BVN Stories, Opinion — December 16, 2022
Biophilic design and greening the workplace
Greening the Workplace: Not only is biophillia a giant step forward for buildings that are eco friendly. It's also a great return-to-the-office strategy.
BVN clients are seeking more green spaces for offices than ever before, to entice workers back to the city. Biophilic design is playing a major role in bringing people back into the office. Our own new Brisbane Studio, awash with greenery, is proving a compelling workplace, and so popular we’re a full house.
So if building tenants and employers are looking to green their workplace, what does this mean for developers? And is it just a momentary resurgence or is biophilia set to become a part of every new commercial development?
How Green Workplaces Earn the Commute
One consequence of lockdown was a re-examination of how closely work and city living interlink. Given a chance to keep their professional jobs while moving somewhere quieter, cleaner and greener, many gladly took the offer. When lockdowns lifted, pleas for staff to return to the office were met with considerable reluctance.
To keep good people and attract new talent, employers have needed to focus on workplace culture. And to encourage employees to return to the office without mandating it, they needed to earn the commute.
BVN Head of People and Culture, Brian Clohessy says “If you want people in the workplace, it has to be home away from home or better than home. It's where we foster a sense of belonging and build a sense of community while shaping our culture. We know the big draw cards are about social connection and physical and emotional comfort. It’s about coming together for a collective purpose.
BVN Head of People and Culture, Brian Clohessy
How Remote Work Triggered a Wave of Reverse Migration
In some of the world’s most highly urbanised countries like Australia, Germany and Japan, lockdowns triggered a trend of counter-urbanisation among sections of the population. Many professionals chose to take to the coast or countryside, leaving behind the looming threat of contagion - not to mention the crowds and congestion-choked commutes of the cities.
Others didn’t go as far as relocating but set up their entire working lives inside their suburban homes.
Studies during this new work-from-home era suggest working in an environment with greater access to the outdoors offers an improved sense of health and wellbeing.
Prior to lockdowns, studies on biophilic design already promoted the benefits of natural surroundings on cultivating positivity in the workplace, and consequently, reduced stress, improved performance and increased productivity.
How Biophilia Brings us Back to our Evolutionary Happy Place
City-dwellers tend to see retreating into nature as an escape – a break from everyday life.
Advocates of biophilia argue that, as humans evolved in nature like all living beings, nature is a part of our everyday life. To deprive ourselves of it disrupts certain needs and desires hardwired into the human brain.
This inherent desire to connect with nature helps us understand the popularity of the counter-urbanisation movement. And greener CBD workplaces.
In designing our cities as purely artificial spaces, we have cut ourselves off from nature, harming the planet and ourselves in the process. Perhaps it’s no great surprise that we’d head for the trees under the pressure of the pandemic.
How Biophilia in the Workplace Gives People a Reason to Return
Biophilia attempts to break down barriers between built and natural environments. In design, it preferences materials, textures, colours, and patterns found in nature. It also incorporates habitats for flora and fauna as living elements of a building and its surroundings.
It makes biodiversity in a fundamental tool of building design. It allows city-dwellers to immerse themselves in restorative, multisensory experiences - leafy and water views instead of concrete and cranes; sunshine and fresh air instead of artificially lit enclosed rooms.
And it facilitates meaningful connections with natural environments within urban environments by attempting to make them one and the same.
Biophilia can be seen as giving nature a helping hand in reclaiming the concrete jungle, and in some small yet significant way returning humans to their natural habitats – not just in the places they live and play but where they work as well.
At BVN’s Brisbane Studio, this has been such a successful strategy it’s already outgrowing the space and expanding. There’s no better sign of a happy workplace than people wanting to be there!
Three Green Workplaces by BVN that Earn the Commute
The idea of The Annex as a living ecosystem aligned with Brisbane City Council’s masterplan for a vibrant, forested open city. The building was envisioned as a largely self-sustaining habitat for flora and fauna.
BVN took up residency in The Annex, moving its people into levels 3 and 4 in early 2022. Within 3 months, the “treehouse studio” was so enticing that all plans of a gradual return to the office were shot. Almost every employee now wants to work in the studio.
“The space is so gentle and calm, it’s very easy to focus,” says Glen Miller, Studio Director for BVN Brisbane. “The views through the trees, and the plants along the inside of our windows really makes it feel like we’re working in a garden. It’s a lovely spot to be creative, both solo and with teams.”
The unconventional design did meet some resistance, explains BVN Architect Michele Rehn who led the project. Developers naturally want a guaranteed cost-to-benefit ratio on their investment.
Fortunately, studies like the Human Spaces report into the Global Impact of Biophilic Design in the Workplace backed up BVN’s thinking. The concept was that The Annex’s biophilia would make it an attractive prospect for tenants keen to capitalise on the visually striking treehouse design, and the reported gains in performance, productivity and creativity.
In a sleek office building at the heart of Auckland’s north shore, a curvaceous stair arcs up the sunlit atrium. It’s playful, inviting and unapologetically orange: a stunning contrast to the greenery basking in the sunlight.
The unconventional organic shapes, sun-drenched conservatoriums and garden nooks of B:Hive make it impossible for people not to bump into each other. It’s no accident. The design intent is to spark conversation and ideas.
The Project Principal responsible for BHive, James Grose, sees biophilia as a crucial element in inspiring community and creativity and creating spaces for wellbeing.
“Why shouldn’t the places we work in be as special as those we live in?” he asks.
The fresh air, greenery, natural light and warm tones create a special kind of ambience. The building feels alive.
B:Hive is now so popular we’re back to help them expand and make room for more.
The highly anticipated Atlassian Central, by SHoP BVN, will attract a new wave of tech talent into the City of Sydney. And despite their public statements about embracing hybrid work, they’re also deeply invested in making their HQ a place for happy and well beings. Biophillia is a key part of this strategy.
It’s also part of the city’s plans to revive environmental health and biodiversity in one of its densest urban areas. At approximately 40 storeys high, Atlassian Central will be the world’s tallest hybrid timber building. With a mix of outdoor and indoor spaces, it uses an energy-efficient approach with natural ventilation and large planted terraces on every 6th floor (check).
This building represents a deep investment in both its environmental and economic future. Low operational energy costs and high sustainability innovation has already given Atlassian Central a unique place in the market. One that’s setting the bar for all the others.
