Certified Case Studies

HEALING FROM WITHIN Strategically located at the entrance of the township of Tāneatua, Te Kura Whare serves as a community center and central point of connection for the Ngāi Tūhoe, a Māori iwi, or tribe, whose ancestral lands include the steeply forested Te Urewera on New Zealand’s North Island. The building provides administration space for the iwi,…

HEALING THROUGH NATURE The Khoo Teck Puat Hospital is the winner of the first-ever Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award. Driven by the Ex-CEO’s request that the hospital be designed so that “one’s blood pressure lowers when he/she enters the hospital grounds.” The hospital achieves that by seamlessly integrating with nature to: Help patients forget their…

ENGAGING THE SENSES The Bertschi School Science Wing serves as a hands-on earth science classroom for kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Consisting of a classroom, attached greenhouse and outdoor garden space, it was designed for—and in part by—elementary school children. The project demonstrates how biophilic design can be used to not only connect children with natural…

RISING FROM THE LANDSCAPE Part of the greater Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Center for Sustainable Landscapes was built to further the Conservatory’s mission: to advance sustainability and promote human and environmental well-being through action and research. The Center serves as an educational and research facility and welcomes close to 450,000…

RESPONDING TO WIND, SUN, AND SEA Located in Kamuela, Hawai‘i and set among the rolling foothills of the Kohala Mountains, the Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy Energy Lab was created to educate the next generation of students in the understanding of environmentally conscious, sustainable living systems. The team held several week-long working sessions on the site, an…

CREATING COMMUNITY As its name implies, the Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce is much more than commercial office space, but rather is a re-imagining of the work environment as a rejuvenating space that fosters collaboration, creativity, and well-being. Project owners Dennis Cuku and Christy Benoit began the design process by creating a “project…

PRACTICING BIOPHILIC DESIGN The Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC), part of the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus, was created to test and demonstrate technologies that will inspire the green building movement in Australia. Wollongong is a few hours south of Sydney, on the beautiful New South Wales coast, and the Centre is situated between a…

EMBRACING CLIMATE The David and Lucile Packard Foundation headquarters is a building that embodies the values that the Foundation supports; one that connects to the context of Los Altos and responds to the California climate. The building takes design inspiration from the “California Living” homes of the 1960s, which emphasized an orientation to the landscape…

EXPRESSING CULTURE When Glumac had the chance to move their office into the third floor of a 100-year-old mansion in Shanghai’s historic Chang Ning District, they jumped at the opportunity. Given the poor outside air quality, creating a healthy indoor environment was paramount. Taking guidance from Terrapin Green’s 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design, which coalesce…

PRACTICING BIOPHILIC DESIGN Located in a dense urban neighborhood near downtown Seattle, the six-story Bullitt Center was the first commercial office building to be fully certified as a Living Building. The design team set out to create a building that would last at least 250 years—a lifespan closer to that of a tree than of…