Welcome to the future of restaurant interior design! Today, multiple restaurants are looking to improve their overall customer experience by sprucing up how they design their interiors. But since the average price of a restaurant layout redesign nowadays is from $250,000 to $1,000,000, especially in big cities, small business owners may find this change quite intimidating. What if we tell you that there is a new interior design trend that will breathe fresh air into your business and level up your customers’ overall dining experience with you - all without having to break the bank? This style of design is called Biophilic Designs.  

Biophilic design aims to make people feel comfortable and at ease in interiors. This justifies its application to design in hospitality businesses such as hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, spas, and the like.  

Biophilic features can also quickly become highlight elements, creating that wow factor important in commercial interiors. Today we’re exploring biophilic design applied in restaurants, which will make the space more welcoming for guests and workers.

This article explains how restaurants and cafes can reap the benefits of biophilic design by creating a more relaxing and happier experience for customers, which is what most restaurants strive for.

After all, your customers are your best marketers. And by using tools like social media and search engine review platforms, they have the power to spread the word about your restaurant to hundreds and thousands of audiences, which can significantly raise your visibility.

Still curious about how to execute this design technique in your small restaurant business? Read on. 

 

What is Biophilic Design?

Biophilic design is a design approach that bridges design, nature, and well-being. Translating the essence of nature into design solutions, it creates spaces that proactively impact health and well-being by restoring a balanced relationship with the natural world.

Biophilic design aims at improving human well-being through design and interiors. This style takes inspiration from elements of the natural world that have proven valuable to us.

Biophilic design is a style that aims to create spaces that are both healthy and sustainable. A biophilic space’s key elements are natural and organic materials, natural light, and more ventilation. This involves anything from green spaces to big windows or even just incorporating more plants around the area. These factors improve your restaurant's mood and productivity by helping the diners and employees stay in touch with nature. 

It's common knowledge that people are drawn to places that positively affect their health. Today, it’s becoming recognized as an essential part of sustainable efforts and can significantly improve human satisfaction and well-being. As a restaurant owner, wouldn’t you want to provide a relaxing and delightful experience for your patrons and keep them spreading the word and coming back for more?

 

How to Incorporate Biophilic Design in a Restaurant

First, restaurants must understand that biophilic design is not just about creating a green space. It is also about the use of natural materials and textures as well as the incorporation of plants for color and decoration.

A great place to start is by blending natural materials into your furniture, such as wood, stone, tile, and fabric. It’s great to consider all physical layout aspects of your business, such as where the entrance is located and how it leads guests through the restaurant.

An excellent way to attract biophilic customers is by creating a space that feels good and positively impacts the environment. The goal of biophilic design in your restaurant is not just to be a place for people to dine but a place they feel comfortable and at ease to be in.

A truly innovative approach to biophilic design is that it takes humans, nature, and their connection into account in the process. This method can be applied from landscaping and site planning to decorative installments and even dinnerware.

Here are some ideas to breathe new life into your restaurant with biophilic designs. 

 

Creating Tight Connections with Nature

Biophilic design blends human interaction with the environment through natural stimulants like plants and other objects found in nature. This science has been around for thousands of years, but people are only starting to understand how it can be a powerful influencer on customer behavior. 

First off, people eat out for a variety of reasons. Some love the convenience and familiarity of a restaurant, while others enjoy the thrill of indulging in new foods and drinks. Whatever their reason, you should ensure that your diners always look forward to a wonderful experience with you. 

Research has proven that humans have an intrinsic appetite for nature, and we can feel almost immediate satisfaction with just a few minutes of engaging with the natural environment. Therefore, in designing a restaurant, the biophilic design will ensure that your customers feel like they’re part of the place where they interact.

 

Reducing Noise Levels with a Wall Garden

Noise is inevitable in the usual restaurant settings, but a kitchen’s sound levels can be especially loud and cumbersome. The good news is that there are several ways to reduce noise levels in your restaurant by using proper materials and elements such as light, music selections, and acoustics.

