Have you heard of the term biophilia or perhaps biophilic design? If you're an interior designer or you have a lot of interior design videos on your TikTok feed, you likely have. The word was popularized by a 1984 book by Edward O. Wilson, and he defined biophilia as the urge to affiliate with other forms of life. In recent years, designers have taken the word and interpreted it in many ways. Your wallpaper has a pattern that looks like wood grain, that's biophilic. Your glass and steel skyscraper has plants growing on its facade, that's biophilic.

In this episode, Metropolis contributor Audrey Gray talks to the renowned architect Moshe Safdie, who has spent his entire career navigating and exploring the relationship between buildings and nature. While he has been working on mega developments—like the legendary Habitat 67 project in Montreal and Marina Bay Sands Resort in Singapore—he has also been thinking about how nature is integrated into our cities. And that has led to an evolution of ideas about density and urban design. Join us to hear from Safdie about the release of his book, If Walls Could Speak: My Life in Architecture, and how he feels about the term biophilia and how it is being co-opted.

Connect with our host Avi Rajagopal on LinkedIn!

Discover more shows from SURROUND at surroundpodcasts.com. This episode of Barriers to Entry was produced and edited by Wize Grazette and Samantha Sager.

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