Beyond green cosmetics: Repositioning biophilic architecture through relational spatial form

Abstrak

Over the past several decades, the notion of biophilic design has become increasingly prominent within both architectural scholarship and professional practice. Nevertheless, its implementation is frequently confined to the incorporation of vegetation, natural materials, daylight, and other visually perceptible characteristics associated with the natural environment. Consequently, biophilic design is commonly interpreted as a form of green aesthetics or as an approach to creating visually tranquil environments, whereas deeper architectural understandings of how human beings encounter and inhabit space as a place of dwelling remain comparatively underdeveloped. In addition, the majority of existing biophilic design research has emerged from the disciplines of biology, environmental psychology, and health sciences, emphasizing physiological and psychological responses to natural environments rather than examining the spatial configurations through which such experiences are constructed and mediated. This article seeks to reconceptualize biophilic design within the architectural discipline by approaching it through the ontological understanding of architecture as a place of dwelling. To accomplish this objective, the discussion foregrounds the theory of Relational Spatial Form (RSF) together with its operational framework as a means of interpreting and applying biophilic principles in architectural design. This article contends that, from an architectural standpoint, the essence of the biophilic experience is not fundamentally generated by the mere presence of natural elements as visual artifacts. Instead, it is constituted through the relational organization of space, which establishes orientation, spatial transitions, hierarchical relationships, and the conditions that enable meaningful dwelling. From this perspective, natural elements undoubtedly contribute to enriching the quality of spatial experience; however, they do not serve as the principal factors governing the organization of use or the lived experience of inhabitation. Accordingly, biophilic design should be more appropriately understood as an emergent spatial quality that operates upon an already established framework of inhabitation through the relational structure of architectural space.