A practical method to reduce noise in the dining area, the biophilic way, is to use a walled garden. Walled gardens use plants’ noise-absorbing properties to lessen noise levels by filling the sound-blocking space with greenery. Living or well-maintained wall gardens can help reduce noise by a good 20-30%. This way, employees can hear each other better and create an overall relaxed atmosphere.

A biophilic restaurant should be your customers’ peaceful retreat from a hectic day. The sound-absorbing wall garden is a typical feature of many restaurants that is usually placed on the back of the restaurant as dividers between booths and tables. It also increases the overall ambiance of your space, making it feel more welcoming and relaxing by giving off a feeling of nature.

A major bonus point: Use a beautiful wall garden to become your restaurant's focal point attracting nature-conscious and Instagram-loving generation of patrons.

 

Maximizing Light Exposure

One of the essential factors in a restaurant or cafe is light. This is because a well-lit establishment will positively affect customers, as it curates an overall more inviting mood that can ultimately increase sales and revenues.

Generally, the impact of lighting to create a mood is significant. This is why selecting the proper lighting for your space is easily considered a make-or-break factor.

To improve your restaurant atmosphere, consider maximizing light exposure to create a “bio-friendly” environment. To optimize your lighting, ensure that your restaurant has a lot of natural light coming through the windows, walls, ceilings, and appropriate lighting fixtures that mimic natural light.

To give people a more delightful experience, some restaurants have used biophilic design to improve the “feel.” You want to go for a restaurant environment that is aesthetically pleasing and keeps people feeling more at home.

 

Add More Plants

Do you want to update your dining area regularly? Try making use of plants! You can switch them out weekly if you want to. Living walls and vertical gardens are now emerging as popular design trends. Lush herbs and greenery create a gorgeous visual impact. They can also improve air quality, making it a more conducive space for big groups, couples, families, the elderly, and even children. 

Plants improve the oxygen in a room, and indoor ones can enhance mood and reduce stress. When used in restaurants, they can create an excellent atmosphere.

In a study, people given plants in their office reported greater feelings of safety, belonging, and well-being. This is due to the increased oxygen levels from plants in rooms. The biophilic effect makes people feel good to be surrounded by plants. 

Adding more plants to your restaurant will increase customers’ welcoming factor. Plants also act as natural air filters, which eradicate any unpleasant odors that may be present in the room.

 

Offer Comfortable Indoor and Outdoor Seating Inspired by Nature

Customers in restaurants expect the food they order to be delivered immediately. However, this expectation can change when you apply biophilic techniques to your restaurant’s seating design and arrangement.

A restaurant must offer comfortable seating because people spend a lot of time in this area patiently waiting for their orders to arrive. Because of this, many restaurants are moving towards the concept of nature-inspired design for their outdoor and indoor seating. Evidence suggests that people feel more relaxed in an environment with natural elements. To reap the benefits of the healing power of nature, a restaurant should work with natural materials and colors. 

You can improve your restaurant and cafe experience by designing indoor and outdoor seating to make it feel like the outdoors. To do this, consider what you want people to touch while dining at your place. Think about the things nature would provide.

Using leather, stone, and wood is an excellent way to bring nature indoors or highlight it outdoors. Furniture pieces like live edge tables and epoxy resin tables are a natural addition to a restaurant or cafe that wants to incorporate biophilic design elements in their space. 

The more people spend time with natural elements, the more likely they will enjoy their meal and return for more. It’s about offering comfortable indoor and outdoor spaces inspired by nature where people can feel at peace with the natural surroundings. This essentially delivers an experience that our bodies crave before tasting your food.

Biophilic Design For Restaurant

Biophilic design involves strengthening the human-nature connection. This has emerged as a hot design trend in residential and commercial design. Studies show that nature has potent benefits for human mental and emotional health.

Spending just a few minutes in nature can reduce stress, boost mood, and hone people’s focus. So why shouldn’t your restaurants benefit from this?

If you are about to launch a brand-new dining space or are just looking to improve your connection to your restaurant’s guests, hopping on the biophilic design trend can help attract audiences who are looking for a relaxing experience where their senses of sight, touch, and taste are pampered.