Rebuilding Biophilia:Reconnecting Man with Nature through Architectural Design
Biophilic design balances human needs with the value and considerations of natural environments and processes and incorporates aspects and qualities of those elements into architectural design. This serves to reinforce man's instinctual connection and relationship with those systems.
There are two basic, symbiotic, motivations for reinforcing this relationship. First, a high quality relationship with the environment has many beneficial effects on human health on the physical, psychological and intellectual levels. The second reason is that a strong relationship with the environment will result in people acting in a manner that is conducive to the environment's preservation, as a result of having formed a personal relationship with it and having gained an appreciation of its value.
Biophilic design nurtures these relationships through the use of five basic principles: affiliation & affinity, homeostasis, prospect & refuge, ecological ethics and wellness. These principles can be applied as methods for developing a design, as well as evaluating a design or built project.