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The Biophilic Leadership Summit explores how the natural world can improve the built environment
At the 7th annual Biophilic Leadership Summit in March—hosted by the Biophilic Institute, Biophilic Cities, and Serenbe—at the Inn at Serenbe outside of Atlanta, pleasure was in abundance. There were smells: fragrant wisteria blossoms, earthy manure, coffee. There were sounds: birds singing, a rooster crowing, raindrops on the roof. There was forest bathing.
Biologist E.O. Wilson used the term biophilia to describe “the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms.” All those blossoms and bird songs are the basic point of the biophilia movement: people are happier and healthier when connected to nature. The summit brought together acurious collection of architects, planners, developers, biochemists, and other interested people, was about how we make that connection.
The presentations ranged from explorations of built projects to research on the health benefits of proximity to trees and illustrated how many different disciplines come together under the broad umbrella—maybe canopy is a better word—of biophilia.
The Inn at Serenbe was an ideal venue for the summit, given its gardens and connection to nature.Architect Adam Rolston, who presented on his work in the hospitality industry, offered his postmortem on the conference to AN: “The Biophilia Summit gathers a community at the forefront of a movement—where sustainability, ecological science, wellness, and planetary health converge into a single, holistic worldview that unites data, design, and nature.”
Here are more takeaways from the presentations at the Biophilic Leadership Summit.
Biophilia Is Good Business
In 1998, when Jennifer Walsh opened Beauty Bar as a tiny brick-and-mortar storefront in Florida to sell indie beauty brands, she had an intuitive sense of what would bring people in: daylight, wood, and plants. What Walsh found was that people respond emotionally to the experience of being in the space. They came in, they lingered, they bought. Beauty Bar went on to become a major online retailer.
Adam Rolston of INC presented on his work in the hospitality industry, including at the 1 Hotel Brooklyn.More than two decades after Walsh opened her storefront, we have the language of biophilia to describe—and to help create—emotional experiences. The hospitality industry, in particular, has taken note. When Westin Hotels asked INC Studio to help them redefine their brand, Adam Rolston presented biophilic design as a core concept. Since then, INC has incorporated biophilia into other hospitality projects, including 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 2017. Noting that his clients were shifting their thinking from “brand through object to brand through experience,” Rolston added that when other brands tried to replicate the success of the Westin Hotels through selecting similar furnishings and finishings, those efforts fell flat. The sensory experience of biophilic design can be difficult to quantifybut the qualitative results are measurable. Walsh, who sold Beauty Bar in 2010 and is now a wellness consultant and biophilia evangelist, offered a summary: “Biophilic design does increase basket size and customer satisfaction.”
ZGF Architects presented on its recently completed project at the Portland International Airport.Architect Rena Simon of ZGF and Catie Ryan and Bill Browning of Terrapin Bright Green discussed how ZGF Architects’ redesign of the Portland Airport used biophilic principles to create a positive experience for passengers. These principlesare in effect in the airport’s soaring mass timber ceilings and trees and skylights, and in digital screens at the security area that show videos of nature-based imagery reflecting the current time of day, season, and weather. “There’s no typology more divorced from land and green than an airport,” Ryan said. “But when you’re here, you know where you are.”
How to Build in Biophilia
The Portland Airport shows how mass timber and biophilic design are a natural match. Thomas Robinson of LEVER Architecture presented several projects, including the Nature Conservancy’s Oregon Headquarters, which connect the material with the movement. But mass timber is far from the only option. Robinson described LEVER’s work as “an ingredients-based approach to architecture,” rooted in questions such as: “What’s available locally?” and “What’s the material culture of a particular place?” He noted that through sourcing local materials, establishing local fabrication systems, and collaborating with builders and subcontractors, architects can have a significant effect on supply chains and building economies, resulting in “an impact on the site beyond the site.”
LEVER Architecture thinks about its projects locally, from materials to contractors.Small interventions can also make a big difference. Walsh and fellow participants noted another important effect of biophilic design: creating welcoming, calm spaces for people with different sensory processing abilities and needs. Apparently, biomorphic patterns, whether they’re real or simulated, give our brains healthy stimulation. A study published in 2019 showed that biophilic enhancements in a classroom in this case, just adding carpet tilesand window blinds—reduced student stress and enhanced learning outcomes.
Biophilia Can Affect Health and Wellness
senior living centers, affordable housing units, and longevity resorts are studying how biophilic design can improve mental and physical health. Architect Tye Farrow, who investigates the neuroscience behind biophilic design and whose approach to biophilic design for hospitals and schools tends toward the sculptural, offered this design mantra: “There is no such thing as neutral space.” Farrow works with the premise that buildings can—and should—be deliberately therapeutic.
