Architecture that nurtures our connection with nature

EU researchers are exploring the position of structure in designing dwelling areas that harness the therapeutic energy of nature to enhance the well being and well-being of city populations.

Dr. Carmen García Sánchez likes to journey her bike within the Danish countryside. That’s how she first found how carefully post-war Danish structure is linked to nature.

A working towards architect, she was impressed to dive into the examine of biophilic structure, which permits individuals to benefit from the on a regular basis advantages of being nearer to nature from the consolation of their very own houses.

“Biophilia means love of life. It relates to our innate need to be in contact with nature. There’s a restoring effect that comes from being connected to the natural world,” stated García Sánchez, who was additionally a postdoctoral researcher on the Royal Danish Academy—Structure, Design, Conservation, in Copenhagen and is presently an assistant professor on the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid.

Inside-outside

García Sánchez has been capable of construct a bridge between architectural apply and educational analysis by means of her Nature-In venture, which ran from 2020 to 2024.

“Architects have always been interested in improving people’s lives, but this connection to nature is underexplored. I felt I could bring something innovative to my practice and also that of other European architects,” she stated.

García Sánchez hopes that her analysis may inform governments and designers alike on the right way to higher combine nature into the design of indoor areas, significantly in city environments.

A go to to Japan introduced one other revelation. Touring throughout the nation, García Sánchez got here to understand how the Japanese have lived and constructed their homes for hundreds of years with an “inside-outside” imaginative and prescient, designing useful buildings that enable their inhabitants to expertise nature from the within.

“There’s an ancestral need to connect to nature,” stated García Sánchez, who explains that the extra individuals are skilled to take pleasure in nature, the extra advantages they get.

She explains that biophilic design will not be solely about inserting vegetation in every single place. It’s about being conscious of nature in all its manifestations, comparable to daylight, water, supplies, the passing of time and the forces of nature.

Nature-based design

Now a acknowledged professional within the area, García Sánchez has been invited to share her data at this 12 months’s World Expo being held in Osaka, Japan, from 13 April to 13 October 2025.

Nature-based design options prominently at Expo 2025which has been organized across the theme “Designing future society for our lives.”

The EU’s “Nurturing Tomorrow” pavilion was designed to embody the rules of the New European Bauhaus—an initiative that seeks to rework our dwelling areas by merging sustainability, aesthetics and inclusivity. These rules additionally align properly with Nature-In’s imaginative and prescient.

Together with Japanese architect and researcher Dr. Ryo Murata, an affiliate professor within the Division of Structure and Constructing Engineering on the Institute of Science Tokyo, García Sánchez will introduce guests to the normal reference to nature in Japanese and Danish structure.

Collectively, they’ll discover the right way to make cities and buildings extra livable by means of nearer contact with nature and focus on how individuals can enhance their well being and well-being by designing their houses with nature in thoughts.

Pure connection

These will not be trivial questions. It’s estimated that most individuals spend 80% to 90% of their time indoors. In densely populated cities, individuals have misplaced contact with the therapeutic energy of nature.

Remodeling our indoor environments may enhance our well-being and likewise strengthen our relationship with nature and, subsequently, our willingness to protect it. The nearer we’re to the pure world, the extra we will recognize it and need to shield it.

For García Sánchez, it is necessary that the mind can understand nature’s pure rhythms: mild and darkish, for instance, by means of publicity to pure mild.

She factors out that we expertise nature by means of all our senses, so small particulars matter. This is perhaps leaves exterior casting shadows in a flat, the texture of wood flooring beneath naked ft, and even the odor of stones in a courtyard after the rain.

“Nature is constantly telling us: ‘I’m here. You forgot it, but I’m in the cities too. I’m everywhere,'” she stated. With climate change and extreme events comparable to floods, fires and earthquakes changing into extra frequent, she believes that the necessity to reconnect with the pure world is changing into extra pressing.

“Even the most extreme phenomena, such as earthquakes, are Mother Nature’s way of reminding us that she’s there.”

The previous anthropocentric method that sees nature as one thing people should harness for their very own profit has develop into out of date. To make a distinction, we’ve to carry nature again into our lives. We have to dwell in it and with it.