In the season's final interview episode, Mary sits down with Alexandra Bowen, founder of the Biophilic Design Community and co-creator of the Learn Biophilic Design course, to explore why the spaces we inhabit shape the people we become. Alexandra traces her path from a childhood immersed in Hawaii's natural world to the disorientation of moving to the mainland — a feeling now recognized as "green withdrawal" — and how a single potted plant on her desk reopened that connection and eventually led her into environmental design. From there the conversation moves through E.O. Wilson's biophilia hypothesis, the science of fractals and awe, the measurable costs of nature-deprived buildings, and the idea — borrowed from Maori law and indigenous wisdom traditions — that nature is not a resource to manage but a relative to honor. Along the way, Alexandra and Mary trade scuba stories, talk through Google's biophilic office design, and land on a closing note for the season: not a choice between technology and nature, but a way of letting both serve our humanity.

✅ Key Topics

• Green withdrawal and the origin story behind a career in environmental design (Alexandra)
• The biophilia hypothesis and E.O. Wilson's 1984 thesis (Alexandra, Mary)
• Fractals as "the fingerprint of nature," from tree branches to dark matter (Alexandra)
• Awe as a recognized pattern in biophilic design, including Terrapin Bright Green's newly added 15th pattern (Alexandra)
• The biological cost of nature deprivation: cortisol, sick building syndrome, nature-deficit disorder (Alexandra)
• Low-cost, high-impact biophilic interventions and their measured outcomes (Alexandra)
• Indigenous knowledge, AI, and the effort to preserve oral wisdom traditions (Alexandra, on Wanda Dela Costa's work)
• Legal personhood for natural landscapes in New Zealand (Alexandra)
• Slowness, ancestral wisdom, and finding balance with AI (Alexandra, Mary)
• Google's internal biophilic design framework and office case studies (Alexandra)
• The Biophilic Design Community and Learn Biophilic Design course (Alexandra)

💡 Takeaways

• Nature connection isn't an aesthetic preference — it's a biological need with measurable physiological effects.
• Strong biophilic design goes beyond a lobby plant; it's grounded in genius loci, the spirit of a specific place.
• Even small, low-cost interventions — a window view, ambient nature sounds, a desk plant — can shift cognition and stress within milliseconds.
• Treating nature as a relative rather than a resource changes how we design, build, and legislate.
• Slowing down isn't opposed to progress; it's how we stay human while using powerful new tools like AI.

🎤 Memorable Quotes

• "We are nature. People forget that very simple concept. It's simple, but it's so powerful." — Alexandra Bowen
• "Fractals are basically the fingerprint of nature... we aren't just surrounded by these patterns, we're made of them." — Alexandra Bowen
• "We only sustain what we love." — Amanda Sturgeon (quoted by Alexandra)
• "Nature is not just a resource. Nature is technology and it's an ancestor." — Alexandra Bowen
• "When you slow down and pay attention, an extraordinary world becomes visible." — Mary Schaub

🔗 Resources

• Edward O. Wilson — Biophilia (1984) https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674074422
• Richard Louv — Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (2005) https://richardlouv.com/books/last-child
• Terrapin Bright Green — 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design (2014; 10th anniversary edition adding the Awe pattern, 2024) https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/14-patterns/
• Dr. Richard Taylor, University of Oregon — fractal fluency and stress-reduction research https://blogs.uoregon.edu/richardtaylor/
• Alexandra Bowen — Biophilic Design Community (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/company/biophilic-design
• Alexandra Bowen — Learn Biophilic Design course https://www.learnbiomimicry.com/biophilic-design

Keywords

biophilic design, biophilia hypothesis, nature deficit disorder, fractals, awe, evolutionary mismatch, sick building syndrome, indigenous wisdom, slowness, biomimicry, environmental design, genius loci, legal personhood, nature connection, mental well-being, sustainable architecture, Google offices, AI and design, season finale

Disclaimer:

***The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice.***

Credits: Written, produced and hosted by: Mary Schaub. Theme song written by: Mary Schaub

Contact: [email protected]  

Website: M. Schaub Advisory (MSA)