It’s almost like magic when you enter a space that nearly eliminates the boundaries between the indoors and the outdoors, where you can feel nature surrounding you even though you’re not in it. For years, the biophilic villa has been a captivating idea for me. It’s not only a profession; it’s a passion because I’m an archilover of architecture that truly brings life to those who dwell within its walls. That’s why I want to share my thoughts on this idea and its nearly endless possibilities for modern living. I want to talk about the biophilic villa and why it enriches not only my life but also the lives of anyone who might experience it.
The Biophilic Villas’ Liver Essence
Imagine entering a villa where the air feels almost like a forest—fresh and fragrant—because the whole place is suffused with living elements. Some years ago, I visited a villa project in southern Spain. It was a collaborative project with a couple of famous biophilic designers. They are not really known as architects, but given the work they’ve done (and their influence), they should probably be credited with the rise of the appearance of the living wall (or vertical garden) in modern buildings. In this villa, there were no paintings on the walls, only these living structures. And it seemed to me then and now that such places have within them a kind of beauty that even the most artfully painted wall cannot duplicate.
Nature could be seen from every part of the villa. It was visible through the expansive windows that looked out into the protected grove. It was part of the atmosphere we were inside when we were on the patios, where waterfalls were positioned to encourage birds to come just a little bit closer. It was somehow even part of the bitchin’ private movie theatre we were in when I considered the paths and outdoor spaces I had seen that day at the villa. Nature’s presence was a huge part of the private experience we had at the villa.
Incorporating Nature into Indoor Spaces: Design Components
Biophilic design in the context of a villa is not merely adding a few houseplants to the interior. It is creating a style of living—an entire milieu—around nature. In my work, I have observed that every biophilic villa must pay heed to three vital aspects: illumination, selection of materials, and the integration of natural systems.
A villa deep in Bali’s jungle is one of my favorite projects. It integrates natural light in the most magnificent way. The entire ceiling is an open lattice of wooden slats, through which sunlight pours, dappling the space and casting dynamic shadows that move throughout the day. At night, the slats allow moonlight to enter, and we’ve embedded tiny solar-powered lanterns among them that imitate the perfect effect of fireflies. To experience this lighting—both in its natural and ‘artificial’ state—is magical.
Equally essential are natural materials, such as stone, wood, clay, and living plants. In a villa I designed in Costa Rica, I used bamboo extensively. Not only did it form the structural pillars of the villa, but it also served as a theme for everything from decor to furniture. I used locally sourced river stones for flooring, which gives a cooling effect underfoot. When barefoot, you can feel the differing textures of the materials, grounding you in an experience of your surroundings. To add to the natural connection, the bathroom in that villa was half outdoors, separated by a water feature with koi fish swimming gracefully. Taking a bath or a shower felt like doing so amidst a tropical rainforest, which was precisely what the homeowners desired. They wanted a fully immersive, almost primal connection to the natural environment.
The most intricate and possibly the most arduous of the design elements is the integration of natural systems. Throughout my biophilic design journey, I’ve discovered a simple yet profound truth: if you’re going to introduce elements of Nature into a space, they can’t be an afterthought. For me, that was a big and relatively recent epiphany. It seems obvious, but when I first started working in biophilic design, I treated living elements (think water features, plants, or even parts of a small habitat introduced into the space) as decor. I remember my first pivotal biophilic design lesson, one that I encountered when I was working on a custom desert home office in Tucson, Arizona.
The emotional impact of a biophilic home
One important but frequently neglected part of biophilic villa design is the emotional effect. There’s an unmistakable tranquility, a delightful feeling of rejuvenation when one is near the natural world. It’s almost as if we’re meant to be there. And perhaps we are. For all of biophilia’s alleged shortcomings, it is still a reformation of past ideas that has at its core the goal of making people feel more comfortable in their environment, inside and out. It tackles the supposed detention that modern humans have with nature and shrinks it right back down to a more palatable size. But it does so in a way that looks for pathways to comfort rather than cozy corners.
In northern Italy, I recollect a young family shifting from urban life to one of our biophilic villas. Their children had previously found the limitations of city living stifling. After the move, however, they became increasingly engaged with their natural surroundings. Far from being “nature-deficient,” as Richard Louv argues in his book on this topic, our children are now experiencing the environments we have crafted for them as something akin to the Eden they were promised in the suburbs. Our children have been enjoying simple but profound “nature breaks.”
Emotional breakthroughs are common, not just for children but also for adults. One client, for example, told me that after years of struggling with insomnia and relying on sleep medications to get by, she now sleeps soundly without any help, and she credits her newfound slumber to the biophilic villa she now calls home. The power of nature, in all its forms, lies not merely in its beauty. It resides much more in how our bodies and brains, wired as they are, respond to what’s in and around them. A biophilic villa ensures that your body and mind courted by the panoply of nature will always be close to home.
Biophilic Villa Design: Problems and Their Solutions
Nonetheless, designing a biophilic villa is not without its difficulties. One of the significant issues I’ve grappled with over the years is how to incorporate luxurious, high-end elements of comfort into a structure that is, in essence, a meditation on the raw beauty of nature. On the one hand, the villa must provide the sort of comforts that any high-end clientele would expect to find, and on the other hand, it should remain, as much as possible, a seamless part of its beautiful, natural surroundings.
I remember being assigned to a villa in a monsoon-prone area that required a sturdy design. This demanded a balance between a strong finish that could hold up in a storm and a look that didn’t scream, “I’m over-engineered!” After several reiterations, we solved the problem by using louvered, sliding wooden screens. You can see straight through them, and when they’re open, they invite nature right into the house. That’s when the storm starts, and those screens close up, and man, do they hug that living space. There’s something about the design of these screens—maybe because they’re not just functional but also quite pretty, with shadows that look darn good in sunlight—that makes them really special.
Another difficulty is that many people mistakenly think that biophilic design is high maintenance. True, when you integrate living systems into the structure of your home, there will always be some maintenance involved. But intelligent design and modern tech have come to the rescue. Automated watering systems, humidity and light sensors, and even AI-driven plant care apps make it possible to manage a biophilic villa without hiring a full-time groundskeeper. My wife and I enjoyed such systems recently in a villa in Dubai that had an internal garden with many rare and delicate plant species. Thanks to our home’s high-tech life support systems, we were able to maintain an interior rain forest without constantly worrying about the logistics of upkeep.
The conclusion: Creating a Home that Lives
Being a biophilic villa is not simply a structure of architectural beauty—it is a space of beauty in the truest sense of the word. The pure aesthetics of such a space aside, living in a biophilic villa affords an incomparable closeness to the natural world. My experience has shown me that the pure aesthetics of such spaces are surpassed only by the emotions they elicit. Biophilic architecture, being close to nature, gives a profound sense of belonging that is the true hallmark of such structures. It is this hallmark—not the pure aesthetics of such spaces—that makes them profoundly beautiful.
To me, biophilic villa design is akin to writing poetry with bricks, plants, and sunshine. There is a narrative in every boulder, and a beat in every room; the essence of biophilic design is to vivify those narratives and animate those beats. If you think about what makes a well-designed space, it goes beyond luxury. This is an opportunity to make something that really engages the senses, really stimulates the mind and spirit, and in particular, allows for a connection to the natural world.
