Add Vertical Nature

You may have seen Vertical Gardens, beautiful, stunning nature landscapes of greenery, plants, flowers, mini trees and more. There is increasing evidence that these have many positive effects on us, not just reducing VOCs.

Hian and colleagues evaluated the psychological implications of vertical (e.g., on the sides of buildings) greenery.

They share that they “examined the buffering effects of vertical greenery, an increasingly popular form of urban nature in high-density cities, by using VR to simulate the experience of walking through a noisy downtown area where buildings’ exteriors were covered with vertical greenery.

Our results suggest that vertical greenery on city buildings can buffer against the negative psychophysiological consequences of stress. . . .

Our findings have important practical implications for city planning and design, especially for high-density urban areas. It suggests that vertical greenery systems, and possibly even artificial plants, may provide buffering effects to minimize the detrimental consequences of stress. While our study focused on outdoor environments, it is possible that vertical greenery can be applied to indoor environments such as metro stations or shopping malls where spaces are limited.”

Sarah Hian, May Chan, Lin Qiu, Gianluca Esposito, and Ky Mai. 2021.  “Vertical Greenery Buffers Against Stress:  Evidence from Psychophysiological Responses in Virtual Reality.”  Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 213, 104127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104127