Dr. Lawrence Frank, who examines the interaction between built environment, active transportation, and healthsaid that for cities, an investment in green infrastructure such as tree canopies and active transportation corridors is an investment in citizens’ health. In Los Angeles, Frank noted, the argument for new highway lanes is presented in terms of cost-per-delay for productivity. But driving has health costs; as Frank put it, “Driving equals obesity.” When we add the air quality impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from driving, a productivity argument for highways seems like imperfect accounting, at best. Los Angeles’s active transportation plan promotes walking and biking. It costs billion, but in terms of health cost savings, it yielded a billion return. Still, Frank does not embrace this method of accounting. “We need to keep people alive,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to make an economic argument for it.”
Research from biochemistry and molecular biology supports the conclusion that tree canopies improve health. Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar, Director for the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, presented research indicating that proximity to trees—the study used pines—lowered blood pressure and heart rate in humans.
Biophilia Takes Many Different Shapes
Chris Sharples, a founding principal of SHoP Architects, doesn’t use the term biophilia with clients; he prefers “natural systems.” His firm is exploring tools—from AI to offsite manufacturing—that balance process innovation with risk management in construction. One example is using 3D printing to make building components from bamboo.
Unlike Sharples, Anna Dyson of the Yale School of Environment embraces the term, calling biophilia “a whole-body experience.” Through projects like ELM, AMBIS, and others, Dyson’s work explores how plants, materials, and building systems can create a circular built environment.
The conference brought together seemingly unrelated disciplines—architecture, medicine, biology, engineering, interior design.Tools for practicing biophilia are coming into focus: Terrapin Bright Green’s 14+ Patterns of Biophilic Design and Kellert and Calabrese’s The Practice of Biophilic Design are available online as free downloads. The newly released LEED v5 cites the latter volume in the “Integrated Biophilic Design” credit under “Occupant Experience.”
As a snapshot of biophilia in 2025, the conference showed a lively, sprawling movement that connects traditionally siloed disciplines—architecture, medicine, biology, engineering, interior design—with the purpose of building happier, healthier places.
Jessie Temple is an architect and writer currently forest bathing in Austin, Texas.
#biophilic #leadership #summit #explores #how
The Biophilic Leadership Summit explores how the natural world can improve the built environment
At the 7th annual Biophilic Leadership Summit in March—hosted by the Biophilic Institute, Biophilic Cities, and Serenbe—at the Inn at Serenbe outside of Atlanta, pleasure was in abundance. There were smells: fragrant wisteria blossoms, earthy manure, coffee. There were sounds: birds singing, a rooster crowing, raindrops on the roof. There was forest bathing.
Biologist E.O. Wilson used the term biophilia to describe “the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms.” All those blossoms and bird songs are the basic point of the biophilia movement: people are happier and healthier when connected to nature. The summit brought together acurious collection of architects, planners, developers, biochemists, and other interested people, was about how we make that connection.
The presentations ranged from explorations of built projects to research on the health benefits of proximity to trees and illustrated how many different disciplines come together under the broad umbrella—maybe canopy is a better word—of biophilia.
The Inn at Serenbe was an ideal venue for the summit, given its gardens and connection to nature.Architect Adam Rolston, who presented on his work in the hospitality industry, offered his postmortem on the conference to AN: “The Biophilia Summit gathers a community at the forefront of a movement—where sustainability, ecological science, wellness, and planetary health converge into a single, holistic worldview that unites data, design, and nature.”
Here are more takeaways from the presentations at the Biophilic Leadership Summit.
Biophilia Is Good Business
In 1998, when Jennifer Walsh opened Beauty Bar as a tiny brick-and-mortar storefront in Florida to sell indie beauty brands, she had an intuitive sense of what would bring people in: daylight, wood, and plants. What Walsh found was that people respond emotionally to the experience of being in the space. They came in, they lingered, they bought. Beauty Bar went on to become a major online retailer.
Adam Rolston of INC presented on his work in the hospitality industry, including at the 1 Hotel Brooklyn.More than two decades after Walsh opened her storefront, we have the language of biophilia to describe—and to help create—emotional experiences. The hospitality industry, in particular, has taken note. When Westin Hotels asked INC Studio to help them redefine their brand, Adam Rolston presented biophilic design as a core concept. Since then, INC has incorporated biophilia into other hospitality projects, including 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 2017. Noting that his clients were shifting their thinking from “brand through object to brand through experience,” Rolston added that when other brands tried to replicate the success of the Westin Hotels through selecting similar furnishings and finishings, those efforts fell flat. The sensory experience of biophilic design can be difficult to quantifybut the qualitative results are measurable. Walsh, who sold Beauty Bar in 2010 and is now a wellness consultant and biophilia evangelist, offered a summary: “Biophilic design does increase basket size and customer satisfaction.”
