It is well known that nature has a positive impact on our wellbeing, but there is less evidence of becoming fully aware of this with concrete actions. Confinement to the home and long stays inside during the pandemic accelerated our awareness of this need to reconnect urban environments in general, and home interiors in particular, with nature.

“Staying still makes us more aware of the environment around us and it is an awareness that we, as humans, are completely lacking at the moment”, stated Stefano Mancuso - botanist whose innovative approach gained him recognition as a world changer, scientist, director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV) at the University of Florence and writer of several essays on plant intelligence - in conversation with Carlo Antonelli, CEO of FieramilanoMedia, during the Digital Edition of the BIT special talks last May, “by standing still, you realise what isn’t working. We did it at home and now we have to do it for our entire environment. And this could be truly revolutionary. On top of this, we also learned the value of the community of people living around us, which is key to survival”. And linking up with the theme of botany, he asks: “what happens when you can't move? You can tell by observing plants: standing still is one of the typical features of plant’s lives: they cannot move away from where they were born.”

And it is precisely from observing key processes that biophilic design takes its cue, starting with its main role, improving our quality of life.

Just as one example, in Milan’s former Rizzoli area, work is underway on Welcome, the biophilic office of the future designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates with Stefano Mancuso’s consulting services, which aims to be one of the most sustainable ever built by also using plants, which are not merely decorative, but essential.

Mancuso explains: “The surface area of the planet that cities occupy is around 2% of land. This area produces 70% of C02 and roughly 80% of the waste planet’s waste, so we immediately understand that it is the idea of the city that we need to change. We have to think about an environmentally friendly city, and, in my opinion, great results can be achieved simply by using plants and introducing them into our urban life spaces. My idea of the city of the future is this: a city where every surface is covered in plants.”

The (sustainable) future is already here.