Biophilic Design: Academy Mapleton Hill

Academy Mapleton Hill is a world-class, continuum care facility that hosts independent and assisted living, rehabilitation therapy, and memory care in Boulder’s Mapleton community. To capitalize on the facility’s location at the base of Mount Sanita, our design team took a naturalistic approach, integrating the built environment into the natural landforms and applying biophilic design patterns that reconnect people with nature. The biophilic design patterns applied to the community design of Academy Mapleton Hill include direct visual connections with nature through courtyards designed to capture many different elements of the natural environment, connection to natural systems through colorful gardens that consist of vegetation appealing to pollinators, water features that capitalize on the multi-sensory attributes of water to promote soothing experiences, and biomorphic forms and patterns that provide representational design elements within the built environment that allow residents to make connections to nature.