5 Biophilic Kitchens to Elevate Your Cooking Experience

Why is Biophilic Design in Kitchens Important?

Biophilic kitchen design integrates natural elements into the heart of the home, offering more than just a cooking space. In today’s fast-paced world, biophilic designs in your kitchen offer a momentary respite to reconnect with the soothing rhythms of the natural world. Imagine preparing meals surrounded by lush greenery, with sunlight streaming in through large windows, casting warm, natural hues across the room. Your senses are awakened by the gentle rustle of leaves and the aroma of fresh herbs, creating a serene and invigorating atmosphere. Biophilic design in kitchen embraces these sensory experiences, transforming the act of cooking into a holistic journey that nurtures both body and spirit.

Yes, let’s include biophilic design, but how?

According to Stephen Kellert, a pioneer scholar in the theory of “biophilia”. 3 kinds of experience^[1] can be the framework to encompass biophilic designs in a kitchen.

I. The Direct Experience of Nature

This refers to actual contact with environmental features in the built environment including natural light, air, plants, animals, water, and landscapes.

II. The Indirect Experience of Nature

This refers to contact with the representation or image of nature. These include pictures and artwork, natural materials such as wood furnishings and woolen fabrics, and ornamentation inspired by shapes and forms occurring in nature.

III. The Experience of Space and Place

This refers to “spatial features and characteristics of the natural environment that have advanced human health and well-being.” Examples include prospect and refuge, organized complexity, mobility and way-finding, and more.

Now you are familiar with the theory. Let’s explore 5 refreshing examples.

1. Feed Meat Market by FGMF + Projeto de Perto

The photo of a biophilic kitchen with a tree in the middle of the space and a glass ceiling letting the natural light into the interior. — ^{This kitchen example promotes biophilic design though featuring a tree in the middle of the space. Resulting in an interesting cooking space that interacts with plants and natural light.
Credit: Rafaela Netto}

This example utilizes natural materials for its interior designs to resonate with the feature tree in the center of the kitchen. The natural daylight that casts scattered shadows of the leaves on the ground provides the kitchen with a biophilic effect, as if you are cooking in the woods.

Let us break down what this example did to achieve an effective biophilic dining experience.

The plan and section drawings of a biophilic kitchen space with indoor plants and a tree drawing surrounded by the operating space of the kitchen. — ^{In the section drawing, you can see that the tree is taller than the ceiling. The section also shows the ceiling is open up to the sky with glass panels and supporting beams. The plan drawing shows that the planting area is surrounded by two kitchen countertops and a kitchen island.
Credit: Rafaela Netto}

Double-height space: The heightened ceiling not only mimics the openness of outdoor environments but also scatters natural light through the canopy. This flood of daylight enhances the space’s biophilic ambiance through the pattern of the tree canopy, blurring the boundaries between inside and out.
Landscape integration: The focus of the space, an indoor tree, enriches the interactive experience around the tree. The landscape is located as an island in the kitchen, this arrangement allows three sides of the landscape to have approachable space to experience the tree.
Pop out the biophilic elements: To accentuate the plants, the walls are painted in dark color to make the background more unobtrusive. This backdrop serves as a blank canvas, allowing the verdant foliage to take center stage.

The featured plants are lit at night and surrounded by the operating space of the kitchen, making the space interactive with the biophilic elements.
Credit: Rafaela Netto

2. The Oak Pass Residence by SIMO DESIGN

A photo of a biophilic kitchen designed with a modern form and natural materials that promote a natural feeling. — ^{The natural and raw materials soften the rigid form and provide warmth and biophilic effects to the kitchen.
Credit: SIMO DESIGN}

Let’s deconstruct the biophilic properties in this example.

The large window in front of the cooking area connects the occupants to the surrounding environment, providing a visual connection with the lush trees outside the window. This arrangement makes the cooking process more enjoyable.
By covering the cabinets with natural wood, its storage solution creates a biophilia signal that blends in with the adjacent walls and ceilings. The wood’s texture and its warm tactile properties resonate with Stephen Kellert’s theory that biophilic design is achieved through an indirect encounter with nature.
Materials with an earthy tone such as countertops and concrete floors emotionally ground the occupants with its solid feeling. These two elements resonate with Stephen Kellert’s theory of creating biophilic designs using “Indirect Experience of Nature”
The wood beams create a spatial depth for the ceiling, abstractly mimicking a natural environment such as under a tree canopy with large branches or a tropical forest.

