Biophilic Beauty: How Plant Design Creates Healthier + Happier Lived Spaces
High-Design Interiors With Nature In Mind
“Form must have a content, and that content must be linked with nature."—Alvar Aalto
At Incrementum, we believe in beautiful living…a life comprising style, design, health, and happiness with attention to nature’s cycles and abundance. When it comes to bringing these practices into the home, there is no better way than through living plants to adorn your space with visual beauty while improving the air quality and instilling a sense of peace. Did you know that the practice of Biophilic Design is a studied approach to bring the outdoors in through thoughtful architecture and interior design?
This style of design connects people more closely with nature’s elements through the building design, natural lighting, ventilation for fresher air, use of natural wood, water features, organic shapes and other nature-based elements. The concept is meant to create healthier-built environments for people, whether that’s a sky-high office building or a small city apartment.
The Benefits of Bringing Biophilic Plant Design into Your Spaces
1. Environmental & Health. Incorporating lush, green, plants into your home or office can actually help improve the air quality. Through photosynthesis, plants clean the air by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. They can also create more humidity—something Coloradans could always use more of—through the process of transpiration where water vapor expels through their tiny leaf pores. Some plants can even passively absorb pollutants on the surface of their leaves and on the plant root-soil system.
2. Reduces Stress. If you’ve spent any quality time in Colorado’s great outdoors, from the sandstone peaks of the Flatiron’s to Glenwood’s turquoise Hanging Lakes, you know that natural environments have a sizable effect on increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative ones. You just feel better! Biophilic design involves the study of our connection to plants and how our closeness to them can put as easte while reminding us of our deep history to nature. When we place living plants in our home, we just might be reminded of that trip we took when immersed in the outdoors.
3. Visual Relief. Artists, designers, and creators of any kind can appreciate the power that art holds. Beautiful and compelling artworks have the ability to cause us to stop and offer us a moment of reflection and can even inspire awe. This is the same impact that the sculptural, colorful, textured, and varying expressions of living plants have us on, too. Nature’s plants disarm us, offering visual relief and peace of mind. We love that the artistry of plant design can instantly shift the look, feel, and quality of a room. New Paragraph
Beautify Your Indoor Space with Biophilic Plant Design
Creating a sensory experience at home can begin with plant design. Adding planters and pots, tall statement plants to empty corners and smaller green adornments to a desk or bookshelf can instantly elevate a room’s aesthetic. You can curate an entire mood inspired by your lively indoor plants; an ambiance that brings you back to yourself, feels emotionally calming and restorative.
At Incrementum, we create plant-designed interiors specifically with your space in mind, including your lifestyle, environment, who lives with you, how often you are home, and what your spaces are used for.
We consider the safety of our plant selection based on if you have pets or kids. We study the humidity and light to ensure your plants will thrive for seasons to come and take measurements of the room to create a feel-good space for all the living things that find themselves there. We suggest plants that suit your environment and also your availability to care for them. To guarantee they thrive, you can enlist our plant care experts who are available for educational sessions and regular care, like pruning, repotting and pest control.
Can you imagine your space with more biophilic design practices incorporated?
Below, we have outlined some of our favorite ways to apply these wellness practices into your plantscaping projects.
Bring the elements of a garden indoors through a sculptural green archway placed against a wall or near a threshold. For our recent New York City install, we created an arch adorned in living plants to break up white space and offer employees a visual refuge during long work days.
To mimic the jungle or forest landscape of our dreams, we like to place hanging plants throughout a space. Consider hanging them in places where you know you will be in contact with them. Following the principle of biophilic design to evoke a sensory experience with plants, try hanging plants over the bathtub or shower, in walkways, near desk spaces and beds.
Branch out! Choosing a plant for your space can feel a bit like dating. How do they look, how do they make me feel, are they high-maintenance, am I inspired by their energy? In all seriousness, a plant becomes a part of your home, so consider what they bring to the space. We love a proud palm or a charismatic fiddle leaf fig that seems to embody a personality all their own. And as you grow, so do they. It’s a fantastic way to reflect on where you’re going and how far you’ve come.
Strong, sharp angles pair beautifully with natural elements to create balance between straight edges and delicate, leafy plants. The result is a biophilic design rooted in complementary contrasts for a grounded space that celebrates both the building design and the natural world.
Large living plant walls are one of the most impactful ways to bring the outdoors, in. We especially adore a soft-to-the-touch living moss wall that elevates a room—and your mood.
Creativity prevails. Exploring new ways to play with plants is our jam. These hanging plants mimic a utilitarian object without taking away the purpose. Light and plants fixed together for an instantly more moody ambiance in any room.
Industrial spaces with exposed brick, metal, and stone accents are instantly softened with the flowing, organic shapes of plant life. We love placing plants at varying heights to bring the feel of the forest indoors or by adding a sculptural statement plant that acts as its own work of art.
Need support in executing the indoor plantscape of your dreams?
Our plant-obsessed experts will help you select the ideal plants for your space based on light, humidity, and your personal style as well as provide plant care instructions for every green goddess you choose. From living plant walls to jungle oases, our white glove service is done with thoughtfulness while our interior plant designs instantly elevate your home or office space.