Into the Nest · Biophilic home design

You already know what your home needs. Biophilic design is how you learn to listen to it.

Light, materials, plants, colour, and the rooms you actually sit in. A beginner's course for homeowners and renters who want a home that feels right, from thirty years of designing homes that suit the people in them.

Saved a thousand pictures. Home still feels slightly off.

Most people decorate by imitation. They save other people's rooms, buy the odd thing, and are quietly disappointed when it arrives. The pictures are not the problem. The method is.

The information you need is already in your own four walls: where you sit at 7am, which room you avoid, where the light lands in the afternoon. Biophilic design is the discipline of noticing that, and then working with it. Most of what changes a room costs very little.

What biophilic design is

Nature as pattern, not decoration

Biophilia means a love of living things. Biophilic design brings that into a home in ways that work on the body: daylight that reaches further into a room, materials with grain and weight, plants placed where you look rather than where there is a gap, colour taken from outside the window.

It is not "add plants". It is light, material and rhythm, arranged for the people who live there.

The course

Transform Your Home with Biophilic Design: A Beginner's Guide

Ten modules, 33 video lessons, and a workbook for every module. Nearly three hours of video in all. No design training needed. Watch on any device, at your own pace.

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William Ringsdorf presenting the course in a room of plants and pendant lamps Watch Module 1 free

Read a room first

Sit in it and read it before you buy anything for it. The room audit, from Module 1 onwards.

More daylight

Get more from the windows you already have, and put the light where you need it.

Plants and materials

Choose plants and natural materials that suit the room and the people in it, and keep them alive.

A plan for the whole home

Build a palette from colours found in nature, make one restorative corner on a small budget, then put it together.

The ten modules

  1. Introduction to Biophilic Design
  2. The Fundamental Principles of Biophilic Design
  3. Incorporating Natural Elements
  4. Harnessing the Power of Natural Light
  5. Bringing the Outdoors In: Plants and Greenery
  6. Natural Materials and Textures in Interior Design
  7. Biophilic Colour Palettes and Patterns
  8. Creating Spaces for Relaxation and Restoration
  9. Biophilic Design on a Budget
  10. Putting It All Together: Designing Your Biophilic Home

Who it is for

Homeowners and renters with no design background who want a calmer home, and are willing to do a little noticing before a little buying. Not for anyone after quick styling tips.

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Student reviews

What students said

Written by students who took the course on Udemy. Quoted as they wrote them. Shortened where marked.

After completing the introduction I can't wait to continue. The content in this course is amazing and the resources available are above and beyond. Exceptional value for money.

Merredith H., January 2025

I really enjoyed this course. It was very informative and easy to understand. It really helped me understand biophilic design and how to create it in my spaces.

Desiree E., April 2025

Introducing the concepts in an orderly manner and doing so, from the point of view of someone that not only knows about the subject matter, but has worked with it. Very happy so far.

Hans H., December 2025 (shortened)

Super insightful, highly exceeded my expectations. I wish there would be more of William's courses, to deepen our knowledge.

Vivien K., February 2025 (shortened)

Who is behind this

William Ringsdorf

Thirty years in architectural practice in the UK and Germany, more than 750 homes designed, from social housing to one-off houses. A childhood on building sites and a lasting fondness for the treehouses in the old Tarzan films. Fourteen years of annual stays in Kerala shaped a conviction that a home is an instrument of wellbeing, not a gallery.

Into the Nest is where that experience is turned towards homeowners: the course, the weekly Heartsease letter, and the occasional conversation about a home that does not feel right yet.

Read Heartsease, the weekly letter

William Ringsdorf Home designer · 30 years in architectural practice · UK and Germany

Contact

Get in touch

A question about the course, a home that puzzles you, or anything else. Replies come from William directly, usually within a working day or two.

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