Nature in the office, an emerging trend

The presence of nature in the workplace is becoming increasingly important. Faced with an increasing lack of a relationship between people and nature in urban environments, a number of different elements including vertical gardens, garden terraces and fountains have begun to creep into some of the most important offices in the world as a result of an emerging architectural movement called biophilic design. It is a design concept based on the human tendency to look for a natural environment to improve their overall well-being.

In most offices there are usually a few plants scattered about the workplace, but only the most innovative companies have gone further by incorporating large gardens, windows with a view to the outside and abundant vegetation as if it were a forest.

The Spheres: An office among tropical plants

Amazon is the latest company to follow this trend with the opening last January of a space called The Spheres. After more than six years of planning and construction, Amazon's huge urban garden in Seattle was inaugurated so employees could work with their laptops surrounded by an incredible variety of tropical plants and hold meetings next to a waterfall or in spaces that make you feel like you are in a bird's nest.

This centre also has a system that automatically adjusts the level of artificial light to complement natural daylight as required during the day. It is an alternative workspace whose construction was based on data showing the positive effects of employees being surrounded by plants and sunlight.

What are the benefits of integrating nature into work?

There has been a lot of research that shows that interacting with nature and having more natural daylight improves people's mood, increases their ability to concentrate and be more creative, as well as helping to reduce stress and blood pressure levels. There is also a knock-on benefit with regard to productivity and engagement in the workplace.

An example of this is a study conducted in the United Kingdom by the University of Exeter. After investing £10,000 in plants for offices, it could be concluded that there were tangible benefits with regard to the company's profitability after introducing them into the workspace, with productivity increasing by about 15%.

Another example of a company that followed this trend with regard to its workplace is Microsoft, which built tree houses so its employees could hold meetings in a modern, open-air environment. Google is also experimenting in some of its offices in the USA with biophilic design to increase productivity and employee satisfaction by adjusting the levels of natural daylight they receive and incorporating plants and terraces. In a similar way, the roof terrace at Facebook's headquarters in California has been decorated with a huge garden full of trees.

But it is not only the technology giants who are embracing biophilic design, but companies of all sizes and in all sectors. For example, for a number of years at the headquarters of the Timberland clothing brand there have been gardens growing vegetables with the products then being sold to the Timberland community itself.

Also with regard to biophilic design, we have seen the emergence of alternatives to the incorporation of natural vegetation into the work environment. An example of this is that made in 2017 by Plantronics, a company at the forefront of innovation in audio systems and based in California. It presented what it called its Habitat Soundscaping technology that uses the sounds of water and natural scenes projected onto the walls or ceilings of its offices to make noisy workplaces calm and peaceful. It would appear that even sounds, aromas and textures inspired by nature improve well-being.

This biophilic system can be designed to activate automatically when open office spaces become too noisy and annoying.

So this new concept for offices, focussed on improving the employee experience in the workplace, is a growing trend that not only motivates, inspires and reduces stress, it is also committed to sustainability and saving energy by making much more use of sunlight.