Examination of Biophilia Phenomenon in the Context of Sustainable Architecture

Abstract

World’s population today, most of them living in cities, have been isolated from the natural environment, combat with the physical and mental health problems like the loss of productivity, chronic fatigue, depression etc. due to stress-related disorders. Moving from the estimation that 70% of the world’s population will be living in the cities in the coming years, re-establishing the human-nature relationship and presentation of the experience possibilities of nature as a therapy tool for urbanists can be expected to be significant. The concept of biophilia defined by social psychologist Erich Fromm in 1964 for the first time defends that there is an instinctive connection need between human and other living systems. In the case of rupture of this connection, occurrence of various physical and psychological drawbacks in human health has been proven by several scientific investigations. Biophilic architecture arising from the implementation of a psychological originated concept to the architecture, took place as an intense-studied area in the literature especially in 2000 and beyond. Biophilic design draws attention to the emotional aspect of the interaction need with the natural environment while sustainable design approaches physical and material-oriented to the natural processes required by people. Sustainable architecture focuses on reducing the environmental impact of the buildings and remains insufficient to re-establish the human-nature relationship. Biophilic design aims to fill his gap becoming the architectural design of life. In this study, biophilia phenomenon is examined approaching sustainability by putting the protection of the human and humans’ physical/psychological health in center. Main design principles of the biophilic architecture are discussed through current scientific studies and architectural projects.