If you’re planning an event, you’ll want it to be visually stunning, comfortable, and inviting. Given today's passion for environmental friendliness, planning a sustainable event or party that highlights the beautiful natural environment around us is guaranteed to appeal to guests and clients alike.
Whether it’s a small wedding shower by a beach, a great networking event in the heart of a city, or an intimate soiree in someone’s private home, designing seamless indoor-outdoor spaces can help you achieve an unforgettable experience in an eco-friendly way. This article explores how to create event venue interiors with a powerful connection to nature.
An example from Maman King's event space.
Taking inspiration from Scandinavian influences
Scandinavian design- with its emphasis on simplicity, functionality, and ties to nature- provides an excellent template for creating sustainable event spaces. Known as ‘biophilic design,’ the principles behind this movement are inspired by nature, encompassing a deep-rooted and unbreakable bond between humans, their natural environment, and their wellbeing. Consider these biophilic design elements:
- Living walls: Vertical gardens that purify air and add visual interest.
- Water features: Fountains or ponds that create a calming atmosphere.
- Natural textures: Incorporate wood, stone, and other organic materials into furnishings and decor.
- Organic shapes: Use curved lines and fluid forms in layout and design elements.
Biophilic design draws inspiration from natural elements and can be incorporated into your favorite venue. With the right design ideas, you can create event settings that help reduce stress, improve engagement, and enhance attendee satisfaction.
Once you have chosen the type of venue that suits the event you’re organizing, you might want to incorporate natural elements based on Scandinavian design by including these basic principles:
- Minimalism: With an open and light space, you’ll want to focus on the essential elements you need for a specific event and avoid unnecessary clutter.
- Natural materials: Use sustainable, locally sourced materials and products, like wood, stone, and natural fabrics alongside recycling ideas to reduce waste during an event. These measures can be applied wherever possible in any decor, signage, and furnishings throughout your venue.
- Maximizing natural light: Create spaces that harness daylight to reduce energy consumption.
Fusing event interiors and exteriors
Before your event, consider different ways to decorate venues to fuse interiors and exteriors. In corporate settings and urban venues, clever positioning of floral arrangements inside can seamlessly merge rooms with landscaped gardens outside for guests to mingle at any event.
Transform an unimpressive building's boardroom or rejuvenate an office corridor into incredible green spaces with a few hanging baskets, potted plants, and draped garlands over garden lounge sofas to create the illusion of a natural garden. Your aim is to design pretty interiors that distract guests from ugly indoor areas and draw them away from busy meeting rooms to more enjoyable areas of the venue.
Injecting nature and beautifying your events creates visually stunning environments and promotes a sense of connection with nature, which is more likely to encourage guests to feel happier, relaxed, and engaged. In fact, reports argue that creating a natural setting for guests can boost people’s cognitive ability.
In addition, the clever use of colors, images of nature, and the application of earthy tones that replicate nature create a calming atmosphere that attendees will want to spend time in. The boosting effects of blues and greens create a sense of peace and comfort. Even viewing images of natural landscapes can encourage guests to feel more at ease.
Creating seamless indoor-outdoor spaces
Creating seamless nature-inspired spaces is all about bringing the outdoors in by working with the existing features and fittings already in a building, room, or event venue. Use the aspects of your building to draw nature in, such as:
- Focusing on large windows or glass walls: These create a visual connection between indoor and outdoor areas while maximizing natural light.
- Opening retractable or sliding doors: Allow for easy flow between spaces and adaptability to weather conditions.
- Add consistent flooring: Use similar materials for indoor and outdoor areas to create a cohesive look.
- Embrace greenery: Incorporate plants both indoors and outdoors to blur the lines between spaces. You can also include natural textures and photographs of nature.
Similarly, if you have a theme in mind, you might like to add green-inspired aspects depending on the holiday, destination, or special occasion. For example, if you’re setting up a new wedding venue near a beach or about to plan an event in a picturesque European seaside setting, look for nautical decor, shells, seaside accessories, and unique sand sculptures. If you’re hosting a movie-themed event at a private residence, consider creating an outdoor cinema and use nature-inspired photos, wildlife props, and lush greenery to enhance the natural vibe. Or, if you’re planning an event at an industrial venue, dress up a dull office or a room with few windows with nature-inspired photos, wall art, wildlife props, or lush greenery to inject a more natural vibe.
An example from The Capitol Theatre's event space.
Embracing sustainable venue practices
Whatever event or party you’re planning, embracing sustainable practices in event planning is about creating experiences that minimize environmental impact while maximizing positive outcomes for your guests, clients, and even the local community. In addition to recycling measures or reducing waste at your event, there are other ways to incorporate sustainability into your event spaces. This might include using energy-efficient LED lighting, solar power, and smart energy systems that can reduce consumption.
Look for venues that are LEED-certified, meaning that they were designed and constructed using strategies aimed at saving energy, reducing CO2 emissions, and improving indoor air/environmental quality. Meanwhile, when it comes to catering, opt to source or partner with local suppliers for decorations, event materials, food, drink, and other services that might help you reduce reliance on transport, lower your carbon emissions, and support the local economy.
Overcoming event challenges
If you have created a fantastic indoor-outdoor event space, you should be aware of the acoustics so that guest speakers and audio presentations can be heard. A strategic layout and sound-absorbing materials can address potential sound issues in open spaces.
Lastly, you must be mindful of guests’ accessibility. Whichever areas of your event space have been adapted to create your inside-outside design, you’ll need to check they’re still safe and easily accessible to event attendees with diverse mobility needs.
With this growing demand for nature-inspired venues and sustainable practices in the events industry, event planners and organizers should consider bringing natural elements into their standard planning to create chic indoor-outdoor spaces. By doing so, you’ll create venues that look beautiful and align with eco-conscious values.
If you need help looking for venues that are open, bright, and have plenty of nature-loving aspects, explore Eventup.com to find a variety of spaces that will make your event shine.
