Jute Rugs and Biophilic Design: Why Natural Fibers May Create Brain Bliss

6 Reasons Why Interior Designers Vouch For Jute Rugs | AOC Agrees

Almost every interior decorator is raving about jute rugs, and there must be a reason behind it. It’s as if something ancestral — almost primal — happens when we talk on jute rugs, and especially in bare feet.

Working on a recent AOC post Raffia: AOC Launches Earth-Friendly Fibers Sustainable Inquiry in Fashion and Design, we came across the same concept twice in a couple hours: “biophilic design”. Fast Company summed up the concept this way:

Biophilic design dates back to the early 1980s, when the biologist Edward O. Wilson outlined his philosophy of biophilia, hypothesizing that humans have an innate, biological affinity for the natural world. Biophilic design takes this idea one step further: Because humans today spend 90% of our time indoors, according to the 2001 National Human Activity Pattern Survey, it’s necessary to bring the outdoors in and create indoor environments that reference nature in both obvious and subtle ways.

As a reminder, modern humans may be awash in a sea of plastic, but 99% of human life has been lived in concert with nature. Biophilic design assumes that core aspects of nature have contributed to our health and wellbeing, and this connection can be scientifically measured.

It’s worth noting that the evolution of modern capitalism and much religious doctrine involved conquering nature, not valuing her as the genesis of our wellbeing. For all the success of the modern world, there’s a growing concensus among researchers that humans are paying a price for thie “success”. We focus on environmental degradation and even human degradation caused by climate change.

In this respect, biophilic design involves a reset from a design perspective of man’s relationship with nature. One of AOC’s most favorite TED Talks ever is on the topic of biomimicry — “Janine Benyus: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature. “ Watching the video again is like rediscovering an old friend.

Here is Janine Benyus’ TED Talk page. She is alive and well, living with a major list of corporate clients — and yes, she has even worked on a line of very successful carpets, according to her Linkedin page.

Before watching this absolute favorite TED Talk on biomimicry. I searched for “biophilic design vs biomimicry.” In my own mind, I wanted to be clear about the difference before writing this post.

Biomimicry is the “mimicry” or more accurately, the emulation of nature’s engineering in modern product design. You will see examples in the TED video of how the design of a bird’s beak can successfully infuence the design features of a high-speed train.

Biophilia, on the other hand, replicates a natural experience, triggering a range of responses.

Returning to jute rugs, walking on jute — which conveniently is more pleasant on our feet than rougher sisal — evokes a physical, psychological and emotional experience that is different than walking on carpet. I’m curious if scientists have studied the brains of humans walking on jute rugs vs carpet, hooked up to all those wonderful machines that tell researchers what’s really going on in our minds.

Do primal parts of the brain light up on jute — or is it the response in the limbic system. Do male-identifying brains and female-identifying brains have similar responses when walking on jute? Do we dream differently? Okay, AOC is getting carried away here.

My point is that much of today’s writing about ancient traditions, fabrications, materials, and human habits is absent from magazine-ready, Internet copy. AOC always digs deeper and we are quite fascinated with this topic of biophilic design and how it applies to our unconscious responses to living with jute rugs — or other earth-friendly materials and fibers.

One look at nature tells us that she is hardly susperficial. ‘Flawless’ is not a word in her vocab, which is why ‘flawless’ is a similarly banned word on AOC, when talking about women’s bodies. LOL. I’m inspired to think of 6 Reasons Why Doctors Will Vouch for Jute Rugs, because their importance in our lives may go much further than we consuming humans even understand. ~ Anne