Biophilic Design
Biophilia is our innate love of nature, and biophilic building design attempts to enhance our connection to the outdoors. A lack of this connection can noticeably affect mood, and it has even been linked to health impacts and reduced productivity.
Strategies for biophilic design include daylighting, access to views, natural ventilation, aesthetic use of biomimetic patterns, and space planning that offers prospect and refuge.
Biophilic Design
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
-
Bringing Nature Indoors: The Myths and Realities of Plants in Buildings
Feature Article
Some proponents of indoor plants promise that they will clean the air and promote occupant health and productivity. But will they? Scientific backing for these claims is still being developed, but some of the results are promising.
-
The Living Building Challenge: Can It Really Change the World?
Feature Article
The Living Building Challenge, with its stringent, all-or-nothing requirements, is out to change the way we build. But is it actually achievable?
-
Building for People: Integrating Social Justice into Green Design
Feature Article
Social justice is already a part of green building. Making it a conscious part of the decision-making process, however, requires a new paradigm.
-
Doing Daylighting Right
Feature Article
Harvesting daylight is a popular way to save energy and promote productivity. But getting it wrong is all too easy-and can have the opposite effects.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
-
Ecosystem Services
Explainer
Functions performed by intact ecosystems provide essential support for human life, but how do we quantify their value?
-
Permaculture for Urban Design
Explainer
Permaculture promotes food production and nurtures ecological systems in both rural and urban environments.
-
Biophilic Design: Indulging Our Love of Life
Explainer
New biophilia metrics pin down what it means to engage the love of nature through design.
-
Biomimicry: Designing Conditions Conducive to Life
Explainer
Biomimicry offers a vitalizing framework for reconnecting designers to nature and driving innovation.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
-
SIREWALL: The Next Generation of Earthen Walls
Product Review
Made from local earth, rebar, and polyiso, SIREWALL rammed earth walls are beautiful, durable, and are stronger than concrete with less portland cement.
-
Treated Wood for Ground Contact, Minus the Toxic Pesticides
Product Review
Accoya, now code-approved for fungus and termite resistance, relies on acetylation as a benign alternative to conventional pressure-treated wood.
-
Unmilled Timber Frames Go High Tech, Replacing Steel
Product Review
Keep the beauty of round logs, and get more strength from an engineered wood structure, promises Wisconsin-based company WholeTrees.
-
Do Living Walls Make for Cleaner Indoor Air?
Product Review
Nedlaw Living Wall Biofilters do more than most green walls to remove VOCs, but it’s unclear that they provide a true fresh air supply.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
-
Healing Gardens Make Hospital Stays a Walk in the Park
News Analysis
Healing gardens make hospitals more humane and contribute to healing and sustainable design-as well as the facility's bottom line.
-
Two for One: Growing Food and Solar Energy Together
News Analysis
As more projects are plugging into off-site solar, dual-use installations are gaining favor to minimize adverse impact.
-
Denver Votes Green Thumbs Up for Green Roofs
News Analysis
A city suffering from ozone pollution and the heat-island effect approves a ballot measure requiring green roofs.
-
Farming in Cities Worth $33 Billion a Year
News Analysis
A recent study estimates the global value of the ecosystem services provided by urban agriculture.
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
-
A Tribute to Robin Guenther, Green Healthcare Pioneer
Op-Ed
Robin Guenther advanced new standards for hospitals that were adopted by the larger green building community and integrated into leading rating systems.
-
Bring the Noise! It Can Help You Listen.
Op-Ed
Noise-canceling headphones and tightly sealed buildings have more in common than you might think.
-
How Nature Creates Green Jobs—If We Listen
Blog Post
Biomimicry experts explore resilient design from environmental, social, and economic perspectives.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
-
Native Landscaping for Biodiversity
Feature Article
Removal of invasive plants and support of native plantings are critically important for maintaining healthy ecosystems.
-
Native Landscaping for Biodiversity
Spotlight Report
It may take hundreds or thousands of years to return to pre-industrial-age levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but the loss of animal and plant species that is occurring today is, practically speaking, irreversible.
-
Wood's Latest Move: from Carbon Neutral to Climate Smart
Webcast
If we’re going to start using a lot more wood in buildings, we need to think hard about where that wood is going to come from and how it will be harvested.
Just For Fun
Something weird happens every April at BuildingGreen...
-
Award-Winning Homes Capture “Seamless Biophilia Experience”
April Fools
Seamless biophilia experience takes home Lille Arne prize.
-
USGBC Embraces Legal Marijuana
April Fools
LEED v4.20 introduces a wide range of cannabis-oriented prerequisites.
-
Hurricane Tests Resilient Design—and Family Dynamics
April Fools
A building project brings brothers back together, but a fast-moving storm challenges the project and the family.
