Designing for our Senses

Each month in our Open Voices blog we share insight from leaders in our communities who are advancing what it means to have sacred, open green spaces in our cities. This November we share in recognition of the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

 

Our earliest known civilizations created landscaped gardens to experience Nature’s inherent beauty, foster human health, or display social status. Temple gardens in ancient Mesopotamia developed from the idea of a sacred grove, where lush trees hung with ripe fruit. American explorers in the 19th century were captivated by the vast wilderness of opportunity. And the 21st century will see exponential increases in urban living likely resulting in strains on natural resources and quality of life. Human understanding and assumptions about Nature will continue to shift, and we hope to contribute to the knowledge of Nature’s inherent healing power. Providing places for refuge, recreation, and community connection, urban green spaces in the 21st century have the potential to improve individual and community well-being and wellness in multiple ways 1.

TKF recently met with several landscape architects collaborating in our Nature Sacred Award program. In our conversations, we discussed the future of designing for healthy cities. How are landscape architects collaborating with research scientists and health practitioners? What are landscape architects already doing to design healthy green spaces? In one discussion, we talked about subtle ways to consider our five senses in design. In our everyday lives we are bombarded with sensory input. Car horn blasts, background cell-phone conversations, car exhaust, and digital screens wherever our eyes may wander. Designing spaces that create buffers from the sights and sounds of a city is one way to contribute to the health of our communities.

Noise pollution contributes to elevated blood pressure, poor sustained attention, memory and concentration problems, sleep disturbances, modifications of social behavior, psychosocial stress-related symptoms, and emotional/motivational effects. Having access to quiet spaces can alleviate these health effects and contribute to a happier day. And did you know people respond to man-made and natural sounds differently? Even if the decibel level of natural sounds (such as wind through the trees, waterfalls and birdsong) in a space is high, people are less likely to rate that space as undesirable 2 3 . Although citizens of ancient Mesopotamia didn’t have car horns honking outside their window, it seems humans have long desired for a flowing stream or the call of a bird.

Listen to this Berlin soundscape with traffic noise and birdsong and compare it to the sounds in your neighborhood. How might more trees change the sound? What if there were even less?

A green space can be an oasis of quiet.

1 Roe, J.J., C.W. Thompson, P.A. Aspinall, M.J. Brewer, E.I. Duff, D. Miller, R. Mitchell, and A. Clow. 2013. Green space and stress: Evidence from cortisol measures in deprived urban communities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 10, 9: 4086-4103.
2 Öhrström, E, A. Skånberg, H. Svensson, and A. Gidlöf-Gunnarsson. 2006. Effects of road traffic noise and the benefit of access to quietness. Journal of Sound and Vibration 295, 1-2: 40-59.
3 Yang, W., and J. Kang. 2005. Acoustic comfort evaluation in urban open public spaces. Applied Acoustics 66, 2: 211-229.