The basic premise of home design has long focused on how to keep nature out by creating strict boundaries between interior and exterior worlds. But now a new trend has emerged, one based on research into humans’ atavistic need to experience a natural environment, a need Harvard biologist Edward Wilson calls, “biophilia.” Simply, the benefits of letting Mother Nature back into our lives extend beyond energy efficiency and cost-savings; it will actually make us happier.

Influenced by the trends in green architecture, this ingrained need has led to interest in specialized design that reintroduces natural elements to our day-to-day lives. From ‘living walls’ of plants, massive skylights, even computer screens that display sky scenes corresponding to the time of day, small design details can lead to tremendous psychological benefits.

This research helps us recognize that green design isn’t something we do just because we feel guilty about global warming but because it improves the quality of life immeasurably, that it is simply a better way to live. By incorporating nature into design, not only do we take advantage of the well-honed ecological processes that have been sustaining life on this planet for billions of years, but we also use our species’ development within these processes to fundamentally better ourselves.

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This entry was posted by Alexander White on Friday, September 8th, 2006 at 9:46 am and is filed under Design, Environment, Social Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.