The Lost Charm: A case on neglected plants in biophilic design

About a few weeks ago, I visited a cafe where the overall concept was good but they forgot that maintenance is also important. Its location was hidden among houses in a middle class neighborhood. For all I know, the space is also known by others as a co-working friendly spots with various seating options. It was around 7 AM when I got there, I was apparently not the first customer. Some women were gossiping just across a tall glass with a view of little pond. I was first sold with the view just from the front-side of the place. I thought to myself that it has such a beautiful natural lighting and that some tables were placed at the right spots.

And again, from the cashier, the place looks cozy. It was one of the cafe that was minimalist and cute. The kind of place that adorns its space with a few Scandinavian chairs and table. After ordering my coffee, I was screening through the spot. Apparently,they have an indoor koi pond and a frangipani trees outside the indoor area. They designed the outdoor area with a few concrete chairs around it and the trees in the middle. It was also surrounded by chonky kois that looks fairly healthy. All these good things lose their charm when you look at how dirty the pool is. While it is not 100% dirty, the fact that you can spot some trash can be quite concerning as well as sore to the eye for those who happen to be quite discerning about the overall aesthetic of the place like I do.

When you look at the surrounding plants around the pool all of them withered, unkempt and upon a closer look, the pond had a plastic coffee cup. It is such a pity that while the place design was good, the withered plants make the space less aesthetic and sore to the eye. Who can be comfortable spending time working in such a place?

Many cafes integrate biophilic aspect to their space. That is because green can be quite refreshing but also, there are many benefits to adding live animal even plants to a space. In short, biophilic matters but a place or business owners should not forget that maintenance matters too. Without a good maintenance, it could also indirectly affect customer's spending time in that place. Worse, if they are not going to be a returned customer. This is why, not only they have to add this biophilic design, keeping them healthy and also well-maintained is one of the key to a thriving place. I have visited many where there are plants that surrounds its area. The one with the most maintenance is doing a good business while those that don't, is quite empty.

As biophilic design matters, even when the cafe can’t afford live plants, they added plastic green to adorn their space just so it adds more color and also a form of applying biophilia to their design. But nothing really triumphs the experience visiting a place where there’s actual and well-kept plants. Still, I definitely would suggest plastic plants if a place doesn't have its own budget to add live plants or even live animals such as fish.

In the end, I ended up spending only 10 minutes at that place. I went somewhere else, where the coffee as well as the place is well-supported when it comes to work-from-cafe environment as well as just spending time for a morning coffee. This is one of the thing about cafe, not only you learn about good coffee and tasting them, you also learn about designs and many little things such as how maintenance is pretty important. Even more so when the place is a place that generates money, or a business place. One certainly needs to make the space as comfortable as possible.