Biophilic Design Is Helping Cities Get Back to Nature

Waiting out the pandemic in a high-rise apartment close to the centre of a major international city has been a relatively calm experience for Kenny Yeo. Last year, the 32-year-old marketing director bought his first property in London’s Canary Wharf neighbourhood, one of the city’s two main financial districts.

The apartment is in the Wardian London development, two newly-built towers of 50 and 55 stories which are crammed with greenery. In total they contain 100 different species of exotic plants from around the world, with a lobby which resembles an opulent greenhouse and a swimming pool fringed with palm trees.

Mr. Yeo moved into his two-bedroom apartment in the building, where prices currently start at $1.4 million for an 845-square-foot unit, in September 2020. “All the green was one of the main things that stood out for me when I chose the flat,” he said. “Even the colour palette inside the flats has a lot of green.”

During Britain’s two subsequent lockdowns, Mr. Yeo felt “almost a desperate need to reconnect to nature and having all the plants in the building is very calming and relaxing,” he said. “I come from Singapore, which is nicknamed the garden city, and it reminded me of home.”

Mr. Yeo also began to add his own greenery to his home. “In my previous apartment I did not have a single plant,” he said. “Now I have about 16 of all different types and I have become a complete plant nerd.”

International house builders are rapidly realizing how appealing buyers like Mr. Yeo find biophilic design, the official term for buildings with features like plantings, outdoor space, large windows and natural ventilation.

“It is about making our buildings more symbiotic with nature,” said Mat Cash, a partner at Heatherwick Studio, the British company that designed the Eden development in Singapore. Completed last year, each of Eden’s cantilevered balconies is filled with tropical plants. Not only do they give the building’s residents private outside space but they also offer shade to the home below.

“There is a human desire for the restorative and calming benefits of nature,” said Mr. Cash. “It is something which is innate in humans. It is not just about planting, but about fresh air and natural light, and even in a very hot and humid climate natural ventilation works very, very well.”

There is air conditioning at Eden, but Mr. Cash said residents should only rarely need to use it. Keeping their balcony doors open to allow a breeze to blow through their homes, he said, also helps “blur the lines between inside and out.”

Eden’s 20 apartments, each four bedrooms and four bathrooms and measuring just over 3,000 square feet, were listed in 2019 and the final home was sold in May 2021. They were priced at an average of $3,549 a square foot. The average price of real estate in Singapore is $1,719 a square foot, according to research by CBRE.

In November, residents will move into the 200-apartment Valley, a multifamily building in Zuidas, the financial district of Amsterdam. Among conventional-looking office buildings and hotels, Valley is a visual anomaly with its richly planted, terraced balconies. Tenants will pay up to $3,481 a month to live in one of the two-bedroom, 1,216-square-foot apartments, said a spokesman for developer Edge Technologies.

Valley was designed by Winy Maas, co-founder of Rotterdam-based practice MVRDV, who has created public walkways up and down the building and had parts of its facade clad in porous stone designed to attract moss. “It will inhabit the stone, water can be captured, and that way cooling will be made,” he said.

The Italian architect Stefano Boeri, founder of Stefano Boeri Architetti, is one of the world’s leading biophilic architects. He has created buildings all around the world, from the Netherlands to Albania. His latest project is a 100-apartment building in Milan’s Porta Nuova neighbourhood. Botanica Tower, scheduled to be completed in 2025, will be covered with 18,298 square feet of flowering plants and trees, including bay laurel and pine trees, climbing roses, rosemary, and butterfly bushes. As the seasons change so will the colour of the tower, said Mr. Boeri. He added that the plants aren’t mere decoration; according to his calculations, they will absorb 14 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Mr. Boeri’s design process starts with choosing a range of plants, based on local climate conditions. He then designs a building around their needs, from soil depth to optimum amounts of sunlight and water. “I sometimes joke a little and say that I design houses for plants and trees that are also used by humans,” he said.

Years of experience in this kind of urban forestry means Mr. Boeri now has plenty of tricks up his sleeve when it comes to maintaining these buildings. He has used ladybugs, released nearby, to destroy pests attacking high-rise trees, and found gardeners with climbing experience to scale buildings to prune trees.

In the U.S., construction of one of the biggest experiments in biophilic development to date begins next year when work starts on One Beverly Hills, a 17.5-acre neighborhood.

