Upon entering the Amazon Spheres in Seattle, one experiences a disorienting feeling. You’re not entering a traditional office building. Instead, you’re entering what looks and feels like a jungle, encased in glass and steel. Surrounding you are 40,000 plants across 400 species from 50 countries – including some that are rare, some endangered. One section has a 55-foot tall Ficus named Rubi. Another area has a 40-foot tall Australian fern looming above you. Waterfalls mask the sounds of the city outside. The atmosphere inside is humid, warm, and smells like dirt and living organisms. Most people don’t think of this when they enter an Amazon office building.
The Spheres symbolize something more purposeful than just adding some greenery. They symbolize a deliberate design philosophy: that if employees are immersed in nature at a sufficiently large scale, there will be demonstrable enhancements in their wellness, creativity, and productivity. While the philosophy of the Spheres may be true or false, the potential for future development of corporate architecture globally makes it worth a detailed examination.
Scale of Installation
The three domes occupy a total of 58,828 square feet of space. 2,643 custom glass panels on steel, arranged in 180 Catalan solid modules. Creating a spherical glass structure of this magnitude was an engineering challenge to build. The glass must hold its own weight, the weight of the soil and water and vegetation contained within, and the environmental loads caused by the weather in Seattle. The steel frame below holds everything together structurally. The end result is a completely translucent dome that allows visual continuity between the plants growing inside the domes and the Seattle sky.
The number of plant species used is quite high. Plants from five continents cloud forest replication. The architects did not simply put random plants in the domes. They created separate climate zones that replicated those found in various types of cloud forests around the globe. During the day, the temperature and humidity levels inside the Spheres are controlled to maintain a consistent 72 degrees Fahrenheit and 60% relative humidity. As the sun goes down, the temperature drops to 55 degrees and the humidity increases to 90%. These conditions are not what you would normally find in an average office building. They are what you would normally find in a tropical forest at an elevated elevation.
Replicating these conditions of specific environmental parameters is not simply aesthetically pleasing. Each of the plant species placed in the respective zones must be grown under the same conditions to remain alive. If the Amazon architects had simply installed tropical plants in a standard temperature controlled office setting, the plants would slowly die. However, by creating separate micro-environments that correspond to the plants’ native habitats, the architects created an intact ecosystem within the domes.
Maintenance of Horticulture, Ecology, and Structural Integrity
To manage 40,000 plants of 400 different species, a specialised team of professionals is needed that are not commonly found in the facilities teams of traditional buildings. A full-time horticulture team manages pests and oversees the maintenance of the ecosystem, controlling the irrigation systems. The team uses biological pest control instead of chemicals to kill pests; they also monitor the health of the plants constantly to identify disease early so as to treat it before it spreads to other parts of the ecosystem. The team prunes plants to make sure they do not compromise the structural integrity of the building or obstruct the view.
This is not routine maintenance that occurs on a monthly basis or quarterly basis. The maintenance of the ecosystem is an ongoing process that requires staff with training in horticulture, ecology, and structural engineering.
The waterfalls located within the Spheres serve multiple purposes. Water is provided for the plants, humidity levels are regulated within the domes, and the ambient sounds produced by the waterfalls help mask the sounds of the traffic outside. The masking of ambient noise is not coincidental. In office settings where multiple teams are collaborating in close proximity, minimising distraction noise is beneficial. The sounds produced by running water are less distracting than the sounds of traffic and voices.
Environmental Performance and Energy Efficiency
The Spheres have achieved LEED Gold with eighty percent CO2 reduction. The environmental performance of the Spheres is significant. The building is constructed using ECOPlanet concrete, which reduces CO2 emissions by more than 80 percent compared to the use of standard concrete. More than 400 tons of CO2 have been avoided through the use of this product. The Spheres are not simply a “green” building. They are a building that has been specifically designed to achieve a quantifiable environmental performance reduction.
The building also utilises waste heat from Amazon’s data centres with an efficiency of greater than 4 times that of standard waste heat utilisation techniques. Data centres generate a lot of heat as a byproduct of their operation. Rather than allowing this heat to escape into the environment, the Spheres capture the heat and utilise it to sustain the temperature and humidity requirements necessary to support the plant ecosystems within the Spheres. This is a closed loop system where wasted heat is converted into a resource to support the biophilic design of the Spheres.
The glass panels forming the exterior of the domes are not simply clear panes of glass. They are spectrally selective glass that allow visible light to pass while minimising the amount of heat gained due to solar radiation. This minimises the cooling load on the building during the summer months in Seattle. The result is a building that sustains the internal environment of the Spheres whilst utilising less energy than an average sized conventional building.
Impact on Employee Wellness and Productivity
The extent to which the Spheres affect employee wellness and productivity is a question that can be answered using data. The literature on biophilic design and workplace environments indicates that being exposed to nature can have positive effects on human physiology and psychology. Studies have shown that workplaces incorporating biophilic design produce measurable increases in employee productivity and decreases in employee stress. Biophilic benchmarks indicate that spaces with integrated nature elements produce productivity increases of 15 percent and reductions in stress of 20 to 30 percent compared to spaces without nature elements.
Studies on the Spheres themselves have collected data on employee usage and satisfaction. Employees consistently report higher satisfaction ratings when working in the Spheres versus standard office environments. Employees conducting meetings and conversations in the Spheres tend to spend more time meeting and discussing topics than employees conducting meetings in standard office environments. When given the option, 58 percent of employees choose biophilic spaces for work-related activities. The data suggest that employees have a strong preference for nature-based environments for work and that this preference is not merely a theoretical preference but a tangible aspect of how employees perceive their workspace.
