how to create a healthy indoor environment — biofilico wellness interiors

Biophilic Design Display at Can Ikigai, Barcelona by Biofilico

Describe Your Work in the Healthy Buildings and Workplace Wellness Space

I take a nature-oriented approach to health and wellbeing, focusing on the real estate and hospitality sectors, including offices, residences, gyms, and hotels, to create healthy indoor environments.

Biofilico offers creative design, interior consulting, and building certification services. We design wellbeing interiors ourselves or collaborate with architects, engineers, and project management as external advisors with specific briefs.

In every project, our aim is to enhance an interior’s mental and physical health by ensuring good indoor environment quality. Energy efficiency measures are integrated into our designs to ensure good indoor air quality and occupant health. Offices, homes, and hotels are now key areas of focus. Additionally, I work at a strategic level, helping real estate developers align their property developments with ESG principles.

Biofit, on the other hand, focuses specifically on wellness concepts, gym design, and wellbeing programs for hotels and workplaces.

Both businesses are intricately related to the spaces we spend our time in, aiming to ensure buildings are aligned with our health and the planet's wellbeing.

What is a ‘Sick Building’ Compared to a Healthy Building?

A sick building can manifest in various ways, including headaches, concentration problems, low energy levels, reduced cognitive function, high numbers of staff sick days, and other health problems.

In contrast, a healthy building that integrates wellbeing interior design and follows a global standard, such as the WELL Certification, promotes occupant mental and physical health. This involves construction or refurbishment, interior fit-out, and facilities management policies once the building is in use.

These wellbeing design principles can be applied both in the workplace and at home, contributing to a healthier indoor environment.

What is Biophilic Design?

Biophilic design bridges sustainability and human wellbeing in real estate and interiors. It involves nature-inspired design that brings the outside world in, providing positive benefits for both people and the planet.

Green building strategies focus on a building’s environmental impact, while healthy building strategies prioritize the wellbeing of its occupants. Biophilic design is multisensory, combining aesthetics with touch, smell, and sound, often involving natural patterns, textures, circadian lighting, and many plants.

Biophilic design can vary from clean, precise lines to neutral, calming tones and organic materials, showing its versatility. This design approach can enhance the indoor environmental quality, reducing the negative effects of poor indoor air quality.

How Does Biophilic Design Connect with Healthy Buildings?

Biophilic design is a key element of healthy buildings, which has gained prominence due to the increased time we spend indoors. The wellbeing of the workforce and its relation to the physical work environment is now more relevant than ever. This connection helps reduce health risks and improve occupant comfort.

What are the Health Benefits of Biophilic Design?

Biophilic design can increase productivity and concentration levels in workspaces and speed up patient recovery times. It’s gaining interest in sectors like senior living, as it helps in reducing health conditions such as heart disease and lung cancer.

Certain countries have doctors prescribing time in nature for stressed professionals. Biophilic design aims to capture the calming, energizing effects of nature in an indoor environment, benefiting us even as urbanization cuts us off from natural spaces.

Studies show that biophilic elements in hotel lobbies and office reception areas extend lingering time, making people feel comfortable and at ease. This is particularly important in urban areas where fresh air supply and outdoor air pollution are major concerns.

What Research Studies Prove the Impact of Biophilic Design in the Workplace?

In 2017, Biofilico was commissioned by EcoWorld Ballymore to create a Vitamin Nature recharge room in London’s Canary Wharf. This greenhouse space, full of air-purifying plants, natural light, and circadian lighting, provided a digital detox zone for 108 local workers.

The study showed significant improvements: 74% felt an improvement in mood, 87% felt less stressed, 83% felt more productive, and 87% felt more creative. These findings highlight the importance of creating healthy indoor environments that support human health and productivity.

What is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?

Improving indoor air quality (IAQ) is crucial at home and work. Strategies include natural ventilation, air-purifying plants, and enhanced air conditioning filters like MERV13 for dust particles and carbon filters for VOCs. These strategies help mitigate the effects of indoor air pollution and airborne pollutants.

Commercial-grade air quality monitors provide detailed, real-time data, essential for any healthy building certification system like WELL.

How Does a Healthy Building Improve Air Quality?

Natural ventilation strategies require at least two windows open to create a passage of air from one part of the space to another. This gentle airflow connects you with the outside world in a multisensory way, preventing drowsiness and clearing out dust particles from the indoor air.

We can also work with plants to improve indoor air. A famous NASA study identified several plants that improve air quality, such as Spider plants, Chinese Evergreen, Boston ferns, Bamboo Palm, and ZZ plants. These plants remove CO2 by day and give off Oxygen at night, making them ideal for indoor use, including in bedrooms.

For workplace environments, facilities management or HR teams can request enhanced air conditioning filter systems. Carbon filters are good for VOCs, and MERV13 filters are effective for dust particles. This helps in maintaining a healthy indoor air quality and reducing airborne particles.

Monitoring air quality is essential when purifying the air in a healthy building. Commercial-grade air quality monitors are easy to install and are an essential piece of any healthy building certification system like WELL. These monitors provide real-time data that can be displayed to building occupants, enhancing transparency and awareness.

What are Healthy Materials in an Interior Affecting Indoor Air Quality?

Materials and finishes can release hazardous chemicals into the air. Preventing these chemicals is fundamental to ensuring a healthy indoor environment.

Choose natural materials like linen, cotton, jute, wood, wool, leather, bamboo, cork, clay, and bio-materials. Avoid plastics, synthetics, epoxies, and resins. Ensure material transparency by asking for ingredient lists and looking for third-party certifications like Cradle to Cradle.

By selecting healthy and non-toxic materials as part of an interior fit-out, we can limit the exposure occupants have to harmful chemicals, reducing health risks. Material transparency is key to ensuring a healthy indoor environment.