A Toolkit of Biophilic Interventions for Existing Schools to Enhance Student and Faculty Health and Performance

Abstract

School learning environments play a crucial role in both student and faculty outcomes; however, the limited funding allocated to public school facilities can result in poor environmental conditions which can hinder occupant health and performance. Existing school facilities must then explore affordable retrofit strategies that can effectively improve health and performance outcomes. The emerging field of biophilic design offers significant potential for improving existing school environments with benefits for both the students and faculty. Through case study research, this study proposes a toolkit of 42 biophilic retrofits for existing K-12 schools in a set of stakeholder cards that illustrate precedents, known impacts, and their relevance to high-performance schools. Additionally, a stakeholder card sorting study was conducted to establish the perceived viability and impact of each strategy. The findings reveal that biophilic retrofit design strategies are perceived by school community stakeholders to be impactful with varying levels of affordability. These findings further demonstrate that a toolkit of biophilic interventions for K-12 schools will offer invaluable insights to improve student and faculty conditions.

Keywords

• biophilic design
• K-12 schools
• occupant health and performance
• healthy buildings