By 2027, two apartment buildings containing around 300 homes will be built, each with sliding glass doors leading out onto curved, petal-like terraces filled with plants, according to developer Alagem Capital Group. The project will also have a hotel, shops, restaurants and an 8-acre botanical garden. Reservations for the apartments are already being taken, Alagem said, and the first homes will be listed next year.

“The connection to nature starts when you look out of the window,” said David Summerfield, head of studio at British architectural practice Foster + Partners, which has planned One Beverly Hills. “The residences lower down will look straight out onto the park, and as you go up there are huge terraces. It is almost like the park is coming up the building and into your apartment.”

A breathtaking view and a lush quarter-acre block are high up the wish list with any lifestyle property, but this contemporary Buderim residence takes things to another level.

Designed and built by owners Stu and Nat Faid, the Sunshine Coast home reflects their vision and incredible attention to detail.

As an architect and designer, Nat believes a prime position deserves an incredible project.

“The heart of the house is undoubtedly the living area and expansive deck. At over 100sq m and elevated more than 6m above the ground, you literally feel like you’re floating. We love how the views stretch from the Glass House Mountains along the coastline to Mooloolaba. Across the ocean, you can even see the sandbanks on Moreton Island,” she says.

While the views and the 1024sq m land parcel make their mark, it’s the suspended 12m heated shipping container swimming pool that’s making waves locally.

“When people arrive, the first thing they do is look up,” Nat adds.

After purchasing the property in 2021, the pair knew the existing house wouldn’t live up to their family of four, but they fell in love with the location and outlook so decided to adapt.

Initially, the pool’s unique design was simply a reaction to an everyday Queensland problem, but ultimately became a feature.

“The pool was at first a product of practicality. We wanted to be able to watch the kids in the pool from the house, but to do that required elevating the pool more than six meters off the ground,” Stu says.

“When we looked at the engineering required, it conflicted with our minimal-touch ethos in preserving the land and the visual aesthetic of the finished design. What followed was a lot of searching for a solution, and as luck would have it, the answer was almost on our doorstep.”

Shipping Container Pools seemed like a no-brainer answer to the pool problem. Having moved internationally multiple times, the couple saw an opportunity to weave their personal story into the fabric of their new home.

“The opportunity to incorporate a nod to that chapter of our life into the build was too good to miss,” he says.

“It also unashamedly reinforces the origins of the pool construction, which ties into the rest of the design in the house. Throughout the home, we have embraced where the old meets the new, we have not tried to blend, cover or hide the origins of the home, we have chosen instead to make sure the evolution of the house is clear to see.”

The Faids’ global family journey is evident throughout the home, from the grand Middle Eastern entry doors sourced from Dubai where the couple once lived, to the remarkable views from the Glass House Mountains to Mooloolaba.

Created to enjoy every season, the house has a space for all eventualities with an open plan living area spilling out to the full-width deck and pool, a sleek kitchen with an Ilve integrated fridge and freezer, Bosch ovens, an induction cooktop, built-in coffee machine and microwave, two dishwashers, filtered water and a butler’s pantry.

Four spacious bedrooms each have built-ins, the main features a large ensuite with twin vanities and two more bedrooms share a“Jack and Jill” style bathroom. There is also a third full bathroom.

The Buderim home is 12.5kms from Mooloolaba and the Mooloolaba River National Park with the Sunshine Coast Airport 13.5kms to the north, however Stu adds that there is rarely a reason to leave.

“It would be fair to say that apart from popping down the hill to go to the beach, we often go days without ever leaving the village. It’s really is a wonderful spot.”

Packed with mod cons, the Buderim home also features six-zone ducted air-conditioning, engineered oak floors and a double-sided Stuv wood-burning fireplace, a mudroom, heated floors and sensor lights in the bathrooms. There is also a private elevator, solar power and battery, as well as landscaped gardens and a large lock up garage and shed.

The property at 10 Orient Court, Buderim is listed with Zoe Byrne and Greg Ward from Ray White Buderim and will go to auction on September 22 at 9am at Mercedes-Benz Sunshine Coast, 65 Maroochy Blvd, Maroochydore.

Biophilic Design Is Helping Cities Get Back to Nature

Buildings that incorporate a natural experience are growing in popularity.

This sky-high home on the Sunshine Coast with iconic shipping container pool is a testament to modern design and engineering.