Biophilic design is the intentional integration of nature and natural patterns into buildings and spaces to improve human health, wellbeing and creativity. This report looks at your space through that lens and tells you, in plain language, what is already working and what would bring it closer to nature.

We read a space in three ways, following the patterns of biophilic design set out by Terrapin Bright Green: Nature in the Space, the direct presence of nature; Natural Analogues, the materials, forms and patterns that echo it; and Nature of the Space, the way a place is arranged. We give particular attention to materials and to the capacity of a space to inspire awe.

This is guidance, not a score. You will not find marks or ratings here. You will find what we observed, why it matters and what we would do.

This is a bright, well-proportioned apartment with one outstanding asset that is almost entirely unused: a west-facing terrace that looks straight into the crowns of mature street trees. Daylight is generous in the living area and both bedrooms, and windows on two sides let air move through the whole flat. These are qualities many city homes cannot offer, and everything we recommend builds on them.

What holds the apartment back is that the interior turns away from all of this. The surfaces are synthetic, the room is hard and echoing, the furniture is arranged with its back to the view, and the terrace holds two empty planters. The home is pleasant. It is not yet restful, which is what you told us you want from it after a working day spent there.

Light and view. The living area has full-height glazing to the west and is flooded with light from early afternoon until sunset. The view is of sky and tree crowns, not of buildings, which is a real gift in a suburb. The difficulty is glare. The only control is a roller blind, and on summer afternoons it stays down, so the best light of the day is shut out and the lamps go on. The bedrooms face east and wake with the sun, which gives the home a natural daily rhythm. The hallway and bathroom have no daylight.

Living things. There are three small plants in the living room, one of them failing because it sits in direct sun behind glass. On the terrace, nothing grows. The trees beyond are doing all the work, and they are borrowed. Because the terrace is directly outside the main room, anything planted there becomes part of the interior view, moves in the breeze, changes with the seasons and brings birds and insects within sight. No other single step would add so much.

Air, sound and scent. Windows open on both sides of the flat, and you use them, so fresh air is a strength. What you hear is less kind: the open-plan room echoes, and with the windows open the dominant sound is traffic. A plug-in synthetic fragrance in the hallway masks the natural smell of the home. There is no water, seen or heard.

Form and pattern. Everything in the apartment is straight-edged: flat ceilings, square units, a rectangular sofa, plain walls. Straight lines suit a place of work and efficiency; curves and natural pattern are what help people settle. The only natural pattern in the room is the grain of the oak dining table, and the eye goes to it for that reason. The repeating print of the laminate floor is the opposite: a pattern that looks like wood but repeats in a way nothing in nature does.

Complexity and order. The room is tidy and sparse, which is better than cluttered, but it gives the eye very little to rest on. A biophilic interior has a moderate richness: enough variety of texture, tone and detail to hold attention gently, arranged with a clear order. Here there is order without richness.

Open views and shelter. The terrace gives the apartment a long view out, and that sense of prospect is its strongest spatial quality. What is missing is its partner: a sheltered place from which to enjoy it. The sofa sits with its back to the route between hallway and kitchen, the most exposed position in the room, and faces a wall. People relax most readily with their back protected and a view in front of them. At present the best seat in the home does not exist.

Discovery. The whole living space can be read from the front door in a single glance. There is nothing held back, no partly hidden corner, no reason to move further in. A small amount of layering would change how large and how interesting the room feels.

Belonging to a place. The interior could be in any city. The furnishings are mass-market, the plants are generic, and nothing made or grown locally is present. The trees outside are the only thing that tells you where you are. A home that reflects its own landscape and its own makers feels more settled, and more yours.

These recommendations follow from the findings above. They are grouped by scale, starting with what you can do without any building work. We describe types of material and intervention; we do not name suppliers or products.

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Material choices

Changes to the space

Biophilic design rests on the idea that people have an innate need to connect with nature and living systems (Wilson, 1984; Kellert and Wilson, 1993). The patterns we use to read a space were set out by Browning, Ryan and Clancy for Terrapin Bright Green (2014), drawing together a large body of research on how contact with nature affects stress, mood and thinking. The studies below were selected for what we found in this apartment.

• Appleton, J. (1975). The Experience of Landscape.
• Browning, W., Ryan, C. and Clancy, J. (2014). 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design. Terrapin Bright Green.
• Fjeld, T. (2000). The effect of interior planting on health and discomfort among workers. HortTechnology.
• Hildebrand, G. (1999). The Origins of Architectural Pleasure.
• Joye, Y. (2007). Architectural lessons from environmental psychology: the case of biophilic architecture.
• Kellert, S. and Wilson, E.O. (1993). The Biophilia Hypothesis.
• Scannell, L. and Gifford, R. (2010). Defining place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
• Spehar, B. et al. (2003). Universal aesthetic of fractals. Computers & Graphics.
• Stellar, J.E. et al. (2015). Positive affect and markers of inflammation. Emotion.
• Tsunetsugu, Y. et al. (2007). Research on the physiological effects of wood interiors. Journal of Wood Science.
• Ulrich, R.S. (1991). Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
• US Environmental Protection Agency. Introduction to Indoor Air Quality.
• Wilson, E.O. (1984). Biophilia.

This report is independent. Nothing in it has been written to sell a product. If you would like help turning the recommendations into a specification, there are two ways we can work with you.

Prepared by the Biophilic Design Sourcing Hub, in collaboration with the Journal of Biophilic Design. This report reflects the assessor’s independent professional judgement, based on the materials submitted. The patterns of biophilic design referred to are those published by Terrapin Bright Green. This sample is illustrative: the project and all findings are fictional.