feng shui,
biophilic design,
and harmony.
Despite our complex social hierarchies and exchanges, human beings are animals.
Yet many of our instincts are rendered obsolete by our societies and cultures.
Two design practices in our modern world—one relatively new, the other, ancient—seek to find a balance between the competing forces of our animal nature and modernity found in all of us.
originally written for Natural Awakenings Atlanta
embrace nature with biophilic design.
Biophilic spaces contain elements of nature—either the genuine article or a representation. This can be as simple as walls painted prairie yellow or as complex as a building whose atrium has a fountain and living birch trees. You may be able to imagine other common elements of biophilic design, such as natural light, materials such as wood and stone, and organic patterns.
This design philosophy largely stems from the work of two men, German psychologist Erich Fromm and American biologist Edward Osborne Wilson. Wilson coined the term “biophilia,” referring to the pleasure humans feel when we “imitate nature with gardens.” From the 60s through the 80s, he and Fromm demonstrated that, despite our modern trappings, our bodies still respond positively to stimuli from the natural world.
They believed this insight can be vitally important to the way we design our living, recreational and work spaces. By incorporating natural elements into our surroundings, biophilic design fosters a sense of harmony between modern life and our innate connection to the natural world.
Above: a home designed with biophilic principals.
feng shui: the ancient art of energy flow.
If biophilic design is the modern practice of putting humanity in touch with its natural self by altering the environment, then feng shui is the ancient precursor to the practice.
Feng shui revolves around the study of how qi—the life force energy in all living things—is shaped and moved in its environment. The term “feng shui” translates to “wind-water.”
“Feng shui is not a good luck charm,” says international feng shui consultant Will LeStrange, who advises clients on both feng shui and biophilic design. “It’s about realizing and releasing the potential of a space.”
When he talks with his clients, LeStrange often replaces “qi” with another word—“affection.” “For all human beings, no matter the environment, there’s a feeling of affection,” he says, and he sees his job as designing and realigning a client’s space to focus the qi to cultivate that affection. “When you go into a space, you can just feel this sense of connectedness. You feel as if there’s a purpose being unfolded and that it’s aligned with the space.”
When he talks with his clients, LeStrange often replaces “qi” with another word—affection.
natural design and the human animal.
To LeStrange, who is based in Atlanta and New York, feng shui feng shui and biophilic design work so well because they recognize our animal nature and seek to find harmony with it. When we’re stressed or perceive a threat, our autonomic nervous systems go on high alert, into fight-or-flight mode. Feng shui and biophilic design aim to ensure that nothing in the environment activates that response system.
Sometimes this just calls for a simple change, such as aligning a study so that someone seated at the desk faces the door. That way, they can see the entrance and know nothing can sneak up on them.
LeStrange sees feng shui as a more personal practice than biophilic design, one which requires more knowledge of the client’s goals and lifestyle to execute correctly. When done right, the results when can be life-changing.
“I’m happy to say I’ve been part of bringing three wonderful humans into the world over the years just by using feng shui,” reports LeStrange. “Clients were having in-vitro fertilization and really struggling to get pregnant. They stopped that, and we did feng shui instead. And it worked.”
Above: Will LeStrange.
increase a room’s qi with this one simple trick.
“The simplest way of applying feng shui or biophilic design is this: If you see a plant you love, buy it, put it in a place it loves being, and care for it,” says LeStrange. “Now you’re a custodian of the plant, and there’s a relationship between you and it. And if you neglect the plant, you neglect parts of yourself.”
The modern practices of feng shui and biophilic design thrive on personal and subjective instincts as much as concrete facts. After all, we enjoy connecting with nature in numerous and diverse ways, yet the goal is consistent: to have a more focused, connected and peaceful existence.
“By reconnecting us with nature, it is really reconnecting us with our nature as human beings,” says LeStrange.
