communicating achievements to the public. All of these considerations can help create unique and memorable experiences for your projects.
Biophilia in green building construction is not a new or niche concept. It has been used in various types and scales of real estate development projects around the world, such as The Edge in Amsterdam, Netherlands, The Parkroyal on Pickering in Singapore, The Bullitt Center in Seattle, USA, and The Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore. These projects demonstrate biophilia through features like natural light and ventilation, rooftop gardens with solar panels and rainwater harvesting, indoor waterfalls that create a soothing sound and humidify the air, extensive greenery, water features, sky gardens that provide natural cooling and biodiversity, solar roofs that generate electricity, rainwater collection systems that supply water, and composting toilet systems that recycle waste.