ZGF Architects presented on its recently completed project at the Portland International Airport.Architect Rena Simon of ZGF and Catie Ryan and Bill Browning of Terrapin Bright Green discussed how ZGF Architects’ redesign of the Portland Airport used biophilic principles to create a positive experience for passengers. These principlesare in effect in the airport’s soaring mass timber ceilings and trees and skylights, and in digital screens at the security area that show videos of nature-based imagery reflecting the current time of day, season, and weather. “There’s no typology more divorced from land and green than an airport,” Ryan said. “But when you’re here, you know where you are.”
How to Build in Biophilia
The Portland Airport shows how mass timber and biophilic design are a natural match. Thomas Robinson of LEVER Architecture presented several projects, including the Nature Conservancy’s Oregon Headquarters, which connect the material with the movement. But mass timber is far from the only option. Robinson described LEVER’s work as “an ingredients-based approach to architecture,” rooted in questions such as: “What’s available locally?” and “What’s the material culture of a particular place?” He noted that through sourcing local materials, establishing local fabrication systems, and collaborating with builders and subcontractors, architects can have a significant effect on supply chains and building economies, resulting in “an impact on the site beyond the site.”
LEVER Architecture thinks about its projects locally, from materials to contractors.Small interventions can also make a big difference. Walsh and fellow participants noted another important effect of biophilic design: creating welcoming, calm spaces for people with different sensory processing abilities and needs. Apparently, biomorphic patterns, whether they’re real or simulated, give our brains healthy stimulation. A study published in 2019 showed that biophilic enhancements in a classroom in this case, just adding carpet tilesand window blinds—reduced student stress and enhanced learning outcomes.
Biophilia Can Affect Health and Wellness
senior living centers, affordable housing units, and longevity resorts are studying how biophilic design can improve mental and physical health. Architect Tye Farrow, who investigates the neuroscience behind biophilic design and whose approach to biophilic design for hospitals and schools tends toward the sculptural, offered this design mantra: “There is no such thing as neutral space.” Farrow works with the premise that buildings can—and should—be deliberately therapeutic.
Dr. Lawrence Frank, who examines the interaction between built environment, active transportation, and healthsaid that for cities, an investment in green infrastructure such as tree canopies and active transportation corridors is an investment in citizens’ health. In Los Angeles, Frank noted, the argument for new highway lanes is presented in terms of cost-per-delay for productivity. But driving has health costs; as Frank put it, “Driving equals obesity.” When we add the air quality impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from driving, a productivity argument for highways seems like imperfect accounting, at best. Los Angeles’s active transportation plan promotes walking and biking. It costs billion, but in terms of health cost savings, it yielded a billion return. Still, Frank does not embrace this method of accounting. “We need to keep people alive,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to make an economic argument for it.”
Research from biochemistry and molecular biology supports the conclusion that tree canopies improve health. Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar, Director for the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, presented research indicating that proximity to trees—the study used pines—lowered blood pressure and heart rate in humans.
Biophilia Takes Many Different Shapes
Chris Sharples, a founding principal of SHoP Architects, doesn’t use the term biophilia with clients; he prefers “natural systems.” His firm is exploring tools—from AI to offsite manufacturing—that balance process innovation with risk management in construction. One example is using 3D printing to make building components from bamboo.
Unlike Sharples, Anna Dyson of the Yale School of Environment embraces the term, calling biophilia “a whole-body experience.” Through projects like ELM, AMBIS, and others, Dyson’s work explores how plants, materials, and building systems can create a circular built environment.
The conference brought together seemingly unrelated disciplines—architecture, medicine, biology, engineering, interior design.Tools for practicing biophilia are coming into focus: Terrapin Bright Green’s 14+ Patterns of Biophilic Design and Kellert and Calabrese’s The Practice of Biophilic Design are available online as free downloads. The newly released LEED v5 cites the latter volume in the “Integrated Biophilic Design” credit under “Occupant Experience.”
As a snapshot of biophilia in 2025, the conference showed a lively, sprawling movement that connects traditionally siloed disciplines—architecture, medicine, biology, engineering, interior design—with the purpose of building happier, healthier places.
Jessie Temple is an architect and writer currently forest bathing in Austin, Texas.
#biophilic #leadership #summit #explores #how
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