STRATEGIES

1. VISUAL CONNECTION with NATURE

INCREASE Heart Rate Recovery (3, 13)
FASTER Stress Recovery (3, 9, 13)
INCREASE Parasympathetic

Nervous System Response (2, 22)

RESTORE Energy (4)
DECREASE Blood Pressure (9, 21, 22)
DECREASE Medication Consumption (21)

PHYSICAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

POSITIVELY Impacted Attitude (11, 21)
INCREASE Overall Happiness (7)
INCREASE Sense of Safety (16)
INCREASE Feeling of Visual Privacy (14)
INCREASE Preference (5, 11, 16, 20)

INTELLECTUAL

IMPROVE Mental Engagement (4, 17)
IMPROVE Attentiveness (4, 17, 23)
INCREASE Graduation Rates (19)
INCREASE Productivity (10, 17)
IMPROVE Creativity (18)

EMOTIONAL

POSITIVELY Impacted Attitude (11)
DECREASE Feelings of Aggression, Anger, Fear & Frustration (9, 14, 16)
INCREASE Feelings of Productivity & Creativity (11)
INCREASE Feelings of Well-Being (8, 11)
INCREASE Feelings of Restoration (6, 12, 14, 16)
POSITIVELY Impacted Mental Health (1, 7)

WELL-BEING BENEFITS

(1) Alcock et al., 2014; (2) Alvarsson et al., 2010; (3) Annerstedt et al., 2013; (4) Berto, 2005; (5) Bringslimark et al., 2011; Browning, Ryan, & Clancy, 2014; (6) Felsten, 2009; (7) Friedman et al., 2008; (8) Grinde & Patil, 2009; (9) Hartig et al., 2003; (10) Heschong Mahone Group, 2003b; (11) Human Spaces, 2015; (12) Jahncke, et al., 2011; (13) Kahn Jr. et al., 2008; (14) R. Kaplan, 1993; (15) Kaplan et al., 1998; (16) S. Kaplan, 1995; Kellert, 2008, 2015; (17) Lee et al., 2015; (18) Lichtenfeld et al., 2012; (19) Matsuoka, 2010; (20) Qin, et al., 2014; (21) Ulrich, 1984; (22) Ulrich et al., 1991; (23) Windhager et al., 2011

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”

John Muir

Artwork or video depicting natural scene

INDIRECT EXPERIENCE

DIRECT EXPERIENCE

Water Feature
Aquarium
Green Wall
Animal Assisted Therapy

SIMULATED NATURE

Plants/Trees
Facade Greening
Bodies of Water
Soil/Earth
Animals/Insects/Fish
Fossils/Naturally Occurring Terrain

NATURALLY OCCURRING

THE BASICS

Visual connection with nature can be naturally occurring or simulated (see below). Connecting to nature can be highly restorative (1,2). One explanation could be how crucial trees and other plants have been to human survival, providing us with sustenance, shade and protection. For the greatest restorative potential, a unthreatening nature environment should be available within minutes of a stressor (3).

Below is a basic outline of ways to connect with nature. It should be taken into consideration that although the best version is real connection with a diverse and natural environment, the addition of even a potted plant to an office can offer measured benefits. The goal is to offer the best version given the parameters of a project.

In a real outdoor environment there would be more than just a visual connection, consider the other senses (see Non-Visual Sensory Experience of Nature). Additionally, the fullest experience can be produced by considering other strategies in conjunction with a visual connection.

Skip to Image Examples

(1) R. Kaplan et al., 1998; (2) S. Kaplan, 1995; (3) Ulrich et al., 1991, Browning, Ryan, & Clancy, 2014

The Basics

Natural vs Simulated

HOW DOES NATURALLY OCCURRING VS SIMULATED NATURE COMPARE?

Indoor Plants (2)

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Better

What are people's preferences?

Having Plants is preferred over No Plants! (17)

Indoors with a View

Being Outdoors in Nature

Accessible biodiversity – plants that are we are able to interact with and are deemed accessible (2, 5, 10, 18)
Biodiversity – highest rated include greenery and water, lowest are city landscapes (5, 6, 14)
Mundane (3, 14)
Unattended - landscapes that appear dead or dying (7)

Accessible biodiversity – plants that are we can view and are deemed accessible (2, 5, 10, 18)
Biodiversity – highest rated include greenery and water, lowest are city landscapes (5, 6, 14)
Mundane (3, 14)
Unattended - landscapes that appear dead or dying (7)

Research Fun Fact #03

A survey comparing office workers found that those with interior plants or with a window view of exterior green spaces:

Felt better about their job and job performance
Reported a higher quality-of-life
Had more positive perceptions of supervisors and coworkers (2)

Research Fun Fact #04

We have plant preferences (in order of most to least preferred):

Scent: Slight Scent, Strong Scent, No Odour
Color: Green, Tint, Multi-color
Size: Small, Medium, Large

But it gets more interesting:

The preferences listed above correlate with physiological changes indicating that the most prefered plants align with better awareness, and productivity.
BUT, multicolor, large plants, or those with no odor did NOT increase productivity or preference. (17)

Research Fun Fact #05

Given a simple, timed computer task in the presence of plants vs no plants, the participants had:

Increased reaction time (productivity) by 12%!
Were less stressed (lower blood pressure)
Reported feeling more attentive. (13)

Research Fun Fact #01

The more often a person visits an open green space, the fewer stress related illnesses they report. (19)

Research Fun Fact #02

People with Parkinson's can suffer from a temporary, involuntary inability to move, known as freezing of gate (FOG). In this study, when Parkinson's patients passed through a hedge opening they did not experience FOG. However when a door frame was instered into the hedge opening, FOG was triggered. (16)

Photo Credit: Nicole Craanen

Not So Good

NO ACCESS TO NATURE

Blank Walls are not the best (2, 3, 8, 12)

SIMULATED ENVIRONMENT (4, 8, 9)

Good

(Includes live-feed, video representation, artwork and photography)

Views highest to lowest as listed in "Being Outdoors" (11, 20)
Larger, more immersive images over smaller, less immersive images (1, 8)

A Note on Parallax: This is the effect you achieve when looking out a window, and by shifting the location of your eyes and head (back and forth, left to right) you are able to change your point of view. With a screen, you have one view regardless of where you are sitting in a room (8).

However, a simulation, such as a live feed, can provide benefits such as connecting to a sense of place, environmental conditions like time of day, movement of the sun, and weather patterns, and can be easily integrated when a window view is not possible, but the authenticity of feeling a part of the environment is lost (4)).

Research Fun Fact #06

Dramatic nature murals, especially those with water, are perceived as more restorative than window views of real, but mundane nature with built structures. (3)

Research Fun Fact #07

Participants were shown a real window with a view of a nature scene, an HDTV view of a similar nature scene, or a blank wall. By using heart rate recovery to measure stress, the real window view was more restorative than the both the HDTV view and the blank wall. The longer they looked at the window scene, the more rapidly their hear rate decreased. (9)