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How to introduce biophilic design into wellness facilities

in Biophilic How To

Wellness facilities are spaces for mental and physical regeneration, relaxation, and self-care.

This episode of Biophilic How To looks into the design of wellness facilities from a biophilic perspective, combining atmospheres, design choices, and the experience of space in a nourishing outcome…

A space for the self

A wellness retreat is a time to disconnect from day-to-day life and reconnect with the self. A deeply personal and intentional appointment that calls for a comforting, restorative, and introspective space.

As a whole, a wellness facility is a refuge that embraces guests by means of enveloping shapes, soft light, cave-like atmospheres…all contributing to a soothing ambiance.

Wellness room with sculptural and enveloping forms.
Credit: Antonio Lupi

Designing a biophilic wellness facility

Wellness treatments stimulate all the senses. Sensory design elements can complement the experience, incorporating rich textures, comforting sounds, delicate scents, and more.

Wellness facilities are often connected with their ecological surroundings as they benefit from local natural features, such as thermal waters. Incorporating elements of local identity in the space is a way to extend the sense of connection, inviting guests to appreciate the bounty of their environment.

Curved corridor with light reflections drawing shapes on floor and ceiling.
Credit: Sundukovy Sister
Massage room with lights drawing a constellation on the ceiling.
Credit: Sundukovy Sister
Wooden sauna with rounded enveloping walls.
Credit: RGP Architekten

A water-based experience

Water is usually a central element of wellness treatments. Being already part of the space for functional reasons, water-based design features can enhance the presence of this element, create more occasions for interaction, as well as invite a deeper connection with it.

Pool filling the room of a period building.
Credit: Tredistudio
Stone basin with rich texture.
Credit: Molos Group

Wellness facilities are inherently centred on wellbeing. A wellbeing-centred design complements the experience, making it more restorative and engaging while nurturing a deeper bond between guests and the natural world.

The relationship between human experience, the natural world, and designed spaces shapes the studio’s work, lives in A Biophilic Year – a book-object and online archive on people, nature, and design – and becomes a sensory practice with In Season, a seasonal physical letter. Every month, anooi’s newsletter gathers the studio’s world and explores the idea of nourishing spaces.