Shades of green for living walls – experiences of color contrast and its implication for aesthetic and psychological benefits

Abstract

Living (green) walls are nature-based solutions (NbS) that can be an important environmental and social contributor within urban environments, but there are important knowledge gaps remaining in understanding their psychological benefits. In planning processes, aesthetic thinking is incorporated to improve attractiveness, health, and well-being outcomes in urban greenery solutions. However, in contrast to the wealth of research on well-established green infrastructure like urban parks, there is a knowledge gap for recently created ecosystems such as living walls and green roofs with respect to the relationship between aesthetic value, species composition, and psychological benefits. In order to increase this knowledge base this study explores human experiences of color characteristics on living walls, and the implementation of living walls for improving human health and well-being. We used a color theory framework in the development of graphical color contrast combinations designed by various green shades, and tested each color concept combination on human judgement of affective qualities. The results showed that living walls, designed through color contrast principles, have the potential to be comprehensively designed from an aesthetic aspect and be highly valued by people. However, the results indicate that perceived color contrasts may also reduce levels of arousal and human experiences of pleasantness. While more work on this topic is needed, this study has shown the importance of emphasising awareness of the color aspect in the design of nature-based solutions, to improve delivery of positive human psychological benefits.