What is Biophilic Design?
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash
When I started Sage Garden Style many years ago it was to provide a forum for exploring ways to infuse nature into our interior spaces and extend our own style into outdoor spaces. I had an herb garden and was intrigued first by how beautiful dried natural arrangements from my garden could be in the dead of winter. I also was interested in natural organic fabrics and the products made from them and how those could contribute to a more casual lifestyle and a call to sustainability. I did not realize it at the time but there was a collective movement brewing that has only grown more relevant over the last 15 years. As technology has increased our desire to reconnect with nature has also increased. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. Wellness and Biophilic Design are being explored together as a way to not only create beautiful spaces but spaces that will nurture our souls.
The term Biophilic Design was coined in 1973 by Ethan Fromm, a psychoanalyst as “a passionate love of life and all that is alive..” in 1973. Edward O. Wilson’s book, Biophilia, published in 1984 expanded this notion suggesting that our connection to nature is not only psychological but genetic. We have a built in need to connect to nature for our well-being and happiness. It can be as simple as a window with a view of a beautiful landscape, a plant or floral arrangement, a piece of driftwood brought into our interiors as a piece of art, or artistic decor inspired by natural objects.
….More to come with ways in which we can incorporate elements into our homes that are both direct and indirect ways to bring us closer to nature and how it enhances our health and well-being.