Green building design is nothing new for companies seeking to improve their sustainable business credentials, but more architects and interior designers are including elements of the natural world in their blueprints.
This isn't just because it looks nice. Projects by early pioneers like Google and the General Services Administration demonstrate that this so-called biophilic design can improve employee performance.
"We've found that Googlers with desks closer to windows are more likely to feel that their work environment lets them be more productive and sparks creativity," Anthony Ravitz, Google's real estate and workplace services green team lead, told me via email. "This feedback reinforces our belief that building design helps reduce stress levels, increase creativity and improve performance, and we'll continue finding ways to measure and support this."
Bill Browing, founder of design firm Terrapin Bright Green, offers a specific illustration of that statement. By spending about $1,000 to move call-center workstations so that employees could see outside, one utility company was able to speed processing times and boost per-employee productivity by 6%.
As one might expect, new technologies playing to this newfound interest in bringing the outside world inside are fast emerging. One example I stumbled across last week is the SunBeamer from Canadian company SunCentral.
The technology uses optical components to pull natural sunlight hundreds of feet deep into building interiors (see the image bel0w).
Building owners get a mobile application that help them calibrate, reposition and monitor each unit. The technology is used in the Canadian embassy in Berlin and is part of the design for New York's "Lowline" project, which proposes to turn an abandoned underground trolley terminal into a city park.
More recently, 36 SunBeamer 500 units have been ordered as part of a multi-million-dollar renovation at an enclosed, three-story Westfield Santa Anita mall in Arcadia, Calif. The idea is to bring full-spectrum sunlight into the internal core, without having to significantly alter the exterior. This will enable the designers to add trees and water features, without installing traditional skylights (which can mess with heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems). Each unit is priced at less than $1,500.
“We already have a beautiful outdoor promenade, but we wgre looking for a way to bring some of that natural open-air beauty inside that mirrored the feel of modern outdoor shopping malls,” said Ramon Oseguera, general manager of the mall, in a statement. “SunCentral provides the perfect option for us to mimic the feel of the outdoors without losing any of the comfort of being indoors.”
