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Perhaps inspired by a similar line of thinking.
I opted for a lower quality apartment this year because all it's windows face vast green fields or trees. The effects are undeniable - some of my favourite times this year have been spent just sitting on my balcony admiring the greenery.
I agree, I also just moved to a more tree ridden area a while ago and the backyard is much larger. IT's always so peaceful just like you said. Fall is just breathtaking as well.
All of those saying correlation is not causation did not read the article. The study detected an immediate and neasurable effect from just walking among trees.
Now I think this probably is causation, but pointing out that the correlation is really strong is not an argument against "correlation is not causation".
I wonder whether these principles could be incorporated into architecture and interior design, so we feel like we're in a natural setting even when indoors.
(Even better with trees visible through the windows, of course.)
I can see a market for a VR movie/game which allows the user to walk/drive through (or just sit in) a forest :)
Such a typical tech reaction/sentiment: what's better than real trees? A VR simulation of trees! :)
Imagine every window in your house doubles up as a transparent video output.
Then you could feed any inputs to the windows. The result is you could create the illusion of changing seasons, or changing locations (with accompanying changes in ambient sound).
That would be worth something!
I recently visited an abbey in Killarney, Kerry in Ireland. The monks build an enclosed walkway around a very old yew tree, it was fascinating: http://www.killarney.co/muckross-abbey-killarney.html Perhaps inspired by a similar line of thinking.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want to know more you may be interested in these: Japanese researcher describes (with control group) the interesting affects of walking in a forest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0 Indian researcher describes side affects of indoor plants on health esp. air quality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA I'm incorporating some of these concepts into my tiny house design e.g. a terrarium and an…
Very interesting. Here's the original study from NASA, Interior Landscape plants for indoor air pollution abatement : http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/1993007...
For a small space having good air quality is very important, I plan to install a selection of plants and rig them up as dual purpose air purifiers as shown in the study, with emphasis on the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
+1 oxygenation +2 reduced ambient toxicity levels +3 attractive decoration
It's not expensive and it'll pay for itself many times over with better health! Programmers take note! It is easier for your brain to work if it has a nice supply of oxygen. Rocket science I know. NASA science at any rate.
In general society (opinion incoming) has not paid much attention to closed loop systems in the way we ought to (see no evidence the Slingshot scales up). Especially as a way to introduce antifragility. A house in a truly futuristic suburb would recycle heat from water and reliably convert all black/grey water back into distilled water for household use while using the biomass to power the operation. Throw in autonomous air vehicles and ubiquitous net reach from Google blimps and I'd really feel like I'm living in the future. What is more, with houses spread out (side affect of self driving things on land prices), not laying cables/water/sewer lines and not maintaining roads anymore it would appear that it could be a much more economical future. Without cracking closed loop systems it is out of reach. Google Net Blimps, renewable energy, even autonomous vehicles seem like much more tractable problems in comparison despite water filtration seeming simpler.
Having trees in the city is nice, and Berlin has an ok level (at least where I live). But I recently started to do long weekend day hikes in the area around the city, and the effect is even better. The constant change of natural forms while moving really frees up my mind and floods it with new impressions that I don't have on my work days. I used to have a meditative effect from running, but it has become a bit too m…
I fully agree. Trees (and plants in general, and rocks) are more fractal, and contain interesting detail on many levels... There's something pacifying about being around them vs flat, rectangular urban surfaces.
Correlation is not causation. Houses on streets with trees are more expensive. People that can afford to live there are healthier for obvious reasons. Likewise, people that are put into better hospital rooms are probably just patients the hospital is willing to expend more energy on, because they have deeper pockets/are the right ethnicity/are "respectable people" etc.. Is there any non-depressing source of science j…
While the study doesn't seem to have taken into account the houses' values, it has taken into account income (as the article states) and area income (the article doesn't state this). I do not know if that's enough to correct for housing costs. But I do assume that accounting for area income should go a long way to counter your example regarding affording houses. That said, of course correlation isn't causation.
Income speaks only partially to this. Systematic racism is still very strong in housing; people that live in these houses are more likely to have white privilege and to not have the chronic stressors of racial inequality nagging at their health either.
But I'm sure we're "wired" to "enjoy green spaces." The dryads no doubt protect us when we can afford to be near them.