Professional Practice

Applying Ecological Design: Indoor Plants

Residential living wall design and installation / Vertical Landscape Architects

People in industrialized countries can spend up , increasing their exposure to indoor air pollution. Indoor plants can dramatically improve human productivity and health, and effectively a number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that come from adhesives, furnishings, clothing, and solvents. Indoor plant systems range from common house plants to more complex indoor-outdoor vertical walls.

Humans have a biophilic response to plants. Research has explored how exposure to plants, or even images of plants, indoors and outdoors can improve productivity and create a sense of well-being.

Indoor plant benefits include:

• Improved indoor air quality: With the right plants, indoor plants can reduce up to 87 percent of common household air pollutants.
• Improved health: Up to ten percent reduction of rates of asthma, headaches, and respiratory problems.
• Increased human productivity: Productivity rates can increased by 20 percent in environments with superior air quality.
• Reduced energy usage: Energy usage can be reduced by 15 percent because less air circulation is required with indoor plants.

Sources:  and , The Dirt, American Society of Landscape Architects

Organizations

, U.S. Green Building Council





Resources

, Treehugger

, GreenBuilding.com

, Clean Air Gardening

, Terrapin Bright Green

Research

¡°,¡± Timothy Beatley, Island Press, 2016

"," B.C. Wolverton. Penguin, 1998

"," Barney Burroughs and Shirley Hansen. Fairmont Press, 2008

"," Barbara Pleasant. Storey Publishing, LLC, 2005

¡°,¡± Igor Josifovic, Judith de Graaff, Callwey Verlag, 2016

Government Resources

, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Projects


Vertical Landscape Architects