Feasibility study on mental health‐care effects of plant installations in office spaces

Abstract

Offices may have different indoor environmental quality related problems, such as space, indoor air quality, office workers’ thermal comfort, productivity, and mental stress. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of indoor plants on physiological/psychological responses and productivity, and to examine the mental healthcare status of office workers. To clarify the effect of indoor plants, we conducted a demonstration experiment in two rooms of an office. The experiment was performed in two office spaces (Office A and Office B) located in Kyoto, Japan. Office A was a call center and Office B was a general office. Subjects were office workers working in one of the above two office spaces. In the experiment, nine cycles were conducted while changing the type of plants including vegetables and foliage plants. A preliminary experiment without plants was conducted as a reference case. Results indicated that plant installations in office spaces have certain mental health‐care effects, namely, relaxation of visual fatigue and the feelings of drowsiness of five groups of work‐related fatigue feelings, and the effects by installations of plants depend on the type of plant and industry, although this study had some limitations because of the demonstration experiment.

The effects of indoor plants on customers' shopping decisions in a restaurant environment

“…Smith et al (2017) also identified a positive impact of plants on work environment aesthetics in an office in the same building with plants compared with a control office without plants. Moreover, Genjo et al (2019) examined the green mental healthcare effect of plants on office workers. This study stated that plants have a mental recovery effect on the visual and subjective fatigue symptoms of office workers, such as drowsiness, dullness, and inability to concentrate.…”

Effects of Indoor Plants on Human Functions: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analyses

“…The majority of the participants, however, were college students. Only six studies recruited office workers [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ], five studies recruited patients [ 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ], two studies recruited junior high school students [ 65 , 66 ], and one study recruited high school students as participants [ 67 ] ( Table 2 ).…”

“…Among the 42 records, 20 reported the specific number of indoor potted plants as the intervention; the highest number of potted plants was 34 [ 66 ], and the lowest number of potted plants was one [ 56 , 59 , 60 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 ]. Three papers reported the green coverage ratio, with the highest at 10% and the lowest at 3% [ 57 ]. Two papers also indicated the volume of indoor plants as a percentage of the total experimental space, where the largest volume was 17.9% [ 53 ] and the smallest was 5% [ 67 ] ( Table 3 ).…”

“…Thirty-three papers reported the room size. The experiment room used by Toyoda et al [ 59 ] was the largest in terms of its floor area (1260 m 2 ), and that used by Genjo et al [ 57 ] was the largest in terms of its volume (675 m 3 ). By contrast, the room used by Kim et al [ 77 ] was the smallest in both floor area (7.26 m 2 ) and volume (14.52 m 3 ).…”

Lounge Designs for the Budapest Office of a Multinational Company

“…The spaces providing mental refreshment are described by R. and S. Kaplan with four primary characteristics: 1. a location that is both physically and mentally distant from the workstation; 2. a design different from the work environment, which helps to divert thoughts from the activity performed so far by new stimuli; 3. proximity to nature or some refreshing environment [38]; 4. a design in line with the function of the space, compatibility.…”