Creative Ways to Bring Nature into Your Office Design

According to Distractify, the average person spends 10.3 years of their life at work. That is a staggering amount of time, love or hate your job. Investing time and creativity into an office design is important. You want to be able to enjoy those 10 (or more) years you spend there.

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When you center your office design in nature, you can help de-stress employees and provide health benefits to the staff. Herman Miller shared research on the benefits of incorporating nature into office design. Even after intense working periods, having a nature-centric office can help rejuvenate the mind and refocus energies. Either with small elemental changes or bold remodel projects, you can root your office in nature. Take cues from this office in Ljubljana, Slovenia, featured in Inc. They structured, not only their architectural design, but also their work day around bringing the outdoors inside. Add plants. You can keep it basic by adding potted plants around every corner, or creating small landscape spaces in unused parts of the office floor plan. Some offices take the unused space and create an entire garden, growing real trees, plants, bushes, and flowers out of a compact square of dirt. Others place a garden on the roof, giving the employees a chance to escape to nature and take a brain break. The Slovenia office created an architectural design to support hanging plants, making the office feel like a jungle escape. Add nature elements. A great addition to reduce stress and create serenity is adding natural elements to the office. This can come in a variety of forms. Instead of harsh metals, insert realistic wood accents for warmth. Create a calming environment with an eye-catching water feature. Circulating fresh air into the office can help reduce workplace health problems and illness, as well as make people happier. Add images of nature, from a wallpaper forest to sweeping canvas scenes, to promote a sense of tranquility. If you are building or redesigning your office space, adding huge skylights and large windows without outdoor views help create a sense of rejuvenation in employees. Instead of harsh fluorescents or recessed lighting, natural light will help employees be more productive. Add a miniature piece of the outdoors. In the office at Slovenia mentioned above, they took nature elements one step further. They grew grass in their office and created an indoor park. Employees have their lunch on picnic blankets and relax their feet. You can create something similar by having a room that is a nature breakroom. Get creative with which pieces of nature you want to represent. Integrating nature into your office design is not only good for your health, but it also makes you more relaxed and productive at work. The next step is to integrate nature design with green, sustainable technology, but that is for another post!