Light: The Missing Element in Biophilic Design

Light is far more than something that allows us to see. It is a powerful biological signal, influencing our body clocks, mood, alertness, sleep and sense of wellbeing. In this fascinating conversation, Dr Shelley James, “The Light Lady”, explores how our brains and bodies respond to light — and why biophilic designers need to pay much closer attention to it.

From the difference between Kelvin and colour rendering to the restorative rhythms of daylight, Shelley reveals how thoughtful lighting can help us create spaces that work more naturally with our biology. She also explores prospect and refuge, moving shadows, contrast and even the remarkable ways our brains interpret light as a signal of the natural world.

Discover why good biophilic design begins not just with bringing nature into a space, but with understanding the light that makes us feel at home in it.

Natural environments contain variation, contrast, shadow, movement and changing horizons. Light filters through leaves, reflects from water, changes with clouds and seasons, and gradually shifts from morning to evening.

Our visual systems evolved within this complexity.

Shelley describes the brain as looking for patterns that are familiar from the natural world — an appropriate balance of order and complexity, rather than either complete uniformity or overwhelming contrast. Even something as simple as dappled light and moving shadows can provide the kind of non-rhythmic visual stimulus associated with nature….

To coincide with the launch of our new monograph, Nature Preserved: The Definitive Guide to Preserved Plants, we talk to its author, Edgardo Rossi, known as The Green Man, about the thinking behind the book and his pioneering Green Lock System. What has years of working with preserved botanical material taught him about design, sustainability and the spaces we inhabit? We explore when living plants should come first, why designers need to walk the space before choosing the greenery, and how cork, bio-based materials and real preserved plants come together. We also challenge common misconceptions about longevity, maintenance and air quality—and ask why real nature should never be forced or faked.

What happens when we step away from the noise of everyday life and enter a space designed to help us restore, reconnect and simply breathe?

How do we create places for wellbeing? Light, temperature, air quality, acoustics, materials, smell and even silence are not merely aesthetic considerations. They form the sensory environment in which our bodies and minds operate. Ali points to natural light as particularly important, both for circadian rhythms and mood, while comfortable temperatures and fresh, clean air can help create an environment in which people can relax rather than remain on alert.

What happens when architecture is designed around how people feel, not simply how buildings perform? Robert Hopkins, architect and sustainability leader at AHR, joins the Journal of Biophilic Design podcast to explore the thinking behind landmark projects including The Spine, Thrive Health and Wellbeing Centre and the Daphne Steele Building. From trauma-informed design and evidence-based decision making to materials, air quality, nature, choice and collaboration, Robert shares how small decisions can transform how people experience a place. His advice? “Don’t chase points” — focus on the why. Listen to the conversation and discover why, for Robert, great architecture might ultimately be about helping people be nice to one another. WATCH THE INTERVIEW

As our cities grow, access to clean air, clean water, biodiversity and meaningful connections with nature will become ever more important.

In this conversation, we explore living architecture, green infrastructure, urban density, clean air and water — and how we can design cities that work better for both people and the planet.

What happens when we stop thinking of nature as something we add to a building and start thinking about it as part of the infrastructure of the city itself? For landscape architect James Worth, the answer lies in bringing disciplines, ideas and people together — and fundamentally rethinking how we design our urban environments.

What if the buildings that help us tackle climate change were also the buildings that lift our spirits?

We talk a great deal about the performance of buildings: how to reduce carbon, manage heat, conserve energy, deal with water and increase biodiversity. But perhaps we need to ask another question. What should these buildings look and feel like?

For architect and Alive Labs founder Nicky Naidu, the answer is not to choose between performance and beauty. We should expect both.

What happens when we stop looking at a building simply as a building?

For Lincoln Stoller, physicist, psychotherapist and son of celebrated architectural photographer Ezra Stoller, the answer lies somewhere between architecture, psychology, nature, photography and the human capacity to experience something beyond the immediately visible.

Ezra Stoller was regarded as one of the pre-eminent architectural photographers of his generation. His extraordinary archive includes some of the most significant buildings of twentieth-century modernism, photographed not simply as objects, but as experiences. His approach was distinctive: rather than producing straightforward images designed to showcase a building, he sought something beyond it – what Lincoln describes as the “essential and ethereal.”

This is particularly fascinating when we consider Frank Lloyd Wright, whose architecture is now frequently discussed through the lens of Biophilic Design, despite Wright never using the term. Wright trusted Ezra to understand what he was trying to achieve without needing to explain it. Lincoln describes their relationship as almost a meeting of opposites: Wright the forceful creator, Ezra the sensitive and receptive observer. Together, they understood something difficult to put into words – the ineffable quality of space. READ ON and WATCH the VIDEO

Biophilic Design and biomimicry are often discussed as separate disciplines, yet they are deeply complementary. Biophilic Design reconnects people with nature, creating healthier places that nurture wellbeing and strengthen our relationship with the living world. Biomimicry asks a different, but equally important question: how can nature’s 3.8 billion years of evolution teach us to solve human challenges?

Together they offer a blueprint for creating buildings, products and systems that help all life flourish.

While architecture often looks inward for innovation, one of the most fascinating lessons for the built environment is currently emerging from an unexpected place: fashion.

Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the Biomimicry Institute, has been leading the Institute’s Nature of Fashion initiative, exploring how lessons from natural decomposition could help address one of the world’s fastest-growing environmental challenges—textile waste. Working alongside partners including The Or Foundation in Ghana, Circle Economy in the Netherlands and the Beneficial Design Institute in Germany, the project asks a deceptively simple question: what if the materials we create behaved more like nature?

How can our buildings become active contributors to healthier lives rather than passive consumers of resources? Our cities are grappling with climate change, biodiversity loss, employee wellbeing and the changing role of the workplace, for Patrick Dumas, Founder and CEO of Square Mile Farms, the answer begins with growing food.

His concept has evolved into one of the UK's largest networks of indoor urban farms, with more than 120 installations and over 75,000 plants growing inside workplaces and residential developments. Yet the plants, herbs and vegetables are only part of the story…. READ ON

Over the past decade, introducing greenery into workplaces has become almost synonymous with employee wellbeing. Yet according to workplace and environmental psychologist Dr Craig Knight, if organisations believe that adding a few plants alone will transform productivity, they have misunderstood the research.

Employees working in enriched environments containing plants, artwork and opportunities for personalisation consistently performed better than those working in lean, standardised offices.

The psychology behind their success is equally compelling. Rather than distracting employees from their work, enriched environments provide opportunities for brief moments of cognitive recovery. Looking away from a screen towards a plant or another visually engaging feature gives the brain the chance to reset before returning to the task at hand. These small interruptions help sustain attention rather than diminish it. As Craig puts it, people are happier and more productive when their surroundings offer something meaningful to engage with.

Yet as our conversation developed, it became clear that the plants themselves were not the most significant finding from decades of workplace research.

The real story is choice. READ ON… and WATCH the interview.