Biophilic Design: Bringing the Outdoors In The Classroom
Over the last few years, nature and biophilic design has had a heavy impact on the workplace. Workplaces are starting to call out for greener times. Whether that be in the way we treat our spaces, or how we utilise them. Bringing nature into the workplace not only helps to reduce stress but has also been seen to increase creativity and productivity among staff.
Incorporating nature into the workplace can take many different forms. Whether it be using brighter and more natural colours for walls, indoor plants - both real and imitation, or even furniture with wooden accents. Even wall art featuring views of nature can positively impact mood and wellbeing within the workplace.
Biophilic Design:
Biophilia (meaning love of nature) focuses on our instinctive attraction to mother nature. Bringing the outside inside has not only been seen to improve our productivity and well-being, but also our ability to learn or work with a higher level of concentration, comfort, and creativity.
Of late, more and more businesses are looking into integrating biophilic design into their work and learning spaces.
Natural Benefits:
Have you heard of naturistic design? It can open up and brighten a space instantly. It also has the power to uplift our mood, making it easier for us to focus on tasks and stay engaged with others around us.
Incorporating nature and naturalistic design into work environments not only improves physiological health, but psychological health also, which is more important now than ever before, with many people stuck in the confines of their homes during the pandemic.
By integrating a greener atmosphere into the workplace, health benefits such as lowered blood pressure, lowered heart rate, and memory restoration have been noticed. Lighting a space with natural or artificial light has also been seen to improve our circadian rhythm.
Weaving nature into our workspaces can take many forms. Whether you want to adapt your space entirely to create a more calming atmosphere, or you stick to small changes, likes adding plants and allowing for airflow in spaces which allows for an increased sense of focus and improved performance.
The Best Indoor Plants for schools.
Devils Ivy:
Devil’s Ivy, also known as Pothos, is a type of evergreen vine. The leaves are large and sometimes heart-shaped and come in a wide variety of colours for the leaves.
This species adapts well to workspaces, from low light levels to brighter ones. This easy-to-care-for plant with heart-shaped, white-splotched leaves makes a lovely addition sitting on a desk, shelf or table, and large specimens, trained around a pole or cane, look great in big pots on the floor.
ZZ:
Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, commonly abbreviated to the ZZ plant, is perhaps one of the easiest to maintain plants you could find. Their fat stalks and bulging roots store a huge amount of water, meaning you don’t have to water them every day.
This plant is probably best for those who are guilty of killing their plants. The ZZ can also tolerate prolonged periods of low light, making it the perfect candidate for a desk plant.
Bromeliads:
Perfect for reception areas or dotted along walkways and corridors, Bromeliads may require a bit more maintenance at first in order to bloom, but once they do aside from the odd watering now and then, they require very little care.
One of the main reasons for this is that they don’t require much fertiliser, meaning all you need is water and someone to look at them once in a while. With their striking colours and beautiful blooms, this won’t be hard.