A biophilic kitchen with black walnut cabinets, wood ceiling, and a Cielo Quartzite kitchen island. — ^{The natural and raw materials soften the modern form and provide warmth and biophilic feelings to the kitchen. The kitchen cabinets are black walnut with an oil finish, which is chosen to enhance the natural color of the wood. The countertop and island are Cielo Quartzite.
Credit: SIMO DESIGN}

3. Kitchen in Lima by Ghezzi Novak

The photo of a biophilic kitchen that integrates a living tree inside the kitchen. — ^{This angle shows the featured tree with its organic form and biophilic texture. Other materials in this picture are chosen to match this warm and natural theme of the tree trunk.
Credit: Renzo Rebagliati}

This example integrates a renovated kitchen with the existing outdoor environment to resonate with a biophilic concept: living connected to the outdoors. It emphasizes the tree’s organic visual and rough texture to articulate the space. A warm tone is used in its interior materials to match the reddish tone of the tree trunk, and bricks, wood, and concrete are used in their primary state to be more in harmony with the tree trunk’s natural form.

The photo of a biophilic kitchen using bricks for walls and wood kitchen cabinets. — ^{This angle is taken from the dining space looking at the kitchen, it captures the warm tone of the wooden cabinets and the brick walls. Additionally, the scattered sunlight from the opened-up ceiling gently illuminates the space.
Credit: Renzo Rebagliatis}

To further connect to the tree covering and the surroundings, the kitchen is open to the sky. Consequently, the light condition resonates with its environment, but it is more uniform and diffused by filtering through a wood-beamed ceiling.

Paring with the skylights, the two windows of this kitchen are also strategically placed to promote a biophilia experience by connecting views of the natural surroundings. The window near the dining table is lower to provide views of eye level from a sitting position. Overall, the designs make biophilic elements accessible and promote well-being with a warm feeling of wood material, wood color, and the organic form of the tree.

Opening by the dining space is positioned at a height for viewing when sitting.
Credit: Renzo Rebagliatis

4. Anexo Chalé Mairiporã by Macro Arquitetos

The photo of a biophilic kitchen with large sliding doors between the indoors and outdoors. — ^{The accessibility of the surrounding trees and fresh air helps occupants experience nature and engage with biophilic elements.}
^{Credit: Victor Affaro}

This example prioritizes a connection with nature and a comforting atmosphere. The kitchen aimed to integrate the kitchen and dining space into the surrounding environment by preserving existing trees and maximizing visual connections with nature. Natural materials like stone, wood, and indoor plants were chosen to complement the surroundings, creating a rustic yet modern-ly elegant aesthetic.

The photo of a biophilic kitchen connecting to an outdoor deck with trees integrated into the deck. — ^{The deck that is connected to the kitchen is a buffer space between the kitchen and the trees. The deck not only mediates between nature and the interior but pulls the biophilic elements closer by integrating trees growing from the deck below. The vicinity of the trees blurs the boundary between the nature and man-made environment, resulting in a relaxing space that invites nature to be closer to the kitchen.
Credit: Victor Affaro}

The design features open and fluid spaces without dividing walls, allowing for flexibility and a sense of openness. Floor-to-ceiling openings flood the interior with natural light, the openness promotes well-being and a connection to the outdoors. This emphasis on natural light and ventilation contributes to the occupants’ mental and physical health, enhancing their overall experience of the space.

5. 17 Gilbert Street Adelaide by bbarchitects

A photo of an office kitchen that includes indoor plants, mirror cabinets, and a cantilevered countertop. — ^{This small kitchen of an office space utilizes several designs to create a more open and comfortable space with biophilic concepts such as introducing indoor plants and ample natural light.
Credit: bbarchitects}

In this small office kitchen, the strategic use of mirrors as cabinet covers can create an illusion of a larger space by visual extension inside the space. To further open up the space, maximizing natural light through skylights, this example brightens the kitchen with a clerestory and reduces the need for artificial lighting. Furthermore, a cantilevered countertop creates an unobtrusive look complementing the extended visual in the mirror, creating an illusion of the double amount of space and plants to promote a biophilic atmosphere.

Additionally, incorporating green walls introduces a biophilic atmosphere without consuming too much space in a small space or a space with fewer openings. Green walls effectively bring a sense of nature into the kitchen, improving occupants’ well-being in a tight space. By incorporating green walls, it is important to have drains or gutters that catch excess water from watering the plants. Combined, these design strategies create a bright, spacious, and inviting kitchen that promotes biophilia without taking up too much space.

A photo of an office kitchen that includes green walls in a small but well-illuminated space. — ^{Green walls effectively save up space while providing the place with adequate plants to form a biophilic atmosphere. In this example, the green wall is even equipped with a gutter to collect the excessive water. The modular design of the green wall allows the user to easily swap out plants that are not in perfect condition.
Credit: bbarchitects}

Online Products for Your Biophilic Kitchen

Below are some plants in the above examples that are ideal for indoor use and you can order online. They are suitable because they require less direct sunlight to grow and ease of care.

In summary, integrating biophilic design into kitchens offers you a chance to reconnect with nature even when cooking. By incorporating elements like natural light, plants, and organic materials, you can create spaces that enhance well-being.

Notes:

[1] Kellert, Stephen; Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, Wiley, 2013

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2 responses to “5 Biophilic Kitchen Designs to Elevate Your Cooking Experience”

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5 Biophilic Kitchen Designs to Elevate Your Cooking Experience