How can planting be used to create a more inviting outdoor space for building occupants?

1 Benefits of planting

Planting can provide multiple benefits for building occupants, such as improving air quality, reducing noise, moderating temperature, creating shade, attracting wildlife, and providing food. Planting can also improve the mental and physical well-being of building occupants by reducing stress, increasing productivity, enhancing mood, and encouraging social interaction. Planting can also create a sense of identity, belonging, and community for building occupants, as well as a connection to nature and culture.

2 Types of planting

Different types of planting can be used to create a more inviting outdoor space for building occupants, depending on the site conditions, design objectives, and maintenance requirements. Ground cover plants, such as grasses, herbs, and mosses, are low-growing and help to prevent erosion. Shrubs are woody plants with multiple stems and branches, like roses, lavender, and holly. Trees have a single trunk and a canopy of leaves, like oaks, maples, and palms. Climbers grow vertically by clinging or twining on a support; examples include ivy, jasmine, and wisteria. Containers are plants grown in pots or other receptacles; these could be succulents, orchids, or herbs.

3 Design principles

When designing a planting scheme for an inviting outdoor space for building occupants, there are some general principles that can help achieve a successful outcome. Function should be taken into account, such as selecting plants that provide shade, privacy, screening, or food production. Additionally, form should be considered, like choosing plants that create a harmonious and balanced composition with symmetry, contrast, or repetition. Moreover, color should be taken into consideration by selecting plants that create a pleasing and stimulating color scheme with complementary, analogous, or monochromatic colors. Texture is also important; pick plants that create a varied and interesting texture with smooth, rough, glossy, or fuzzy qualities. Lastly, seasonality should be taken into account by choosing plants that provide interest and diversity throughout the year such as evergreen, deciduous, or flowering varieties.

4 Maintenance tips

Maintaining a planting scheme for a more inviting outdoor space for building occupants can be challenging, yet rewarding. To ensure a healthy and attractive planting, you should water the plants regularly and adequately, according to their needs and the weather conditions. Fertilize them occasionally and moderately, and prune them periodically and appropriately. Weeding should be done frequently and thoroughly, using manual or organic methods. Pest control should be done with preventive and natural measures, such as companion planting, mulching, or biological agents. Avoid overwatering, overfertilizing, overpruning, chemical or mechanical weeding methods, synthetic or toxic pest control measures; all of these can cause stress or damage to the plants and harm the environment.

5 Examples of planting

To motivate you to craft a more inviting outdoor space for building occupants, here are some remarkable examples of planting schemes that have been executed in different architectural contexts and scales. For instance, the High Line, a linear park in New York City, USA that transformed an abandoned elevated railway into a green corridor with diverse and native plants, art installations, and public amenities. Additionally, Bosco Verticale, a pair of residential towers in Milan, Italy that integrated over 900 trees and 20,000 plants to create a vertical forest which improves air quality, biodiversity, and energy efficiency. Furthermore, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore is a botanical garden that showcases exotic and tropical plants with iconic structures such as the Supertrees and the Flower Dome. Finally, Urban Farming is a movement that encourages growing food in urban spaces such as rooftops, balconies or community gardens using techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics or permaculture in many cities around the world.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?