It’s a Jungle in Here: the Rise of the ‘Biophilic’ Home
Sourced from Financial Times
Even before the term “biophilia” was popularised by Edward O Wilson, a Harvard biologist and conservationist who published a book of the same name in 1984, architects and designers had been using their skills to create harmony between nature and humans. Frank Lloyd Wright is a notable example, having used wood and stone to create striking architectural silhouettes deeply connected to the surrounding landscape.
While rapid urbanisation has left many of us feeling out of touch with nature, the tide is starting to turn. Stirred by political, climatic, social and pandemic strains, we are seeking spaces of refuge now more than ever before. And symbiotically, those who are designing our environments are re-evaluating old traditions to explore new approaches to harness nature’s power. One such practice is Span Architecture, established in New York in 1995 by Karen Stonely and Peter Pelsinski. “We’re about connecting people with nature through architecture and landscape, and this operates on a bunch of levels,” says Pelsinski. “There’s representational stuff, in that something will look like nature, but there’s the literal aspect: how do we use nature in a productive way to create spaces and reconnect people with it? That’s something we’re really interested in.”
August Moon is a rural waterfront property in New England’s Maine that, although contemporary in form, blends unobtrusively into the wooded landscape as it is clad in rich dark timber both inside and out. Over the past 15 years, the studio has also revived some of the property’s original buildings that once belonged to the former owner, the American socialite Brooke Astor. These include the glass-encased teahouse: an oasis surrounded by trees where prevailing breezes from the nearby water create natural ventilation to keep it cool. It’s not only beautiful, it’s biophilic design at its most functional.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
