Biophilic Water Criteria: Exploring a Technique to Develop an Environmentally Sustainable Biophilic Design Framework

The built environment is obligated to respond to the global environmental movement, considering its significant environmental impacts. Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD), one of the key strategies in this response, is based on frameworks that encourage designers to provide evidence of performances against predetermined targets. ESD frameworks are often used in sustainable design studios as educational tools, highly influenced by Green Building Rating Tools (GBRT) used in the industry. These tools primarily promote technologically advanced design solutions with limited opportunities for enhancing human–nature connectedness. In contrast, biophilic design has been identified as the missing link to reconnect humans to nature, as it promotes the use of natural processes. If these natural processes can ensure the building performances required by ESD, the design could harness the benefits of human–nature connectedness and enhanced building performance. Thus, a systematic technique to incorporate biophilic approach into the ESD framework is required, that is replicable and easily used in architectural design education. This paper outlines a systematic technique to develop an ESD framework for water efficiency that incorporates biophilic design and sustainability performance, applicable within architectural design education. The methodology relied on a two-step approach: (1) the development of the biophilic water criteria framework and (2) the evaluation of the criteria against four different and widely used GBRTs. This study revealed that the technique could assist in developing a framework to guide towards a biophilic and sustainable design. Furthermore, the evaluation showed that the proposed criteria were compatible with the GBRT. The proposed technique has a great potential to be adopted as a guide in architectural design education to bridge ESD and biophilia.