Biophilic Design as a Framework to Solve Sick Building Syndrome in the Indoor Spaces

Nowadays, humans spend a great deal of time indoors and are more likely to suffer from diseases such as sick building syndrome, due to poor indoor environmental quality and poor environmental settings. Health issues associated with sick building syndrome (SBS) can negatively affect physical and mental health. It refers to circumstances where building occupants are experiencing adverse health or comfort effects due to time spent in the indoor buildings, even though no illness or cause can be identified. As sick building syndrome occurs when occupants stay in indoor spaces for a certain length of time; introducing a natural design strategy will improve the health of the indoor environment. A key component of a healthy building could be the use of biophilic design actions to enhance the well-being and comfort of the occupants in the indoor environment. It is known that humans are innately drawn to nature, and the design strategies provided by biophilic design have multiple benefits such as promoting health, productivity, biodiversity, circularity, and resilience. As a direct consequence of the Biophilic design approach, nature acts as an active catalyst to enhance human health. Accordingly, this study quests how Biophilic design strategies could be incorporated into indoor spaces so that the issues associated with SBS can be resolved and reduced. And then asks whether the incorporation of nature into interior spaces can enhance human health and wellbeing. To improve the inadequate indoor environmental quality caused by the sick building syndrome, this study aims to develop strategies as well as to provide design solutions/suggestions derived from the Biophilic approach in order to overcome SBS and improve indoor space quality. A qualitative research method has been conducted based on a literature iv review of the two key concepts: SBS and the Biophilic design approach. As a result of the literature review, analytical frameworks were developed to correlate SBS contributors with the Biophilic Design principles, attributes and the patterns. Accordingly, this study has concluded that it is effective to use the strategies and approaches of biophilic design, recommendations were developed in order to assist the improvement of the indoor environmental quality whilst open several possibilities for solving SBS contributors.