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These insights shared at the panel highlight the transformative potential of reconnecting with our natural origins through intentional design. By understanding our evolutionary relationship with nature and applying this knowledge practically, designers can create environments that restore balance and meaning.

Alexandros A. Lavdas – MSc, PhD Tenured Senior Researcher, Neuroscience/Imaging at Eurac Research, Lise Vester – Designer, Christian Kamp Iversen – Landscape Architect MA MDL at Cobe Architects, and Line Brockmann Juhl – Chief Marketing Officer at Muuto, discussed how emerging research enables us to bridge the gap between human needs and natural design, moderated by Robyn Landau, Founder of Kinda Studios.

We've highlighted key moments with timestamps from the panel talk, which you can find below. You can catch all the insights by listening to the full discussion.

Listen here

Embracing nature as the original designer

Nature is the ultimate design teacher, offering time-tested patterns and principles that resonate deeply with human biology. Research shows that even brief exposure to natural elements can have profound effects on our physiological and psychological well-being.

00:03:54

Robyn: "Nature is the original designer. And of course, as humans we've evolved from nature. So we have these inbuilt responses to nature that are very good for us—even just 20 minutes a day helps reduce our cortisol. The phytoncides in nature, the smells that are released by the plants, help restore our immune system. Being able to see the fractal patterns in nature or hear pink noise, the natural sounds in nature, are shown to regulate our attention and regulate our nervous system as well."

00:06:12

Alexandros: "What particularly interests me is examining the particular constituents of natural scenes that affect us. Everybody knows that exposure to nature is beneficial, but it's interesting—not just from a research point of view, but also for practice—to see what parts of this natural geometry are the ones that affect us and how we can use them in a practical way in our designs."

Understanding our evolutionary connection to nature

The sensation of feeling "at home" in a space connects directly to our evolutionary heritage. By incorporating natural materials and organic forms, designers can tap into deep-seated psychological responses that promote comfort and belonging. Research spanning decades demonstrates the measurable benefits of nature exposure across multiple domains of human health.

00:14:13

Alexandros: "Since the 80s, there's work showing that exposure to nature positively influences basically everything from mood to cognitive performance to even—in a very famous study—recovery from surgery. They compared surgical patients whose window view was a blank wall or a nature view, and the people that had the nature view recovered faster. There are many other examples."

00:18:08

Line: "We've been describing our design and our spaces as homey for a long time, and part of the explanation is that 99.8% of human time we were living in nature. When we are actually bringing in wooden products, wool, stone and shapes that we recognize from nature, it makes us feel that we belong a little bit more in this space and we feel more connected to it. And that's what we describe as a homey feeling."

The science of fractal patterns and natural geometry

Fractal patterns—the repetitive, self-similar structures found throughout nature—create a unique resonance with human perception. These patterns, found both in our external environment and within our own bodies, offer a scientific foundation for biophilic design principles. Our evolutionary development has attuned us to these natural geometries.

00:15:29

Robyn: "Fractal patterns, which are these naturally occurring repetitive patterns found in nature, are also found within our very being—within our lungs. And that's part of the reason why it interacts with us so powerfully. The fractal patterns outside of ourselves interact with the natural fractal patterns in the way that our visual field receives it, and this has naturally restoring elements."

00:13:35

Alexandros: "Some of these things already mentioned by you—fractals, or to be more precise, quasi-fractal structure. Not precise geometrical fractals where you have exact repetitions, but quasi-fractal structures like the tree with the leaves. [...] We are attuned to them, and it makes sense in an evolutionary sense. We are tuned to this geometry because this is how we developed—not just as humans but even our pre-human ancestors."

Designing restorative experiences for daily life

Creating accessible moments of restoration doesn't require grand gestures—simple design interventions can provide powerful opportunities for reconnection with nature. The Dream View Bench exemplifies how thoughtful design can invite transformative experiences, particularly through the emotion of awe. Awe is a powerful feeling of wonder and amazement that occurs when we encounter something vast, beautiful, or transcendent. Research shows that experiencing awe, even in small daily doses, can reduce stress, increase feelings of connection, and improve overall well-being.

00:22:45

Lise: "I wanted to create this nature hack within the city. The idea with the bench is like when you lean back and fully recline and look up into the sky. That was an accessible nature hack for most people to feel connected to nature again. So it's like the sky is almost accessible to everyone to experience and then to feel connected again somehow."

00:32:25

Lise: "I'm trying to introduce products and design that somehow makes us stop and wonder in different areas depending on where we are in our life."

00:23:48

Robyn: "Nature and awe is around us all the time. If you have these daily doses of awe, that can be very transformative to your health. Staring up at the clouds and being able to see the clouds go past you."

The power of cross-disciplinary collaboration

The future of nature-integrated design lies in breaking down traditional silos between disciplines. By fostering collaboration between diverse specialists, we can create more intentional spaces.

00:34:57

Line: "Besides the beautiful objects that invite us intuitively to do something, I think the knowledge part for me is also really relevant—that we have this sharing of expertise across the fields, because this is also where we can change things. The more we get the information and we share what we know is working, I think that's also a way to direct user behavior into making more intentional choices about the spaces that we are creating."

00:44:17

Christian: "We want to work with biologists, we want to work with interior designers, we want to work with geographers. We want to work with anthropologists... We believe in cross-disciplinary fields. It is the future of what we do and it's getting better. It's going very slowly. One project at a time, but I feel that's the most important job we have to do."

00:42:32

Christian: "The reason why it's so important for us to keep struggling for bringing nature even closer to humans is because ultimately it gives meaning to people... It gives you some sense of belonging in a place where it's hard to feel that you belong anywhere, and this you could call it belonging, or you could call it meaning."

Trusting human intuition in design

While scientific research provides valuable insights, the panel emphasized the importance of trusting our innate responses to environments. Each person's body and mind serves as a sophisticated instrument for evaluating what truly supports their well-being.

00:39:15

Alexandros: "Everywhere there's a common deep structure. This is like a Chomskyan analog, a common deep structure that is expressed through different surface structures, like different languages, which are the different styles all over the world. But the common deep structure is there."

00:40:02

Robyn: "One of the age-old questions in neuroaesthetics research is: are aesthetic preferences universal or are they individual? And of course the answer with everything is it depends, right? So our preferences are based on the cultures which we came from... But we also have universal preferences towards things which are based on our evolutionary history... The more that we can bring nature into our indoor built environments, the more people can feel at ease there."

00:50:27

Christian: "You don't have to be an architecture designer to define what's nice and what feels nice. And I think that's just also very important."

Building on our panel discussion in the Muuto Courtyard, we are excited to continue exploring how nature-integrated design principles can transform our relationship with the built environment. If you're curious about deepening your understanding of biophilic design and creating more meaningful spaces, we invite you to explore our ongoing research and installations.

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