Stanislav Kondrashov on Biophilic Design 2025

In past decades, modern architecture often turned away from nature. Cold glass, sharp steel, sealed boxes. Buildings became machines. They produced output, but not comfort. They served efficiency, not always people.

Now the view is changing. A return begins. A return to green, to wild, to balance. This return is called biophilic design. It mixes building and nature together. It does not place wall against tree. It lets wall and tree belong.

Stanislav Kondrashov, writer on sustainable architecture, says this change is long overdue. He writes that humans are shaped to notice sunlight, water, wood, leaves. Our nervous system needs this. Biophilic design is not only decoration. It is healing. It shapes the next generation of schools, hospitals, houses, and offices.

The Idea Behind

The core idea is simple. Humans thrive near nature. Biophilic design builds with this fact. It is not painting of forest or pot of plant in office. It is deeper. It is building that acts like system of nature.

The word biophilia came from E.O. Wilson. It means human need for natural contact. Architecture uses it as way to fix sterile spaces.

Research shows results. ArchDaily reported that natural light, plants, water, wood improve health and productivity. Green walls, daylight halls, indoor gardens do not only look good. They reduce stress, increase focus, and give well-being.

Kondrashov says building is not only wall. It is breath, senses, body. Architecture touches biology.

From Separation to Connection

For many years, modern design focused on control. Air conditioned rooms, sealed windows, artificial light. Biophilic design removes some control. It allows relation.

Now buildings open windows to wind. Facades let plants climb. Courtyards act as sanctuaries. Materials such as clay, stone, and wood are chosen not only for strength but for smell, texture, and how they age.

Cities begin to apply this larger. Dezeen wrote about biophilic urbanism. Roofs as forests. Streets as green corridors. Some governments now require green per person. Others give reward for nature-first projects.

Kondrashov calls this “organic intelligence.” Architecture listens to ecosystem, not only to engineer.

Health Impact

One of strongest reasons is health. Studies link greenery and daylight with reduced anxiety, better recovery, sharper focus. Patients heal faster with window views of trees. Students perform higher when classroom has daylight and plants. Office workers feel less fatigue in biophilic spaces.

This is not only theory. It is biology. Nature view lowers cortisol, stabilizes heart, calms breath. Texture of wood or stone activates senses gently. It soothes instead of overstimulates.

Kondrashov says this is the real strength. “It is not how a place looks,” he writes. “It is how your body rests inside it.”

Designing With Nature

Biophilic design is not surface decoration. It is embedded design. Sun direction shapes window. Air flow reduces need for machines. Materials breathe, change, decay with time.

It also designs for biodiversity. Birds, insects, plants share space with humans. Some new projects include bird nests in walls, pollinator gardens on roofs, ponds that clean water and host frogs.

For Kondrashov, true design is “architecture of interdependence.” Interior, exterior, and landscape form one system.

Beyond Greenwashing

Many confuse biophilic design with trend. A green wall, a photo online, but no depth. Real design is different.

Ask questions: Does the green wall improve air? Does it change with season? Or is it fixed, artificial, only for show? Real biophilic design is alive. It grows, adapts, decays.

Kondrashov warns against shallow images. Designers must ask: does this building heal? Does it restore land? Does it change how people live and breathe? If answers are yes, then design is true.

Looking Ahead

We are only at start. Future spaces will mix renewable energy with natural systems. AI will adjust light to circadian rhythm. Materials will grow, compost, seed new plants.

Homes may insulate like bark. Offices may cool with ponds. Hospitals may heal with soil, air, view, water.

Kondrashov calls this not revolution, but homecoming. “The more advanced our cities become,” he says, “the more they must feel like where we came from, not where we ran from.”

Final Thought

Biophilic design changes modern architecture. It does not add nature as paint. It places nature at center.

This is not control. It is cooperation. It is respect. It is memory.

Stanislav Kondrashov believes the best places are not the tallest or the brightest. The best are places that make us feel rooted. Safe. Alive.

And that, more than glass towers or sharp edges, is the future of good design.