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Project Tag: biophilic

  • Hancock Health Gateway Clinic

    Hancock Health Gateway Clinic

    The waiting area breaks the healthcare mold.

    Phase I of the project was a building to house an imaging center, lab, and urgent care. The design team took the data gathered during visioning sessions and crafted a concept for a single waiting room supporting all three services that would face the existing forest on the property. Unlike most healthcare environments, the waiting area offers café and lounge seating, encouraging patients to work or socialize while waiting for their appointments.

    Wayfinding was another component of the design considered from day one.

    When patients are called back to their appointments, they pass by a backlit biophilic image, adding to a feeling of relaxation and reassuring patients that they have come to the right place. These images are used again in the corresponding signage, creating a “mini-brand” for each suite. In time, the entire campus will be branded using natural imagery and building-specific colors, replacing the anxiety of a doctor’s visit with a sense of calm and control.

    Planning for Future Growth

    Following Phase I, CSO worked with Hancock Health to design and build-out the second floor. Phase II was completed just a few years after the initial project.

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  • River North at Keystone

    River North at Keystone

    Design That Draws You Outward

    Upon entering the 116,836 square foot, 5-story building, visitors are immediately drawn to the pass-through views of the lake. The interior design is intentionally subtle, but sophisticated. This design philosophy encourages the eye to continue outward to reinforce the connection to nature. Biophilic patterns can be found throughout the interior design, which is a unique concept for multi-tenant development.

    Biophilic Design, Thoughtfully Detailed

    The views to the water and connection to nature were leveraged, and to further the biophilic story the design team incorporated biomorphic patterns within the interior wood cladding, utilized simple-natural materials, and homed in on the human desire for an identifiable but safe risk situation at the glass railing overlook. The natural beauty of the walnut wood is observed from the main floor on the underside of the stairs and is intended to symbolize the complexity and order found in nature.

    Refined Office Experience Within Vibrant Mixed‑Use Destination

    The River North office building at its core incorporates a simplistic design approach. However, digging deeper, the design is extremely complex and unique to the market. The design provides a piece of serenity within a continually evolving and very desirable area of Indianapolis. Visitors and tenants enjoy, within walking distance, many of the City’s most highly regarded restaurants and retail shops. This building is part of a holistic redevelopment of Keystone at the Crossing, including a five-story, 198-unit apartment building and parking garage, and a 129-room Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel.

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  • Allied Solutions Headquarters

    Allied Solutions Headquarters

    A Holistically Designed Lobby Organized Around an Open Atrium and Interconnected Spaces

    The holistic interior design, and seamlessly incorporated branding elements are apparent immediately upon arrival to Allied’s second floor lobby. There, employees and visitors are enveloped by Allied Solutions’ “Blue Culture” with views to an atrium with a grand staircase, an informal mid-level conference room, social gathering spaces, and a 3rd level conference room.

    An Interior Shaped Through Visioning, Research, and Collaboration

    By design, the activity of the office is put on display in response to feedback provided by the user groups during their visioning sessions. Research and careful dissection of information from the visioning sessions gave designers the opportunity to carefully parallel Allied Solution’s unique culture in its interior environment. The result is a unique space that embodies the company’s cultural and business aspirations.

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  • Clif Bar

    Clif Bar

    A Workplace Shaped by the Natural World

    Biophilic Design was crucial in creating an interior and exterior that would be an invigorating and comfortable environment for workers who spend long shifts indoors. Drawing on inspiration from the native Indiana geology, the building is clad in rough limestone detailed to express horizontal strata, and utilizes shading devices which draw upon the complexity and order of natural patterns, creating a soft play of light similar to that of a deciduous woodland.

    Thoughtfully Designed Interiors Balance Gathering, Retreat, and Equity

    These themes of prospect and refuge continue inside, offering dynamic double-height spaces in which to host all-hands meetings, as well as intimate nooks for private rest and respite. By express intention, every single employee has the same arrival experience and amenities. Bakery staff and office workers alike are intermixed in social spaces under skylights and at critical building zones. Given prominence due to the people it serves, the employee breakroom occupies the outer portion of the second floor. It is afforded sweeping view of the outdoors, and is uniquely branded to reflect the spirit and diversity of Clif Bar’s employees.

    Design Guided by Data, Research, and Proven Biophilic Strategies

    CSO’s design process was enhanced through workplace research data provided by DORIS Research as well as input on biophilic design features from Terrapin Bright Green, who has developed biophilic design strategies for other Clif Bar facilities.

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  • SEP Corporate Headquarters

    SEP Corporate Headquarters

    Nature-Inspired Facade

    Key architectural features, such as the random rhythm of the facade’s vertical lines, mimic the complexity, order and rhythms found in nature. This design statement allows the building to become one with the site while simultaneously establishing a strong brand presence to passing traffic on US 31.

    The building stays visually tied to native landscaping.

    In addition, the large ribbons of glazing provide views and capture reflections of the adjacent protected wetlands and wooded surroundings, reinforcing the connection of SEP’s “forever home” to nature.

    CSO designed the project holistically, integrating the building’s design with its rolling site and context. The parking fields were strategically scaled and designed as a series of smaller areas of paving separated by stands of native plantings and grasses. This site master stroke, which mimics natural sedimentary rock outcroppings, worked with the site’s topography to minimize the visual impact of parking and to provide a creative opportunity to address storm water management. 

    Shaped by the Site

    The gentle bend in the building’s footprint also responds to and leverages the natural features of the site by nestling the building against the woodlands and pond in order to maximize views for the building’s inhabitants.

    Workstyle as Inspiration

    Designers found inspiration and drew a connection between the view-accenting architecture and the company’s preferred style of work: scrum. In this method, employees will apply large numbers of post-its to walls. The shape of a post-it on a wall mimicked the shape of the building footprint, and designers used this connection to influence key design features

    Biophilic Design on Display

    The design team worked seamlessly from exterior to interior to further enhance the user and visitor experiences. The symbolic rhythm found on the façade was “tuned” in order to contribute in specific ways to the various interior work environments – enhancing collaborative spaces, piquing curiosity, and inspiring ingenuity. Biophilic design intentionally introduces nature into everyday spaces through calming, restorative options.

    Visibility and Comfort

    The biophilic concepts of prospect and refuge work together to create spaces that feel both open and secure. Prospect refers to the ability to see across a space or landscape—providing awareness, orientation, and a sense of opportunity. Refuge offers a place of enclosure or protection where one can feel sheltered and at ease. When thoughtfully balanced, these elements mirror environments humans have historically sought in nature, such as a protected spot overlooking a clearing.

    SEP’s unique brand is on display throughout the design.

    Upon arrival visitors will notice an artful series of back-lit metal tabs peeling from a feature wall. This artistic expression pays homage to the scrum process while serving as a subtle branding component of the design. The design team further embraced the holistic design approach by crafting one-of-a-kind furniture pieces from timbers sourced from the SEP site.

    Nature + Technology

    The unapologetic blend of nature and technology is evident within the new SEP headquarters. Today’s technology infuses a sense of hustle, and SEP challenged this notion by creating a space to be present within. It is a space in which to relax and find refuge. It is space in which to collaborate and nurture new ideas. It is space in which to entertain and to welcome clients and friends. It is a space that is uniquely SEP, and in their own words, it is their “Forever Home”.

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