Ten years ago, plants were rarely used in office design other than the odd random pot plant. Now it’s a different story … Plants are used to divide space, to provide privacy and acoustic diffusion between teams of people, to add colour and height and life to an otherwise sterile environment.
Research
Aside from the benefit of cleaner indoor air quality, there is now a wealth of evidence to show that the use of indoor plants can reduce stress and improve productivity by 15%.
Early studies showed that hospital patients recovered faster and with less complications if they had a view of nature from their window.
A recent three year Australian study has documented the environmental and psychological benefits achieved by adding indoor plants to a work space.11 The results showed clear reductions in feelings of stress, anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion and overall negativity among participants with plants in their offices (by 30 to 60%), and one plant was enough to make the difference.
In contrast, participants with no plants (control group) showed no significant changes over the experimental period, but a trend was recorded towards increased feelings of stress (by 20%). The findings confirmed the benefits indoor plants provide to staff wellbeing, which are also associated with improved work performance.
Indoor Plant Design
Hopefully we’ve convinced you that plants can add many benefits to your environment. Now to the aesthetics – plants done properly are stylish and beautiful, but done badly they can look terrible.
Our Top Five Plant Crimes
1. Dead plants! If you’re going to have plants select one person to look after them. Too much love can often kill. Alternatively rent your plants.
2. Incorrect plant species. Make sure you get expert advice to ensure your plant selections match the environmental criteria in terms of required lighting and water.
3. Too many or too high plants. Offices are not forests!
4. Random hap hazard plants that have not been considered in the design.
5. Selecting plants that have an odour or give people allergies.
Our Top Five Plant Tips
1. Consider plants from the very early stages of the design concept.
2. Use repetition and uniformity for an architectural look.
3. Use plants as a feature wall. They can bring any space alive with colour and texture.
4. Incorporate plants to provide privacy and screening.
5. Plant leasing is a great service. They will be looked after, replaced, cleaned and watered.
Go on, you can help green up our world. Incorporate plants into your next work space, but make sure you do it well! If you would like advice, contact us. We’d love to help!
- Professor Margaret Burchett at the University of Technology, Sydney ↩︎
