Islamic Perspectives on Biophilic Landscape Design in the Built Environment: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Biophilic design scholarship has expanded rapidly, yet Islamic ecological ethics remain marginal, weakening cultural fit in Muslim-majority contexts. The study’s aim is to systematically map the field and assess where Islamic principles appear or fail to appear and translate those patterns into actionable design and decision indicators. A Scopus-only corpus was assembled and screened using PRISMA 2020, yielding 70 English-language publications. Science mapping in VOSviewer v1.6.20 produced citation, author and reference co-citation, and keyword co-occurrence networks. Thresholds balanced clarity and coverage. Right-censoring was addressed via publication year and citations-per-year, and self-citations were excluded. Results show three dominant clusters which is Well-being and Psychology, Urban Sustainability, and Evolutionary Frameworks that are underpinned by a Western canon. Output rises sharply in 2021, while influence remains concentrated in earlier landmark works. Crucially, Islamic terms and principles are absent from frequent keywords and peripheral in co-citation structures, signalling limited integration of faith-informed ethics. The contribution is twofold: (i) a transparent profile of the field and (ii) an analytic crosswalk linking clusters to Sakinah (tranquillity), Hima (conservation), Mizan (balance), and Khalifa (stewardship), from which practice indicators are derived. Embedding these ethics as design parameters can improve cultural resonance and guide biophilic practice in Muslim-majority contexts while enriching the canon.