Biophilic design affects employees beyond merely the desire for a nature-based environment. Research on hospital environments has demonstrated that patients recover 8.5 percent faster naturally. If this finding applies to the workplace, then employees working in the Spheres could experience a faster cognitive recovery and less fatigue.
The Spheres also include circadian lighting systems that are designed to meet the circadian needs of both the employees working in the Spheres and the plants that inhabit the ecosystem.
Integration of Living Walls and Other Biophilic Elements
Whilst the three glass domes represent the largest biophilic installation in the Spheres, the overall workspace includes living walls, aquariums, and terrariums throughout the 58,828 square feet of the building. Over 200 species of plants are included in the walls of the building itself, creating a multi-layered approach to integrating nature into the design of the office environment. Instead of isolating the plants to a specific portion of the building, the design integrates plants throughout the office space.
This is an acknowledgment that biophilic design is most effective when distributed rather than isolated to a singular location. If the plants were limited to a single greenhouse space, only employees who entered that space would experience the benefits of exposure to nature. By placing plants throughout the office space – in living walls, in hanging planters, in water features, etc. – Amazon ensured that every employee has frequent interaction with nature throughout the day.
Comparison of the Spheres and Superficial Green Design
The Spheres are radically different from green walls and superficial plant installations that are incorporated into many conventional buildings as environmental window dressing. A green wall is defined as a surface treatment applied to the exterior or interior of a building. The plants are affixed to a substrate that is attached to the wall. The plants themselves are usually small – a few inches to a foot in height. They are maintained using automated irrigation systems and replaced periodically when the plants decline.
Conversely, the Spheres include mature trees and shrubs with extensive root systems in adequate soil. The ecosystem within the Spheres can sustain itself over long periods of time. The waterfalls and humidity controls create a condition that supports the plants without requiring constant intervention. Whilst a team of horticulturists does intervene with the ecosystem, it is designed to function as a real ecosystem rather than as a static decorative element that requires continuous replacement and maintenance to avoid collapse.
This difference is important because it determines whether a biophilic design generates environmental and wellness benefits or merely creates an image of environmental responsibility. The Spheres generate measurable environmental and wellness benefits because they represent a genuine effort to integrate ecosystem function into the design of the building. Decorative green walls generate little to no environmental benefit and generally require considerable amounts of resources – water, electricity, replacement plants – to appear to be environmentally responsible.
Economic Viability and Replication
A second question is whether the Amazon Spheres model can be replicated in other cities and organisations. The cost of constructing the Spheres was substantial. The complexity of engineering the spherical glass structure, the cost of obtaining and transporting 40,000 plants from 50 countries, and the cost of designing and manufacturing custom glass panels were all costly.
Additionally, the ongoing maintenance cost of the Spheres is not trivial. A full-time horticulture team, advanced irrigation systems, climate control systems designed to accommodate plant ecosystems, and the regular replacement of declining plants require significant ongoing operational expenditures that a conventional office building does not require.
The economic viability of the Spheres will depend upon Amazon’s ability to justify the costs associated with the Spheres through increased employee satisfaction, decreased employee turnover, increased creativity and productivity, and the marketing value of occupying a unique office space. For Amazon, a company with significant revenues and a competitive need to attract top talent in a highly competitive labour market, the cost of the Spheres appears to be justified. Smaller organisations or organisations competing in less competitive labour markets may have a much different cost-benefit analysis.
What the Spheres Illustrate About Biophilic Architecture
The Amazon Spheres illustrate three key principles regarding the inclusion of nature into corporate architecture. First, they demonstrate that large-scale biophilic design at the scale of genuine ecosystem integration is technologically possible. The engineering challenges associated with developing a spherical glass structure of this size are significant, but they are surmountable with sufficient expertise and funding.
Secondly, the Spheres demonstrate that this approach to design can produce quantifiable benefits related to employee wellness and workplace satisfaction. Employees prefer to work in spaces with opportunities for exposure to nature. Employees report higher satisfaction rates and engage in longer, more collaborative interactions in biophilic environments. The preference for biophilic environments is not solely based on aesthetics; it represents genuine physiological and psychological responses to exposure to nature.
Lastly, the Spheres demonstrate that this approach is economically viable in organisational contexts where labour is competitive and talent acquisition and retention is a strategic imperative. The cost of the Spheres is justified by the value of attracting and retaining talented engineers, designers, and managers in a city where tech companies aggressively compete for workforce talent.
The Spheres are not a scalable solution to the deficit of urban green spaces. The Spheres do not address the larger question of how cities can integrate nature at the scale required to mitigate the environmental impacts of urbanisation. The Spheres do not solve the conflict between urban density and preserving ecosystems. The Spheres are not designed to solve any of these issues.
Marcus has worked in Corporate Facilities Management for fifteen (15) years, prior to working as Workplace Wellbeing Consultant. He has successfully overseen biophilic interior designs in workplaces that include start-up companies and Fortune 500 Companies. As such, he is knowledgeable of the unique challenges associated with incorporating nature into commercial space.
He has developed the ability to execute at-scale: How to develop data-based ROI to demonstrate to CFOs the value of Biophilic Design; How to implement Green Design components within Open-Plan Workplaces in a manner that does not create unnecessary Maintenance Burdens; How to avoid the “Green-Washing” pitfall of using Biophilic Design as merely an expensive form of theatrics versus a Functional Strategy for Employee Wellbeing.
He assists facilities managers, HR personnel and Business Leaders who are interested in improving their employees‘ productivity and retention rates but require understanding of the true costs, timelines and implementation challenges of making those improvements. He approaches his work with a realistic view of what a company will actually maintain and what they will not be able to support. His writing cuts through the hype surrounding Wellness Trends and focuses on achieving Measurable Outcomes and Sustainable Implementation.
