Finding Neurological Nourishment in Design

What is Biophilia?

The term biophilia was coined by Edward O. Wilson to describe the inclination and need of humans to affiliate with natural systems (Wilson 1984). Biophilic Design then is an approach that aims to connect people with nature through our built physical environment, recognizing and utilizing the benefits of nature on health - using natural elements, analogs and experiences to improve wellbeing.

The beneficial effects of biophilic design are explained in biological terms. Our genetic heritage evolved since our belonging to natural environments and sensitized our sensory organs and unconscious behavior to respond to natural cues. Neural responses to natural conditions are still critical to human health, accurately informing the stress and restoration mechanisms of the body. In Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis, contact with nature is crucial for a healthy life, as much as food and air. (Kellert and Wilson 1995)

Neural Mechanisms of Perception

To understand the processes that bias us to nature, we can start looking at the biological neuroscience of perception. Our sensory receptors are located in sensory organs (eyes, the auricular-vestibular organs, nose, tongue, skin) and throughout the internal environment except the brain (inner muscle fibers and inner epithelial tissues). Sensory receptors are called transducers; they serve the function of translating mechanical, photic, thermal, electrical, and chemical stimuli into electrical spikes; the binary code of information of the nervous system and the brain. Transducers are connected to neurons called afferent nerves that transmit the originated patterns of electricity to the encephalon. In the brain, sensory information is organized based on its origin in the body; the afferent nerves are connected to paths that go to different regions of the brain symmetrically in both hemispheres.

The sensory information first passes through the center of the brain to get to the external wrinkles, the cortex, where it starts to be processed. Here we locate the visual, auditory, somatosensory, olfactory and gustatory cortex. “Processing” the information means that groups of neurons will fire selectively for different perceived characteristics; that could be the color, shape, orientation, location, or intensity of the stimuli. Then, the new signals that are generated travel to deeper regions of the brain distributing in multiple paths where the information is linked to different modalities of recognition (what is it and where is it). It all ends up in the middle parts again, the “integration center” responsible for evaluating the already decoded stimuli and generating a response, through activating automatic processes that act on the body or to the cortex responsible for things like movement, speech and conscious attention.

The success in our evolutionary survival to conditions, predators, sources of food, water and more determines still today to each newborn the neural reward derived from connection with favourable inputs. That is the main theory of why we would be predisposed to like certain animals, plants and landscapes more than others. (Kellert 2018)

Why is Sensorial Information from Nature More Pleasant?

First of all, as a result of evolution sensory information from nature relevant to our survival makes it to the brain, as not all the information does. For example, only a specific part of the light spectrum is visible to our eyes, a crucial bias that co-evolved with nature to make vertebrates distinguish the edible from the poisonous (Lucas et al. 2003). Also, the very specific frequencies of sound of human speech are amplified by the shape of our ears and thus heard better. Therefore, from the shape of our organs and transducers, we are driven to pay attention to certain types of stimuli.

Throughout the neural paths of the brain, electricity is transmitted from neuron to neuron through neurotransmitters, tiny particles that cross the synaptic valleys from the many neuron’s endings to other neurons’ receptors to transmit the electrical current. This system allows neurons to be selective to certain neurotransmitters. Among the basic neurotransmitters released to signal information; neurons release one type -opioids- that is received by the neurons connecting to the pleasure centers of the brain involved in reducing pain and producing reward. Therefore, there is a certain degree of pleasure just in processing information.

Irving Biederman and Edward Vessel found that the sensory areas of the brain release more opioids the more they are engaged with a stimulus and the more complex it is (Biederman and Vessel 2006). Because neural activity produces learning and it is a basic function to an organism’s survival, novelty, variability and complexity are rewarded by this brain’s system. Based on the evidence, it is a plausible hypothesis to think that due to our evolutionary biology, the natural complexity of other organisms and landscapes became pleasurable (interesting) enough to our neural systems to reinforce our preference without being overwhelming (N. A. Salingaros 2003).

Therefore, we are not only biologically driven to certain types of natural stimuli, but also to certain types of combination of stimuli that appear in the natural world.

Evidence in Environmental Psychology and Implications for Architecture

Research has shown evidence that networks of fractals -organized complexity- relate to preference and well-being (Taylor 2006; Hagerhall, Purcell, and Taylor 2004). The fact that natural views in hospitals contribute to pain relief (Tse et al. 2002) is likely to be mediated by the explained opioid circuit.

Salingaros and Masden defend that a sensory bland built environment plays against our neurophysiologic requirements and can be a cause of anxiety and stress (N. Salingaros and Masden 2008). The change of paradigm that Biophilic Design proposes is to recover the value of an environment that provides, as they name it, neurological nourishment.

The Crematorium in Kakamigahara, Japan, by Toyo Ito is an example of biophilic design.

References

Biederman, Irving, and Edward A. Vessel. 2006. “Perceptual Pleasure and the Brain: A Novel Theory Explains Why the Brain Craves Information and Seeks It through the Senses.” American Scientist 94 (3): 247–53.

Hagerhall, Caroline M, Terry Purcell, and Richard Taylor. 2004. “Fractal Dimension of Landscape Silhouette Outlines as a Predictor of Landscape Preference.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 24 (2): 247–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2003.12.004.

Kellert, Stephen R. 2018. Nature by Design: The Practice of Biophilic Design. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kellert, Stephen R., and Edward O. Wilson. 1995. The Biophilia Hypothesis. Island Press.

Lucas, Peter W., Nathaniel J. Dominy, Pablo Riba‐Hernandez, Kathryn E. Stoner, Nayuta Yamashita, Esteban Lorí- Calderön, Wanda Petersen‐Pereira, et al. 2003. “Evolution and Function of Routine Trichromatic Vision in Primates.” Evolution 57 (11): 2636–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb01506.x.

Salingaros, N., and K. Masden. 2008. “Neuroscience, the Natural Environment, and Building Design.” Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life. New York: John Wiley, 59–83.

Salingaros, Nikos A. 2003. “The Sensory Value of Ornament.” Communication & Cognition 36 (3–4): 331–51.

Taylor, R.P. 2006. “Reduction of Physiological Stress Using Fractal Art and Architecture.” Leonardo 39 (3): 245–51. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon.2006.39.3.245.

Tse, Mimi MY, Jacobus KF Ng, Joanne WY Chung, and Thomas KS Wong. 2002. “The Effect of Visual Stimuli on Pain Threshold and Tolerance.” Journal of Clinical Nursing 11 (4): 462–469.

Wilson, Edward O. 1984. Biophilia: The Human Bond with Other Species. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Written by Marta Delgado Lombardo
Read more from Marta @ www.archiimpact.com