Biophilic Design

I am interested in this topic too! Does anyone have experience with achieving a biophilia ID credit in LEED v4?

We are pursuing the Biophilia pilot credit for a recreational building, LEED v4 NC. The client is amazing: every building user is invited to use an app for tracking heart rate and blood pressure, and the client is planning on conducting research into how people's mental or emotional state changes as a result of exercise or play activity. The credit wording states that the project should provide quantifiable metrics where possible and appropriate and describe the reasoning and/or research for determining the thresholds for achievement. If someone on this thread has experience with providing this information for the credit, I would love to hear from you. I confess to being mystified by "thresholds for achievement." Thanks.

We have achieved this credit on a project with a separate narrative document that provided qualitative descriptions and quantitative information, as well as images to illustrate the built results.

Since there aren’t many specific “biophilic metrics” yet, we used quantitative data to supplement the strategy narratives by showing the “extent” of biophilic strategies.

For example, we described the percent of a previous surface parking lot converted to open space/ green space, the percent of work stations with access to daylight and views, the extent of areas with toplighting, the extent of areas with biophilic design choices for finish materials, lists of materials selected for their biophilic qualities along with the project photos. This helps the reviewer understand the magnitude of the effort and the impact on the user experience – are there just a few token gestures, or is the user provided a more immersive experience? Are the biophilic approaches evident in multiple areas, do they evoke different sensory experiences, and affect multiple ways that people experience the space?

I think for now our narrative, qualitative descriptions of the biophilic design approaches may be more meaningful than the metrics, but we need to show qualitative data to back up our claims and show the extent of our implementation. It’s possible to write a lot of flowery language about biophilic strategies that may not really be evident in the final design or significant enough to affect the user’s experience, so we need the project images and any quantitative data we can provide make our claims more credible.

Pilot credits help test drive initial credit requirements and uncover useful metrics that may become part of an official credit, so we might start with the simplest metrics that complement and reinforce the key strategies of the credit and help “show our work.”   

YYou mentioned ways to assess the user's experience and reaction to physical activity within the building, but it's not clear whether that would be addressing any of the "14 Patterns of Biophilic Design" that are the basis of the credit. Those metrics could be a useful part of your response, but you’ll want to look for ways to also quantify the implementation of biophilic design strategies. You might also look at the pilot credit "Design for active occupants" as that may be relevant, too.