| The concept of biophilia states that humans have an inborn need for contact with nature that is essential to our physical and mental health, productivity, and well-being. Interior designers have the opportunity to support humans' connection with nature through the implementation of biophilic design, but this practice has yet to become mainstream in the corporate interior design industry.;To find out why biophilic design is not more widely implemented, I interviewed professionals in the corporate interior design industry. The participants, primarily workplace strategists, engage clients at the beginning of a project and are in a good position to introduce new topics, such as biophilic design. I compared the responses from the six workplace strategist participants with those of three experts on the topic of biophilic design to gain further insight into the challenges facing this practice.;From this data collection, I have found that workplace strategists are familiar with biophilic design, but only recognize some of the ways it can be applied. In addition, I found that biophilic design is often implemented unintentionally, or without being referred to as such. Overall, I have concluded that the main barrier to biophilic design implementation is time; the topic of biophilic design is too new and it has not had enough time to gain traction in the interior design industry.;While the corporate interior design industry is beginning to realize that promoting human health and wellbeing is an important aspect of workplace design, they need to recognize that biophilic design plays an essential role in achieving this outcome. Connection with nature can no longer be seen as an option---it must be seen as vital to our health and happiness. |
