Tag: greenery

behavior · brain · creativity · design · environment · happiness · health

Grassy PicNYC Table brings the picnic feeling indoors

Beth Kelley

With Memorial Day weekend right around the corner, it’s time to think about getting outdoors and dining al fresco. But what if you live in a place that is rainy all through Memorial Day weekend (not pointing fingers, Seattle!), or you don’t have a lot of green space to play with? Fear not! From Inhabitat:

Haiko Cornelissen‘s lush, living PicNYC Table is a brilliant plant-growing furnishing that brings a taste of the outdoors to every meal. The aluminum table is deep enough to double as a planter bed, and it can grow everything from grass to herbs and flowers. We caught up with Haiko at this year’s Wanted Design exhibition during NY Design Week to ask him about his inspiration and snap some firsthand photo.
Getting some greenery, even with something as simple as a grassy table, can work wonders for picking up mood and feeling refreshed. Even having an indoor plant on your desk has been shown to improve productivity. Bon Appetit!
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architecture · design · environment · health · Nature · Social

Rehabilitating Vacant Lots Improves Urban Health and Safety

Beth Kelley

Humans are greatly effected by the greenery in their environments, but remember how a few weeks back I was lamenting that not much robust analysis or study had been done on this kind of positive impact? Well, voila!

ScienceDaily (2011-11-17) — Greening of vacant urban land may affect the health and safety of nearby residents. In a decade-long comparison of vacant lots and improved vacant lots, greening was linked to significant reductions in gun assaults across most of Philadelphia and significant reductions in vandalism in one section of the city. Vacant lot greening was also associated with residents in certain sections of the city reporting significantly less stress and more exercise.

more at ScienceDaily

Journal Reference:

  1. C. C. Branas, R. A. Cheney, J. M. MacDonald, V. W. Tam, T. D. Jackson, T. R. Ten Have. A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of Health, Safety, and Greening Vacant Urban Space. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2011; DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwr273